Why Tua Tagovailoa is learning Jiu-Jitsu to help avoid concussions

Henry McKenna

AFC East Reporter

Mike McDaniel blended his characteristically serious and silly responses to questions during a press conference at the NFL Combine on Tuesday. The Miami Dolphins coach enjoyed high highs at the beginning of the season and low lows at the end. And so he fielded questions that reflected those ups and downs.

You probably know what happened by now: Miami started the season 8-3 but then lost six of its final seven games, including a playoff appearance against the Buffalo Bills.

As Miami moved into the offseason, the team parted ways with defensive coordinator Josh Boyer, whom the Dolphins replaced with Vic Fangio, a man expected to be key in fixing the ailments that emerged during the end-of-season slide. But there are other big questions for the team, including the future of QB Tua Tagovailoa, who suffered two documented concussions in 2022 and couldn’t finish the year.

So let’s dive into the takeaways from McDaniel’s press conference.

Tagovailoa is learning Jiu-Jitsu?

With so much riding on Tagovailoa’s health, the Dolphins quarterback is even working on what he can do to improve his ability to fall. The thought is that it might train him to protect his head from intense contact and help to prevent additional concussions.

Falling is one of the many key elements to mastering Jiu-Jitsu. McDaniel discussed how the team and Tua came up with this concept.

“We were willing to go to any length. However, with him getting invested in it and really talking to him and hearing how the trainer is invested in him and how he was really into it and getting good residuals from it, we feel very comfortable in terms of this best preparing him for things that he hasn’t otherwise been able to prepare for,” McDaniel told reporters Tuesday. “Like a follow-through throwing motion, it’s something that we’re trying to train, and he’s 100 percent all-in, attacking it with vigor and exuberance.”

Tagovailoa suffered his first documented concussion in Week 4 against the Bengals with the quarterback getting knocked unconscious, per McDaniel. He left the game and did not return. He also suffered a concussion in Week 16 against the Packers, though he did not leave the game — nor did the team diagnose him with a concussion until later in the week when he had memory issues from the game, per McDaniel.

The QB also had an incident in Week 3 against the Bills when he struggled to walk off the field after a big hit. Tagovailoa said his balance issues were due to back spasms and the NFL said the Dolphins followed concussion protocol.

Tua’s concussion history will likely come into play as Dolphins decide on his contract

It seems unfair that players be penalized financially for sustaining concussions, but Tagovailoa’s future in Miami seems less certain based on his experience.

He is entering the fourth year of his rookie contract, which means the team has to decide about his fifth-year option, an element of the deal that would allow Miami to retain him for 2025 at $30 million. If Tagovailoa plays at the level he played in the first half of the 2022 season, that’s a discount. If Tagovailoa can’t play, then it gets more complicated.

Should Dolphins pick up Tagovailoa’s fifth-year option?

A handful of fourth-year QBs are eligible for extensions, including Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts and Justin Herbert. While those three are expected to get big paydays, one QB is still uncertain. Joy Taylor discusses how Miami should handle Tua Tagovailoa’s situation.

Will Tua’s concussion history impact the team’s decision about his fifth-year option?

“I think like any other player, you factor in every variable,” McDaniel said.

On Wednesday, general manager Chris Grier addressed how Tagovailoa’s injuries might influence the Dolphins’ desire to get an extension done.

“I can’t lie and say no, but it’s not something that’s going to make us wait to do something long-term,” Grier told reporters.

McDaniel says Vic Fangio is a “one-of-one” innovator on defense

Fangio’s experience in the NFL is expansive. He was a head coach in Denver from 2019 to 2021 and has been a defensive coordinator for six different teams. Fangio, 64, first started in the NFL in 1986 and has spent every year in the league except 2010, when he was the defensive coordinator for the Stanford Cardinal.

That kind of experience contrasts starkly to McDaniel, who is 39 and entering the second year of his first head-coaching stint. He entered the NFL in 2005 and had only one year of experience as an offensive coordinator before becoming Miami’s head coach.

“Vic is one of one in my opinion, of creating and innovating and sustaining high-quality defense,” McDaniel said. “[He] has been able to adjust [his schemes] to the game and to the things he’s having to defend and to the players that he has. I think having the opportunity to add Vic Fangio is as exciting of an opportunity in the offseason that I could have. I think all players on defense will benefit from it.

“I know I’ll benefit from the process of being able to work with him on a daily basis and tap into his infinite wisdom. I mean shoot, just in one week in the office with him, I had a couple of hours of very gratifying football conversations that will help me moving forward.”

That’s the idea.

Last season, McDaniel dealt with some turbulence in managing his team through Tagovailoa’s absences, an apparent blueprint for beating the Dolphins offense and the team’s defensive shortcomings.

It’s possible Fangio will help Miami to have a less-erratic season in 2023.

McDaniel won’t fall into tampering traps

Bills safety Jordan Poyer, a pending free agent, said he wants to play in a state with no income taxes. New York is not one of those states. Florida is.

So McDaniel fielded a question about potentially recruiting the safety. If he answered carelessly, he would have been guilty of tampering. So he dodged that question with humor.

“Well, I’m not in the business of tampering,” he chuckled. “And I believe — I mean, you guys might be trying to get this second-year hustle on me, but we need every draft pick we can get.”

Miami did, after all, lose a first-round draft pick for a tampering scandal involving Tom Brady. McDaniel’s team learned the hard way not to mess with NFL rules.

Prior to joining FOX Sports as the AFC East reporter, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @McKennAnalysis.

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