Mike Locksley raves about Tua Tagovailoa's future with Miami Dolphins
Maryland head coach Mike Locksley was pretty confident about Tua Tagovailoa’s future with the Miami Dolphins.
When Locksley was an assistant at Alabama, he coached the star quarterback before he went to the NFL. Despite numerous concussions this season, Tagovailoa had the best year of his young career.
Locksley erased the concerns about Tagovailoa’s health and put his trust in the Dolphins organization.
“I think the world of the Tagovailoa’s and obviously the Dolphins are going to do what’s right by Tua,” Locksley said on Mad Dog Radio. “I know Tua is a tough guy and they obviously have handled it the right way now to where it gives them a chance to get himself healthy. I see he came out of concussion protocol a week ago. That’s always a positive but there’s no doubt that you saw the transition in the Dolphin locker room.
“I interviewed for the Dolphins head coaching job a year ago, and I think obviously because of the relationship with Tua, I can tell you one of the things I said during that process was listen, if there’s people up here in from the head coach, GM, owner, if you’re not believers in this guy then you gotta get rid of him. Trade him because he is a people pleaser. And he’s one of those guys that wants to please the people that he works for.”
Locksley also broke down how Tagovailoa molded into the quarterback that played at a high level in 2022 when healthy.
“And then when you heard the stuff coming out of the locker room a year ago, before you know they made the change, whereas some players were questioning him and now you kind of cut off his ability to be who he wanted to be,” Locksley said. “One of the things that I noticed is when they brought Tyreek Hill in, the first thing he did was stamp Tua by saying ‘oh he’s as good a quarterback as Pat Mahomes.’
“I mean, to me, that transition in the locker room is what I think has allowed Tua to play the way he played this year because he’s got a bunch of people that believe in him in the locker room, as well as upstairs.”
Despite numerous concussions this season, Tagovailoa will play next year at full health.
Tagovailoa had the best season, statistically, of his career. He threw for 3,548 yards, 25 touchdowns, eight interceptions and a 64.8% completion percentage.