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Marcel Louis-Jacques, ESPN
MIAMI — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was ushered into the media room at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, minutes after his team’s loss to the Ravens in Week 17.
The Dolphins’ chance at the AFC’s top seed had just been crushed in a 56-19 loss that was punctuated by injuries and creeping doubt about Miami’s Super Bowl aspirations. Compounding things, the Dolphins needed to beat the surging Buffalo Bills in Week 18 to win the AFC East.
But as Tagovailoa settled in at the podium, the first question wasn’t about the big picture. It was about his left shoulder, which was banged up before he left the blowout with a little more than eight minutes left.
“Shoulder is good, shoulder is good,” he said. “Just a little sore.”
It’s not unusual for an injury status to be the first topic of a postgame news conference, but with Tagovailoa, it’s different. After suffering multiple concussions last year that prompted him to miss parts of five games, briefly consider retirement and cause the NFL to alter its concussion policy, there’s been a spotlight on Tagovailoa’s health and durability.
Every sack, every hit, every time he was shoved to the ground drew a slightly longer gaze to see how he would react. And each time, Tagovailoa was able to bounce back.
From offseason jiujitsu training that taught him how to fall without banging his head on the ground, to running an offense that utilizes short, quick passes to get the ball out of his hands before danger arrives, Tagovailoa and the Dolphins did what they could to ensure the quarterback’s health and success. The results were a second straight playoff berth, another run at MVP and 17 straight starts, a career high. Aside from how far he can take the Dolphins in the playoffs, the only question left is about his next contract.
“He tries to exude toughness at any opportune time, and he’s really willing to do whatever it takes,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said. “I mean, case in point, he had issues with hitting his head on the ground, so he took jiujitsu and spent a lot of hours of his life training so that he could be proactive and preventative. Not everyone’s doing that. Not everyone would do that.
“Anything that he can control, he tries to take in his hands. He’s my guy, man.”
Ironically, while Tagovailoa escaped Sunday night’s 21-14 loss to the Bills relatively unscathed, many of his teammates were less fortunate. The Dolphins will be banged up when they travel to Kansas City on Saturday for a wild-card game against the Chiefs (8:15 p.m. ET, Peacock).
It’s not that Tagovailoa didn’t take punishment this season. He took hits at roughly the same rate as last season (4.8% sack rate in 2023 compared to 4.9% in 2022), but his offseason training allowed him to roll away from hits that might have sidelined him a year ago.
“It’s a blessing that I get to play the entire season,” Tagovailoa said. “I think anyone would say the same around the league, that it’s a blessing to make it this far as healthy as anyone can be right now leading up to this week.
“So, very blessed. Very fortunate. And I don’t take this for granted.”
THE OFFSEASON PHYSICAL transformation was obvious, to the point Tagovailoa responded to one characterization mocking him as “thick.” Tagovailoa muscled up to 238, adding nearly 20 pounds before cutting down to 225 pounds by training camp.
His training regimen included microdosing, which meant utilizing smaller windows of time to get work in, like 10 minutes before or after meetings, practices, etc. Three days a week during the season he focused on strength work, with an emphasis on core strength. Tagovailoa did more speed work and had a goal of hitting 90% of his max speed every week, and he also worked on change of direction and agility.
A big part of his offseason training included weekly lessons at the Renzo Gracie Jiu Jitsu Academy of Weston with Adrian Alsina, the lead coach at the studio, and Cory Davis, a jiujitsu enthusiast and longtime friend of Tagovailoa’s personal trainer, Nick Hicks.
“We knew it was going to work,” Davis said. “It’s just a matter of if he was going to implement it the way we wanted to.
“There were a few times midseason where he was getting slammed, and his head did not touch that turf. So that makes us proud, and I don’t even know the right word, but potentially saving his career.”
Davis and Alsina have not worked directly with Tagovailoa since the offseason as the Dolphins’ quarterback focused on football. Tagovailoa said he independently practices what he learned on Thursdays.
“There were opportunities for us to connect with some of the jiujitsu coaches, and we’ve actually done a little bit here as well,” quarterbacks coach Darrell Bevell said. “They were able to show us some of the things that they were doing, so that they’re not here all the time, we could continue it to keep him connected with it.”
Tagovailoa joked when asked whether he planned to continue his training, suggesting he would not be advancing his jiujitsu career.
“If I want to become dangerous, then sure,” he said in December. “But no, I’m just learning how to fall.”
Davis and Alsina clarified training for combat and break-fall training are two separate items, and they plan to continue their program once Tagovailoa is ready.
“It’s a lot like, if you were to go on antibiotics, you have to do the full thing,” Alsina said. “Halfway through your antibiotics, you’re going to feel great, but if you stop right there, then this disease is going to take over and it could potentially be worse. So right now, Tua is being very successful, but I still think that there is a little bit more work to be done before he fully goes on his own.
“And of course, we are working with his team, and these are things that they could do on their own during practice and stuff, but I think there’s a little bit of work to be done still.”
IT WAS THIRD-and-3 at the Dallas Cowboys’ 33-yard line, and the two-minute warning allowed Tagovailoa and a few offensive players a chance to huddle with McDaniel.
The Dolphins trailed the Week 16 game 20-19, and they needed a first down to improve field goal position and to run down the clock. McDaniel asked his quarterback if he wanted to run a play called “Z.” “Let’s do it,” Tagovailoa said. “I’m serious.”
It was a quick-hitting, short pass to receiver Tyreek Hill at the line of scrimmage, and Hill picked up 10 yards. Kicker Jason Sanders later converted a 29-yard field goal with no time left to secure a 22-20 win and playoff berth.
The play illustrated a few important components of Miami’s success, including McDaniel’s faith in his QB’s decision-making. It also highlighted the effectiveness of the short passing game that kept Tagovailoa safer on dropbacks.
Tagovailoa pushed the ball downfield at a career-high rate last season, averaging 9.3 air yards per attempt — the second most in the NFL. That number has dropped to 7.6 air yards per attempt this season, while the percentage of his pass attempts at or behind the line of scrimmage has increased from 18.5% in 2022, to 27.7% in 2023.
But Tagovailoa’s most notable statistic is his 2.36-second average time to throw, the fastest in the NFL this season and an improvement on his 2.36-second average from a season ago. His ability to get the ball out quickly has directly contributed to him being contacted on a league-low 11.4% of his dropbacks.
“It goes hand in hand with the style of play that we want to play,” Bevell said.
Miami has built an offense around Tagovailoa that thrives on pre-snap motion and quick decisions. The Dolphins lead the NFL by a wide margin in offensive expected points added when there is motion at the time the ball is snapped with 108.49; the next highest team is the San Francisco 49ers with 59.16.
“It starts with Mike and his philosophy in terms of the offense, and it is a timing, rhythm passing offense,” Bevell said. “And we are in our second year of doing that, so it has kind of shown up a little bit more on the field.
“We have talked a lot about in the offseason, obviously it’s documented, some of the work that he did, but also just decision-making and then second-chance opportunities — when to do it, when not to do it, how to protect yourself, all those things. So it’s been a huge effort. We knew that was the most important thing, keeping him on the field, but definitely it starts with rhythm passing.”
IF THE 2022 season ended with “what ifs,” the Dolphins’ 2023 has been about answering those questions.
What if Tagovailoa stayed healthy for an entire season?
That much has been answered — Miami finished with its highest win total since 2008 and has the opportunity to secure its first playoff win since 2000. Tagovailoa was an essential part of the success, setting career-highs in passing yards (4,624) and touchdowns (29).
Still, two questions remain: How far can Miami go, and will this front office reward its centerpiece with a contract extension this offseason?
Given the team’s respect for how Tagovailoa approached his biggest issue, the latter question seems like a given, even though he hasn’t been quite as dominant in the second half of the season. Tagovailoa hasn’t had a 300-yard passing game since Week 10, and since then, he’s thrown 10 TDs and seven interceptions, including two in Sunday’s loss.
As far as the market, the New York Giants signed Daniel Jones to a four-year, $160 million deal last offseason, while the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Chargers signed Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert to five-year deals worth $275 million and $262.5 million, respectively. None of those three will be in the playoffs.
He’ll enter his first NFL postseason as the league’s regular-season leader in passing yards with 4,624 and a career-high 29 touchdowns. He also threw a career-high 14 interceptions, tied with Patrick Mahomes and Trevor Lawrence for the fourth-most in the NFL this season.
How far the Dolphins go could affect whether Tagovailoa splits the difference between Jones and Herbert or resets the market. The Dolphins are the eighth betting favorite to win the Super Bowl at +1800.
“You’re always happy when people get results from diligently working at something, whatever it is,” McDaniel said. “He worries about one thing, and that’s alright … staying on the field.
“I’ve never seen someone attack an offseason with that much — it’s not a chip on the shoulder, he was just so motivated to control what he can control.”
Tagovailoa entered the playoffs banged up, like most NFL players. He banged his left thumb on an opponent’s helmet in Week 16, and he was listed on the team’s injury report over the final two weeks of the regular season with thumb, shoulder and quad injuries.
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Bills pick off Tua late to clinch AFC East crown
Taylor Rapp intercepts Tua Tagovailoa late in the fourth quarter as the Bills beat the Dolphins to capture the AFC East title.
But the point of his offseason training wasn’t to make him invincible, it was to make sure he was on the field come playoff time. And unlike last year when Tagovailoa watched the Dolphins lose their wild-card game to the Bills, he’ll be on the field this time.
“It affects everyone,” McDaniel said. “I think his confidence with his ability to stay healthy, guys can feel [that].
“We’re just very fortunate that our quarterback is wired the way he is from a mental standpoint, because I’m not sure if you guys are placing side bets, but there’s a lot of people that were betting against him.”
Tagovailoa wasn’t bothered by the narrative. He said he understood why questions about his health and future were asked.
“I think he’s understood in a much better manner,” McDaniel said. “You don’t need to be mad at any sort of narrative. You have to understand it, and you have to understand that you shouldn’t be entitled for this, that or the other.
“The fact of that matter is he hadn’t stayed healthy for a whole season. So what he did was try to take control of everything that he could control and made that a goal. That’s a big deal to me when people are winning, in that sense, where you’re taking head on something that you can’t control and doing your best to control all things and just being at peace with what it is. If I want people to say that I have the ability to stay healthy, then I need to do everything in my power to try and do that.”