Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa has coaches, teammates pleading with him to slide more

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Tua Tagovailoa returns to practice from concussion for Miami Dolphins

Tua Tagovailoa returns to practice from concussion for Miami Dolphins

MIAMI GARDENS — Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill wants star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to slide.

And Tyreek has an idea of how Dolphins fans can help.

"When we were playing against the Colts, you see the fans start clapping for Anthony Richardson when he slid," Hill said this week. "I said our fans need to clap for Tua, make him slide."

After sustaining at least three concussions in three seasons as a Dolphin, Tagovailoa now understands the importance of giving up on plays before contact.

"Just got to be smart, that’s it," Tua said this week. "Just got to be smart. My entire time playing football, I’ve been a competitor and that is or was sort of my edge when I would run from high school, even in college I would do the same thing. But it’s a professional setting; this is the professional level, the best of the best, you just cant be doing that. So definitely got to stay more available for the team, for the organization, for our guys.”

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Starting Sunday against the Cardinals, Tua can't lower his head or lower his shoulder at the end of a play.

Ever again.

"We’ve been talking to him ever since his injury. I’ve been telling him, ‘Hey, you need to work on sliding,’" Dolphins running back Raheem Mostert said. "And we all joke around and laugh, but on a serious note, he knows that he has to protect himself a little bit better and moving forward, only he can control those things."

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Tua must fight his own instinct. And only Tua can do this.

"We can say those things to him until we’re blue in the face, but one thing that I would say that’s always my saying is, ‘Hey, you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink, right?’" Mostert said. "We’re going to bring Tua to that water, but we can’t make him drink. He has an understanding of that, and moving forward, he’s going to do his best.”

This offseason, Tua lost weight in an effort to extend more plays.

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It's still possible for Tua to use his improved athleticism — either in the pocket or on roll-outs and broken plays. But when scrambling for a first down, he must use extreme caution.

And get down.

"I think he has a better understanding of his responsibility towards to the entire organization at this point," Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said this week. "My answer would be, ‘You don’t need that one’ this time around."

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Tagovailoa said it is his personal choice to not be the first NFL quarterback to wear a Guardian Cap in an NFL game.

It is also true that Tagovailoa wears what has been deemed to be the safest quarterback-specific helmet as tested by biomechanical experts and recommended by the NFL and NFLPA.

Tua has the VICIS ZERO2 Matrix ID QB, which is the top performer.

Tua has also taken martial arts training, which has shown him the best was to react after falls.

But everyone involved knows he can help himself by limiting contact after scrambles.

Just slide.

Slide, Tua, slide.

'We need you bro,' Tyreek Hill says of Tua Tagovailoa

"We need you, bro, next play," Tyreek Hill said. "Come on, (expletive). That (expletive) is real, it’s real. We love him. From brother to brother, we love him. Like he’s a huge part of this team.”

McDaniel has left no question about the preference for Tua.

"He’s just in a different place as far as a leader of this team and feels tremendous responsibility to do everything in his power to be on the field, so part of that is protecting yourself," McDaniel said. "I’ve got to make sure that he’s properly protected, but at the same time I can’t control everything and he has to be able to protect himself for him to – regardless of the first down conversion that he’s trying to get – for him to be on the field with his team that he needs to be smart about how he engages in contact.”

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Joe Schad is a journalist covering the Miami Dolphins and the NFL at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jschad@pbpost.com and follow him on Instagram and on X @schadjoe. Sign up for Joe's free weekly Dolphins Pulse Newsletter. Help support our work by subscribing today.