By CHARLES ODUM<\/p>\n
ATLANTA \u2014 Tua Tagovailoa said Tuesday his new one-year contract<\/a> with the Atlanta Falcons provides an opportunity for a fresh start after a rocky finish to his six-year stay with the Miami Dolphins.<\/p>\n Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham said on March 13 Tagovailoa will have an opportunity to compete<\/a> at quarterback with Michael Penix Jr. after Penix recovers from a torn ACL he suffered in November.<\/p>\n Tagovailoa said \u201ccompetition is just a thing in the NFL\u201d but added he\u2019ll have to play better than in 2025, when he set a career high with 15 interceptions before he was benched for the final three games.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re looking at last year, my play wasn\u2019t up to the standard of the way I\u2019ve been playing football the past, what, three years since the new contract,\u201d Tagovailoa said of the four-year, $212 million extension from the Dolphins in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cSo just got to play better football. That\u2019s what that really means. There\u2019s no other way to sugarcoat that or go around that.\u201d<\/p>\n The Dolphins will owe Tagovailoa $54 million<\/a> in guaranteed money in 2026. The one-year deal with the Falcons is for $1.3 million, the minimum for a veteran. The agreement with Atlanta was reached after the Dolphins announced they were releasing Tagovailoa<\/a> despite taking on an NFL-record $99 million dead cap hit.<\/p>\n Tagovailoa could open the season as Atlanta\u2019s starter if Penix is still recovering from his knee injury. That could provide an opportunity for Tagovailoa to prove he can return to his 2023 form when he led the NFL with 4,624 passing yards, and 2024, when he led the league by completing 72.9% of his passes.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year wasn\u2019t the best year for me,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd, you know, I\u2019m looking for a fresh start, but fresh start in the sense of being able to compete, being able go back out there and playing football, good football, and I think the best football is still ahead of me.\u201d<\/p>\n Tagovailoa, 28, said it is too early to say if he will be looking for a longer stay in Atlanta after the 2026 season or if he hopes to find a new opportunity as a free agent.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to look that far in front,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the best thing right now is making the best of this opportunity that I have with the team on my one year and make the best out of that in terms of the relationships I make with these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n Tagovailoa said he is just happy to play football.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is what I\u2019ve dreamed of my entire life, you know, so regardless of what that looks like. I\u2019m gonna be present, I\u2019m going to be in the moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Tagovailoa, a first-round pick from Alabama in 2020, was 44-32 as Miami\u2019s starter. He suffered his fourth documented concussion early in the 2024 season but said \u201ceverything came out good\u201d in his physical examination with the Falcons.<\/p>\n \u201cSome things are looking way better than, you know, the guys might have thought,\u201d he said, adding he doesn\u2019t worry about the risk of more injuries.<\/p>\n \u201cYou either love it or you don\u2019t,\u201d Tagovailoa said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I would say. You either the love the game or you don\u2019t, and you know the challenges that are ahead in terms of playing the sport with injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By CHARLES ODUM ATLANTA \u2014 Tua Tagovailoa said Tuesday his new one-year contract with the Atlanta Falcons provides…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2049],"tags":[254,217,7,216,251,2087,6,3452],"class_list":{"0":"post-831646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-atlanta-falcons","9":"tag-dolphins","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-dolphins","13":"tag-miamidolphins","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-tua-tagovailoa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116286146086901152","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831646","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=831646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}