MIAMI — How good is the Miami Dolphins’ starting quarterback? Is he all the team hoped he would be and as good as it needs him to be? Six years into The Decade of Tua Tagovailoa, neither the Dolphins nor their fans can say they know for sure.

This is a problem.

It is time to find out.

Coach Mike McDaniel said at the start of training camp: “I think it’s a well-known fact that Tua is the leader of our team and our locker room and is the franchise quarterback.”

Growth in leadership, no doubt. But with due respect, I would say the franchise-quarterback part is yet to be proven.

“I feel like these six years in the NFL have been in dog years a lot of ups and downs but a lot of growth, a lot of perspective throughout the struggles and challenges,” Tagovailoa described his journey. “You become more grateful for the things you have and where you are and who you become throughout those challenges and difficulties.”

This can be the season Tua flips the entire narrative about him and wins over the multitude of Dolfans who want desperately to believe in him but still can’t quite. To do this he must do only two things, although only diminishes what a struggle the doing them has been thus far:

1). He must prove he can be relied upon to play a full season and leave behind the frailty rap and the shadow of concussions. And 2). He must lift his team to its first playoff victory in a quarter century, nothing less.

Drafted in 2020 and signed through 2028, Tua is at the apex of his prime. The contract extension that pays him $53.1 million per year pays him as if he’s elite and trusts that he is (or will be). So let’s see. Now, por favor?

The draft slot and the salary are high. So should the expectations.

Tagovailoa watched his contemporaries from Alabama, Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith, get a Super Bowl ring with Philadelphia last season.

“There’s always been motivation to get a ring, but now that those guys got a ring, we’ve got to do something about that,” he said. “Trying to make that possible.”

Tagovailoa showed in 2023 what he is capable of when healthy. He led the NFL in passing yards. Made the Pro Bowl. Looked like the top-five draft pick he was. But it was a tease and a hint more than proof, wasn’t it?

In five NFL seasons, only that one year in ’23 did he play the full schedule. He has missed 27% (23 of 86) of available games overall.

He still must show he can be relied upon full-time and show he can lift a team and a city as the great ones do.

The quarterback who does that again in Miami — who finally ends the longest playoff win drought in pro football and makes the Fins major relevant again — will own a special place in Dolfans’ hearts and in South Florida sports history. It has been that long ... 25 years, but who’s counting?

Tagovailoa was not quite 3 and toddling around Ewa Beach, Hawaii, at the time. My own youngest son (who recently got married) was then in elementary school. Where was your life at on the second to last day of the year 2000? That’s when the Fins last won a postseason game and when their fans could even pretend their team sort of mattered nationally.

Now it’s all in Tagovailoa’s hands, quite literally. The football. The hopes. The very course of this franchise. Even his head coach’s job, perhaps. We pay quarterbacks the most money because they matter the most. And, although Jay Fiedler took snaps in that last playoff win (a game won despite his three interceptions), fans know no Dolphins QB has mattered since Dan Marino retired after the 1999 season.

Danny will turn 64 in a couple of weeks. (”Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?” Still need you, for sure.)

The Dolphins still need a special quarterback, a quarter century later.

That last playoff win happened to be against the Indianapolis Colts, by the way. Miami opens the new season Sept. 7 in Indianapolis.

I mention the responsibilty on Tagovailoa in 2025 but also the opportunity because nobody except perhaps the ghost of Dolfan Denny (Google it) thinks the Dolphins will matter much this season. Off an 8-9 season last year, the betting over/under on Dolphins wins this year is 7 1/2. Mediocrity and no playoffs again is the expectation.

Miami is No. 20 in ESPN’s latest power rankings. The Dolphins languish 24th of 32 teams in odds to win the next Super Bowl, and 11th in the AFC. (Only seven teams make the playoffs in each conference.)

Contrasted especially with the way-high hopes for Hurricanes football right now, the consecutive Panthers Stanley Cups and Lionel Messi playing soccer in South Florida, the Dolphins — forever our flagship franchise — are scrambling for purchase on the slippery slope from big team in town to needing to win back the faith.

All in Tagovailoa’s hands. No other QB1 in King Sport has a burden, or a chance, quite like this one.

And here’s the thing: The chance is there. That the Dolphins and Tagovailoa might be poised to surprise the doubters, the pundits and the bettors is real. At least to me, anyway. I believe the Fins can be that team in ‘25, make the playoffs and maybe even end that embarrassingly long drought.

Here are some reasons:

— Tua. (Yes, Tua!): The quarterback is a cornerstone reason for optimism and hope, if you believe he can stay healthy. I do. Tagovailoa is 38-25 (.603) as a starter. Justin Herbert, drafted one spot later, is 41-38 (.519). Tagovailoa in his career has led the NFL in passing yards, completion percentage and passer rating. QBs who have not led in all three categories in their careers include Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Herbert, Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers and Dan Marino. None of this is to put Tagovailoa at that level, but to say, when healthy, he has the skills to be a top-10 NFL quarterback.

— Anthony Weaver: Miami has one of the NFL’s best defensive coordinators as Weaver begins his second season — the first time under coach Mike McDaniel that there has been that continuity of system on D. Watch that show on the field as an excellent front seven will pressure opposing quarterbacks at an elite level and lessen the casualty of inexperience at the cornerback position. Miami’s D ranked No. 4 in the league in fewest yards allowed last year and was top 10 in points allowed. Despite valid concerns at corner, the defense should be good again. Here’s why ...

— Defensive front seven: Rising-star pass rusher Chop Robinson, the newly enriched Zach Sieler, the healthy again tandem of Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb and now the add-on of four-time Pro Bowler and proven sackman Matthew Judon should give the Dolphins’ D hugely improved pass pressure. This figures to lessen the pressure on the team’s inexperienced corners, who will also have help in the back from old-is-new-again safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. (Or might Miami, with depth on the edge rush, trade from there for a cornerback?)

— The Hill/Waddle rebound — Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle continue among the top wide receiver tandems in the NFL, with eyes on Malik Washington as a breakout option. Hill tailspun from 1,799 catch yards in ‘23 to 959 last year and Waddle fell from 1,014 to 744, despite both playing one additonal game. Expect a bounceback from both. A ground-game threat will help, and Miami has a stout running bacsk room with De’Von Achane, Jaylen Wright and rookie Ollie Gordon II, who flashed in the preseason. Running back speed and an offense designed for Tua to get rid of the ball quickly both will help mitigate offensive line concerns.

— The schedule: Six of Miami’s first eight opponents were a combined 33-69 last year, all with losing records. Of the other two, the Fins get the Chargers at home, meaning at Bills is the only really daunting game in the first half of the season. It could set Miami up with momentum in the playoff hunt as the schedule turns tougher starting Oct. 30 with Ravens, Bills and Commanders in a row — but all three at home. Imperative: Find a team spine and avoid the tendency to stumble late.

— The law of averages? I mean, if you faithfully play the same lottery number 25 years in a row, you sort of expect to hit eventually. Right? Or how about just dumb luck? By any measure of belief, Miami is due for some combination of a lucky roll or a fortuitous bounce. Everybody else in the NFL (literally) has won a playoff game since the Fins last did. Browns, Jets, Bengals, Lions ... everybody. The football gods are past due to give the Dolphins a damned break.

Luck wont be enough, of course. Neither will leadership, toughness, the supposed culture makeover or any other intangible be able to end the ignominous playoff-win drought.

But the very best of Tua Tagovailoa might be enough — the proof, six years in, that the Dolphins made the right choice.

Let’s finally see it.

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