Since Miami added Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa with the fifth pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Dolphins have a 47-37 regular-season record and lost both their playoff appearances.
As Miami winds up its offseason work this week in preparation for the 2025 campaign, Tagovailoa said there’s something different about the team that’s taking shape.
“I think there is a culture shift,” Tagovailoa said on Tuesday. “I feel it just as much as everyone that’s been here since I’ve gotten into the league. We always hear about, ‘Man, culture shift. You guys have a change of this. You guys are doing this. Always optimistic.’ But I really do feel in my heart that this is a change of scenery for our guys in the locker room, and then it also transitions to our coaches as well, because we get opportunities to lead and it’s not as much the coaches as it is the players, I would say, this year. …
“I think first you’ve got to have the right guys to be able to do that with, and I think we have the right guys within the room, within the locker room, within the offense, and I know those guys on the defense feel like they have their guys as well.
“For me, I think what’s most important is I’ve been here for five years going on six. Are you not tired of what we’ve done these past five years? If you are, then why aren’t we doing anything about it? What do we have to change? What do we have to do to correct the navigation of where we want to go? I would say that’s what it is. You create that standard in the locker room, the guys follow and you’ve got to uphold it, so you come into work knowing that they are looking to you to uphold that standard, and if you don’t, you’ve got to have brought enough guys to hold you to that standard as well.”
Over the past four seasons, Tagovailoa has missed 15 games. The Dolphins have won five of those contests, while going 32-21 in the regular-season games started by Tagovailoa.
In 2024, Tagovailoa missed the third through sixth games because of a concussion and the final two contests because of a hip injury. Tagovailoa said it took until February to put the hip injury behind him, although he declined to specific the exact nature of the injury.
“I, like everyone else, really want him to be healthy,” Miami coach Mike McDaniel said on Tuesday. “You plan so that you are hitting on all cylinders if he’s not playing. But the end all, be all, you have a franchise quarterback, you want him to play, not hang out with me on the sidelines. So the experience last year – 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, I think he started the offseason as it being the primary importance.”
Tagovailoa said protecting himself better on the field was the only way he knew to try to stay on the field.
“It’s knowing when is the time to give up on a play,” Tagovailoa said. “I would say the longevity for me to be on the field with my guys is more important than whatever that one play is. You have more quarters than there would be within just that one play I’m trying to show the guys I’m competitive and whatnot. I know they know that, but it’s a nature thing. It just comes natural to me to compete in that sense, and that’s just the thing I fight with every time. …
“I think that’s why you have practice, and it starts in practice. I’ve got to sort of shift my mindset of this isn’t just practice where guys can’t hit me. I’ve got to take it into a sense where if this guy is here, get the ball out. And if I’m scrambling and this guy is getting close, not to just hold on to it knowing they can hit me if it was real football.”
The Dolphins have two days remaining in their mandatory minicamp before the team breaks for summer. Miami will return to work at training camp in late July.
