{"id":120093,"date":"2025-06-11T01:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T01:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/120093\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T01:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T01:10:10","slug":"dolphins-tua-tagovailoa-works-to-protect-himself-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/120093\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa works to protect himself in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI GARDENS \u2014 The Miami Dolphins\u2019<\/a> 2024 season went awry in large part due to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa missing six games.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no way around it.<\/p>\n

A team that finished 8-9 and had a shot at a playoff berth in Week 18 could\u2019ve easily won at least half the games Tagovailoa missed to make the postseason as a wild-card team, matching what it had done the previous two seasons under coach Mike McDaniel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s well known, in McDaniel and Tagovailoa\u2019s fourth offseason together, this team must keep its quarterback healthy<\/a> and available in order to find success in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a franchise quarterback, you want him to play, not hang out with me on the sidelines,\u201d McDaniel said Tuesday ahead of the Dolphins\u2019 first practice of a three-day mandatory minicamp<\/a>. \u201cSo, the experience last year \u2014 I think if you think of 2024 for Tua, realizing in the most egregiously, slow, painful way of just the effects of not having him on the field, the residuals \u2014 I think he started the offseason as it being the primary importance. \u2026 Every effing rep this dude has, that is an opportunity to reinforce something paramount. I\u2019m probably going to over-reinforce paramount.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the greatest offseason emphasis for Tagovailoa from the moment that offseason started.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing everything I can to stay available for the guys,\u201d Tagovailoa said Tuesday, his first interview session with local reporters since Jan. 3 toward the end of the past season. \u201cIt\u2019s knowing when is the time to give up on a play, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was only a minicamp practice session on Tuesday, but maybe the most important rep Tagovailoa had was one where he rolled left, saw his eligible receivers were all covered and threw the football at a target\u2019s feet for a good throwaway. That moment may lend more to Tagovailoa\u2019s long-term success than his highlight of the minicamp session, ending the day\u2019s work with a long touchdown down the sideline to second-year wide receiver Malik Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m competitive and whatnot,\u201d Tagovailoa said. \u201cIt just comes natural to me to compete in that sense, and that\u2019s just the thing I fight with every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

So in practice, three months out from the Dolphins\u2019 first meaningful game of the coming season, is where Tagovailoa can find that balance in determining when it\u2019s time to make a play versus when to live to fight another down.<\/p>\n

Tagovailoa finished last season on the sideline because of a hip injury that cost him the last two games. He said before the finale against the New York Jets that he would play in the playoffs had the team qualified for the postseason.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Tagovailoa said he felt like himself again with the hip in February. The first four games he was out for were because of his placement on injured reserve for a concussion.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins ranked toward the bottom of the league in explosive plays in 2024 after it was such a key component of the offense the previous two seasons under McDaniel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the key to that is continuing to stay within the play of this offense,\u201d Tagovailoa said, \u201cbut really honing in on, when we get opportunities, not falling asleep on (them).\u201d<\/p>\n

While star wide receiver Tyreek Hill continues to recover from offseason wrist surgery and tight end Jonnu Smith is missing minicamp<\/a> as he seeks a new contract and has become the subject of trade talks, the Dolphins quarterback has rekindled his connection with Jaylen Waddle this offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re continuing to grow our chemistry with one another,\u201d Tagovailoa said. \u201cFor the past year, for the past two years, it\u2019s really been me and (Hill) kind of getting on that same page, but if we can get Waddle, me and Waddle can get together and continue to make strides throughout these last few days of minicamp, I think it\u2019s going to lead into some pretty good things preparing us for training camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s signal-caller noted the importance this offseason of having reps with Hill running routes while not catching passes while his wrist recovers.<\/p>\n

And while Smith has been absent, Tagovailoa says he is \u201c100 percent\u201d Team Pay Jonnu.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my guy. That\u2019s my dog,\u201d he said. \u201cJonnu\u2019s done really good for us. So, have nothing bad to say about him, and I love him as a person, too, outside of football. I think all our guys that do what they need to do should get paid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connecting deep with Washington was something Tagovailoa appreciated about Tuesday because he hasn\u2019t found him much downfield to this point, while mostly hitting him on underneath routes.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: June 10, 2025 at 3:55 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS \u2014 The Miami Dolphins\u2019 2024 season went awry in large part due to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[217,7,216,251,2087,3515,6,3452],"class_list":{"0":"post-120093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-dolphins","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-dolphins","12":"tag-miamidolphins","13":"tag-minicamp","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-tua-tagovailoa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114662068987119326","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}