‘It’s been frustrating’: How Tua Tagovailoa stayed connected with Dolphins

Marcel Louis-Jacques, ESPNOct 30, 2024, 06:00 AM ET

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Facing third-and-9 from the Arizona Cardinals‘ 22-yard line Sunday, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa took the snap, wiggled away from a collapsed pocket and took off running to his left, toward the first-down marker.

It was Tagovailoa’s first game since Week 2, when he suffered a concussion against the Buffalo Bills on an eerily similar scramble to the one the Hard Rock Stadium crowd was watching unfold. On that Week 2 play, Tagovailoa finished his scramble by lowering his helmet into a Bills defender in an attempt to pick up extra yards and ended up with a five-week stay on injured reserve.

On Sunday, Tagovailoa picked up the first down with ease and, with Cardinals cornerback Starling Thomas V closing in on him, slid safely near the sideline to seal a 13-yard gain.

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Seeing Miami’s franchise quarterback protect himself from an unnecessary hit had the crowd erupting with applause, ending with a fan sitting behind the opposite end zone putting down his “SLIDE TUA, SLIDE” sign. The quarterback, apparently, had gotten the message.

Sunday’s 28-27 loss to the Cardinals marked Tagovailoa’s return from his latest concussion and third of his five-year career. The injury occurred on Sept. 12. He said he hadn’t felt any concussion symptoms since Sept. 13, and even as the team went 1-3 without him, he watched from the sideline under orders from the Dolphins and doctors to rest and prioritize his health.

During his time on injured reserve, he remained close to the team, traveling to away games and watching as three different Dolphins quarterbacks tried and failed to get an offense going that led the league in 2023. Tagovailoa met with coaches early in the morning to better understand game and practice preparation. He heard former players, current head coaches and analysts debate his future in the NFL. He received a mandate from coach Mike McDaniel to focus on his family while he recovered. And, finally, he was met with jubilation — and nearly brought teammates to tears — upon his return to practice last week.

“It’s been frustrating,” Tagovailoa said Wednesday. “Frustrating for sure, but I’ve tried to stay in it with meetings with the guys, trying to continue to be the leader for guys … trying to help everyone.”

In the moment, Mike McDaniel told Tua Tagovailoa he’s the quarterback of his family first. Getty Images

IMMEDIATELY AFTER TAGOVAILOA’S concussion against the Bills, Dolphins medical trainers attended to him for a few minutes before he got up under his own power and walked to the sideline. He received a brief comment and kiss on the side of the head from McDaniel before he continued into the locker room.

“I told him he’s the starting quarterback of his family and to go in the locker room, take a deep breath and I’ll see you soon,” McDaniel told reporters the following day.

Miami’s locker room looked shell-shocked after the game — a 31-10 loss. Backup quarterback Skylar Thompson, who came in after Tagovailoa’s injury, said he felt “sick” watching his teammate go down like he did. After the hit, Tagovailoa had gone into a fencing response — an unnatural and involuntary posturing of the upper extremities that indicates a traumatic brain injury — while he laid on the ground.

Before the media was allowed into the locker room, McDaniel said Tagovailoa spoke with several of his teammates and tried to “keep the guys’ heads up.”

“It’s very tough because it’s a very violent game we play and any play can be your last,” Dolphins linebacker David Long Jr. said. “We’ve seen it before. But we know what we got in this game for. We know the highs and the lows that come out of it. And if you are playing scared or plan for that, like trying to avoid that, then it messes up your game. You have to go out there and be fearless and you take whatever comes with it.”

IN THE ROUGHLY 24 hours following his injury, Tagovailoa’s charity, The Tua Foundation, received nearly $18,000 in donations through its website.

Tagovailoa founded the Tua Foundation in 2021 shortly after the end of his rookie season with the Dolphins. Its website describes the foundation as a nonprofit organization “dedicated to the support of youth initiatives, health and wellness, and other charitable causes.”

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Based on the addresses of the donors, the foundation told ESPN the bulk of the donations came from the Buffalo area — a calling card of Bills fans over recent years. Buffalo fans donated $1 million to a local children’s hospital in honor of Bills quarterback Josh Allen’s grandmother in 2020. They gave more than $415,000 to the Andy and Jordan Dalton Foundation in 2017, and $360,000 to “Blessings in a Backpack” after Lamar Jackson was injured during a playoff game in 2021, among other charitable ventures.

Tagovailoa wasn’t available to comment on the gesture until he returned from injured reserve, but thanked the fans’ generosity after the Dolphins’ loss to the Cardinals on Sunday.

“It wasn’t something I was aware of at the moment. I do want to say a big thank you to those fans and then I was told that a good amount of them were Bills fans, as well,” he said. “It is kind of a love/hate thing. It’s hard to hate them, also hard to love them sort of deal. So I really appreciate it from the Bills fans and then also to fans in general, just thank you.”

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Saban on Tua returning: Most important thing is his health

Nick Saban joins Pat McAfee to discuss Tua Tagovailoa returning from a concussion.

SPEAKING TO THE mediaa day after Tagovailoa’s concussion, Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce, who’d watched the game, was asked how he thought the Miami quarterback’s situation should be handled.

“I’ll be honest, I’d tell him to retire. It’s not worth it,” Pierce said. “Playing the game, I haven’t witnessed anything like what’s happened to him three times. Scary — you could see right away; the players’ faces on the field. You could see the sense of urgency from everybody to get Tua help. I just think at some point — he’s going to live longer than he’s going to play football. Take care of your family.”

Pierce, who played nine seasons as a middle linebacker in the NFL before retiring in 2009, was one of several former NFL players who urged Tagovailoa to retire in the immediate aftermath of his injury, including former Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant, Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez and former tight end Benjamin Watson, who suffered five documented concussions in his 16-year NFL career, including three in 2011.

Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Pederson, another former NFL player, said the focus should be on Tagovailoa’s health, not playing career.

“Everybody wants to play and they love this game so much, and they give so much to it that when things like this happen, reality kind of hits a little bit, and it shows the human side of our sport,” he said.

THE FOLLOWING WEEK, as Tagovailoa prepared to meet with several neurologists across the country, the Dolphins moved forward with Thompson as their starting quarterback.

They signed Tyler Huntley off the Ravens’ practice squad, but the job was Thompson’s for as long as he was able to hold onto it.

“I think this is more directly to back up Skylar,” McDaniel said of signing Huntley, “and then you always let competition play out when it’s out on the field. But this is a depth move for sure.”

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Miami tapped into that depth one week later when Thompson was knocked out of a 24-3 loss at the Seattle Seahawks. He completed 13 of 17 passes for 107 yards before exiting with a rib injury midway through the third quarter. Tim Boyle, who was called up from the team’s practice squad that weekend, finished the game in his stead.

Huntley started the following week’s prime-time game against the Tennessee Titans — a blowout loss in which he completed 14 of 22 passes for 96 yards.

Huntley was also behind center when the Dolphins beat the New England Patriots in Week 5, and when they lost to the Indianapolis Colts following the bye week.

Miami’s passing game with Tagovailoa sidelined was abysmal. In four games without him, Miami ranked dead last in passing yards per game, completion percentage over expectation, passing touchdowns and quarterback rating.

In three starts, Huntley completed 39 of 66 passes for 371 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

Tagovailoa was quick to lift the blame off his backups when he spoke to the media last week.

“I think it’s really tough to ask any of our quarterbacks to come in to do the footwork that we’ve been doing for the past two years,” he said. “To see fast guys running and seeing the space that’s there and asking them to kind of process all of that. We looked at film, we were able to see what we missed and what we could’ve got better with, but it’s a team sport.

“It shouldn’t take one position for this whole thing to crumble, everybody needs to be on their P’s and Q’s as well.”

Tagovailoa was eager to play again but did everything he could to remain close to the team. Steph Chambers/Getty Images

AMID PREPARATIONS FOR the Dolphins’ Week 5 matchup against the Patriots, Tagovailoa paid one of Miami’s assistants a surprise visit.

McDaniel and offensive coordinator Frank Smith are among a group of coaches who arrive at the team facility particularly early. One morning, Smith heard a voice faintly over his headphones.

“Hey, boss.”

Smith looked up to see Tagovailoa standing in the doorway to his office, coffee in hand.

“What are you up to?” Tagovailoa asked.

Smith said it was around 5 a.m., and Tagovailoa had arrived at the building early. Since he was on IR, he couldn’t practice, but instead peppered Smith with questions about what he and the coaching staff were working on so early in the day.

“He’s just an infectious personality, he’s always positive,” Smith said after recalling the story. “It’s been engaging, and it’s been awesome. He’s just a really fun guy to work with.”

Players are involved in the installation of the weekly game plan, but not the development of it. His conversation with Smith allowed Tagovailoa to see the game from a coach’s perspective.

“That was fun,” Smith said. “It’s Coach Tua.”

Tagovailoa was three weeks away from clearing concussion protocol and being eligible to get off injured reserve, but he said he trained as much as he was allowed to do.

His routine, including the early arrival to the facility, was not ideal, but it put him in position to operate as, like Smith said, “Coach Tua.”

“I mean, yeah, it’s just frustrating that I couldn’t have helped in any way outside of trying to coach and just talking to guys,” Tagovailoa said. “It’s been a different type of way of leading with our guys.”

MOMENTS AFTER A 16-10 loss to the Colts in Week 7, Tagovailoa walked off the Lucas Oil Stadium field by himself. He wore a team-issued sweatsuit, dark sunglasses and the same stoic expression that had been etched on his face for three hours and counting.

For the fourth time in the past five weeks, Tagovailoa stood on the sideline while his team played without him. Sporadically, he’d interact with his teammates or congratulate someone after a big play. But mostly, he just stood and watched.

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“Just trying to get the pulse of the team and the guys and to be able to relay some of that information to Mike [McDaniel],” Tagovailoa said of his experience on the sideline. “‘Hey, we need to get this guy more involved. Hey, this guy needs to get this or that.’ Or, ‘Did you see on the last third down what they were doing?’ Communicating that throughout the coaches and with what I’m hearing with the players as well.”

His sunglasses remained on in the Dolphins’ locker room after the game. He quietly sat at his locker while the media was allowed in the room.

Tagovailoa said it was frustrating not being able to help his struggling team on the field, but his return was nearing. McDaniel said once the team got through the end of Week 7, he told his quarterback that his practice window would open in Week 8.

“I think he’s known the whole time there is nobody that wants him out there more than I do, “McDaniel said last week, “but none of us were going to shortchange the incredible responsibility we have to everyone, him included, and just go rogue and start setting up timelines of what we’re going to do before that time came.”

DOLPHINS WIDE RECEIVER Tyreek Hill did not speak with the media after the loss to the Colts. He recorded a single catch for 8 yards, his lowest output since joining the Dolphins in 2022. He vowed to speak Wednesday of the coming week and kept his word.

When Wednesday came, Hill was exuberant while discussing the day’s practice. Tagovailoa’s window to return had opened that day, and the quarterback had taken the field for the first time in more than a month just hours before Hill spoke.

“Felt like old times, me and him connected on a few deep shots today and that kind of got me feeling good,” Hill said. “I missed that, and I missed him. I told him I’ve got to take him and his wife to dinner because I missed him so much. S— was so beautiful, that s— almost made me cry today, like just having him in the lineup, having him call the plays, having him direct the offense, like just hearing his voice. I know that sounds crazy, but he’s a big part of this team.”

Hill is on pace for the fewest receiving yards since his rookie season. After catching seven passes for 130 yards and a touchdown in Week 1, the only full game he’d played with Tagovailoa this season prior to Week 8, Hill caught a combined 14 passes for 140 yards in the four games Tagovailoa missed.

He has maintained a positive attitude during his availabilities over the past month, insisting he needed to do more and that he wasn’t upset — or desiring a trade.

The positive outlook continued when asked if he had a message to his fantasy football managers with Tagovailoa set to return the following Sunday.

“We’re back, baby. Strike up the f—ing band, we’re back, baby,” he said. “Start me this week, baby, let’s go.”

Tagovailoa’s return against the Cardinals saw the Dolphins score a season-high 27 points. Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press

TAGOVAILOA’S RETURN SUNDAY against the Cardinals jump-started the Dolphins’ offense.

He completed 28 of 38 passes for 234 yards and a touchdown, leading Miami to its first opening-drive touchdown of the season, its highest point total of the season, and its highest yardage output since Week 1.

It wasn’t enough to avoid the 28-27 loss, however, after Chad Ryland made a last-second, 34-yard field goal.

Tagovailoa wasn’t perfect. He mishandled a snap in the third quarter that resulted in a safety. But he was happy to be back on the field.

“I would say I felt like myself,” he said. “I’ve been preparing for five weeks as if I were to play while I was on IR so that’s what it was. So it felt normal coming out there.”

At 2-5, the Dolphins are the 10th seed in the AFC and two games back of the Los Angeles Chargers for the seventh and final playoff spot. Out of the 248 teams since 1968 that have started 2-5, only 11 made the playoffs — most recently, the Green Bay Packers last season. But Tagovailoa said there is still time to turn things around.

“I think there’s always time, brother. There’s always time. Seventeen games,” he said after the Cardinals loss. “So whether we’re counted out or we’re not, it doesn’t matter. We’re going to continue to play football.

“Anything’s possible. So we’re going to continue to trust each other, lean on each other, believe in each other, and we’re going to go do it next week.”

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