Michael Vick offers words of advice for Tua Tagovailoa: 'Don't get hit'
Michael Vick recently offered some good tips for Tua Tagovailoa. Telling a quarterback not to get hit is good in theory. But how do you make it happen on the field?
Vick appeared on Tyreek Hill‘s It Needed To Be Said podcast. And Hill, the receiver, and Vick, the former QB great, began chatting about Tagovailoa, Hill’s quarterback. It’s a near guarantee that Tua’s health, specifically his brain health, will be one of the most closely watched plotlines in the NFL this season.
Tua suffered at least two concussions last season, possibly three. One happened during a Thursday Night Football game in late September on the road against the Bengals. His concussion was severe enough that Tagovailoa needed to be taken to the hospital. However, he was able to leave the ER and travel back to Miami with his teammates. The league implemented several new steps to its concussion protocol after Tua’s injury.
Then on Christmas Day, Tagovailoa sustained another concussion in a home game against Green Bay. No one knew until the next day when Coach Mike McDaniel announced the news. The quarterback didn’t play again, although the Dolphins did earn a spot in the playoffs. In all, Tua missed four games, plus the wildcard playoff, in 2022.
Michael Vick thinks Tua Tagovailoa should add 15 pounds
What solution did Michael Vick offer for Tua Tagovailoa? Increase the digits on the scale.
“I just think he’s got to bulk up a little bit,” Vick told Hill on the podcast. “Get a little bit bigger. Get stronger. As you grow into your man body, that’s what needs to happen. Ain’t nothing wrong with picking up another 10 pounds, 15 pounds. . . . Don’t get hit. Don’t get knocked around.”
Vick was the first pick of the 2001 NFL Draft. And he brought the QB rushing dynamic to the league, becoming the first to run for more than 1,000 yards. Vick needed to carry some extra weight given how he played the game.
Dolphins QB used jiu-jitsu to learn how to protect himself from injury when he falls
Tua helped himself by learning jiu-jitsu in the off season. McDaniels said the martial art taught the quarterback the correct way to fall so he could protect himself from injury.
“It’s a lot of strategic falling that is patterned after things that happened to our quarterbacks during the season,” McDaniel told reporters in late May. “So kind of recreating those things, because the master of jiu jitsu had to study some game tape to understand how he was falling, where the impact points were and what we could do to help correct it.
“By and large, you find out that core strength is very much important when you’re talking about the transfer of energy of the human body going to the ground,” the coach said. “And different things that you can do to minimize that are strategic. But then strengthening of the core so that when you’re going to the ground, the top of your torso isn’t just a leverage whipping device.”
Now, let’s get back to what other stuff Michael Vick said about Tua Tagovailoa. Hill and Vick talked about Hill’s assessment that Tua is the most accurate QB in the league. Vick thinks there’s a case for Patrick Mahomes, Hill’s former teammate. But he still liked Tua.
“I ain’t gonna say the most accurate, I’m just saying like his ball — he throw a catchable ball,” Vick said. “He throw a real catchable ball. If you watch what he did in college . . . every ball was on the money. Soft, right where the receiver [was], in stride.”