Marcel Louis-Jacques
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is focused on prolonging his availability after missing a career-high six games in 2024.
Speaking to local media Tuesday at the Dolphins’ mandatory minicamp for the first time since January, Tagovailoa said the hip injury that effectively ended his season in Week 17 started to “feel a little better” in February and won’t be a concern moving forward — as long as he protects himself in future games.
Dolphins general manager Chris Grier said in January that while some of Tagovailoa’s career injuries were outside of his control, “he needs to be available,” and that not being available due to “taking chances and risk is unacceptable to us.” As he enters the first year of a four-year, $212.1 million extension in 2025, Tagovailoa understands Grier’s message.
“Doing everything I can to stay available for the guys. Like I said before in the past, nothing changes with that. It’s knowing when is the time to give up on a play,” Tagovailoa said. “And I would say the longevity for me to be on the field with my guys is more important than whatever that one play is. You have more quarters than there would be within just that one play that I’m trying to show the guys that I’m competitive and whatnot, and I know they know that, but it’s just a nature, it’s a nature thing. It just comes natural to me to compete in that sense. And that’s just the thing I fight with every time.”
Tagovailoa suffered the third diagnosed concussion of his NFL career in Week 2 of the 2024 season, which kept him sidelined for the team’s next four games. He returned to play nine consecutive games but injured his hip during a loss to the Houston Texans in Week 15. He played through it the following week in a win over the San Francisco 49ers but aggravated the injury and missed Miami’s final two games.
Since head coach Mike McDaniel’s first season with the team in 2022, Tagovailoa owns the fastest average time to throw in the NFL at 2.45 seconds. However, he has suffered several injuries in that span while trying to extend plays.
Tagovailoa said these offseason practices are critical for helping him find a quantifiable point of when to give up on a play versus trying to make something happen.
“I think that’s why you have practice — and it starts in practice,” he said. “I’ve got to sort of shift my mindset. … This isn’t just practice where guys can’t hit me. You got to take it into a sense where if this guy’s here, get the ball out and if I’m scrambling and this guy’s getting close, not to just hold on to it knowing they can hit me if it was real football.
“Just throw it away or run and then just stop to signify it to slide, if you will — but I think it’s the transition and focus of bringing that game-like feel into practice.”
The directive to remain healthy isn’t coming from only Grier.
McDaniel said the same message has been reinforced throughout the offseason — and that Tagovailoa has taken it to heart.
“I, like everyone else, really want him to be healthy,” McDaniel said. “You have a franchise quarterback — you want him to play instead of standing on the sideline.”
