Tua Tagovailoa promises effort to stay healthy for Miami Dolphins during 2025 season

Tua Tagovailoa promised to protect himself this season and make sure he’s available all year for the Miami Dolphins. For a former first-round quarterback that has been plagued by concussion issues in recent years, Dolphin fans surely hope so.

Tagovailoa’s taken precautions in the past, such as jiu jitsu training and learning how to break fall, thus dispersing any impact on the ground away from his head. Still, he missed six games last season after starting a full 17 in 2023. Tagovailoa was also limited to 13 games each in 2021 and ‘22, while not playing in the playoff game the latter year for Miami.

Tagovailoa knows going into Year 6 that he has to be healthy for he and the team to be successful and make a deep playoff run. But it’s a matter of doing it, not just saying it.

“Me not putting myself in situations where I’m not available for my team, and then we take it from there,” Tagovailoa said on NFL Network. “If I can stay healthy for our guys, I believe, and I think the team believes, that I give us the best chance to go do what we say we want to do.”

In 11 games last year, Tagovailoa was on pace for some career numbers. He completed 72.9% of his passes, had a 6-5 record as a starter and threw for 2,867 yards, 19 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

But it’s certainly disappointing if Miami doesn’t make the playoffs with him under center surrounded by talent. Safe to say, the former Alabama star hears the criticism.

“A lot of the guys on the team, we hear the noise, we hear all that, but it’s OK,” Tagovailoa said. “It’s OK for people to have their opinions. What are we going to do about it?”

If Tagovailoa is healthy, that’s a good start for the Dolphins. But the QB better hope his relationship with star WR Tyreek Hill is in good standing. Hill said at the end of the 2024 season, or at least had cryptic words, his future could be in doubt when it comes to Miami.

Hill has since returned and is practicing with the team of course. But Tagovailoa was honest about where Hill stands amongst his teammates.

“When you say something like that you don’t just come back with ‘My bad.’ You gotta work that relationship up,” Tagovailoa said, via Cameron Wolfe. “He is working on himself.”