Tua Tagovailoa Blames Himself for Dolphins' Rough 2024 Season

The former Alabama quarterback is looking forward to his sixth year in the NFL after a concussion sidelined him for four games early last season.

Jul 23, 2025; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) works during training camp at Baptist Health Training Complex. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Former Alabama and current Miami Dolphins standout quarterback Tua Tagovailoa enters Year 6 in the NFL with a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

The 27-year-old has suffered three concussions during his professional career and there's a big difference in Miami when he's off the field. He missed four games following a concussion in Week 2 of last season against the Buffalo Bills. The Dolphins lost each of those contests and didn't score more than 12 points in that stretch.

"Well, I think it starts with me," Tagovailoa said at training camp on Saturday when asked why the Dolphins aren't projected to be a contender. "It starts with me not putting myself in situations where I can't be available for this team.

"And I think in a way, it kind of goes from there. If I could stay healthy for our guys, I believe—and I believe the team believes—that I give us the best chance to potentially go do what we say we want to do.”

The best season of Tagovailoa's career came in 2023 as he threw for a league-high 4,629 yards and earned his first Pro Bowl nod. The Dolphins went 11-6 that year—their best record since 2008.

Exactly one year ago today, Tagovailoa signed a 4-year, $212.4 million contract extension with his team. But obviously, the several months after that didn't work out for the quarterback following the concussion as Miami finished last season under .500 (8-9) for the first time since 2019—the year before Tagovailoa was drafted.

Tagovailoa now looks forward to this upcoming season and turning the Dolphins back into contenders for the playoffs. He has a couple of big-name former Alabama standouts to help him out in wide receiver Jaylen Waddle and five-time Pro Bowl safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who Miami traded for on June 30.

"But outside of that, I think it's the consistency for our team that has been 'Man, these guys are good, but then it's too good to be true. Something is about to happen,'" Tagovailoa said. "Let's say I go down or let's say something happens within the team and then the structure looks messed up. Now it's like 'Oh, we can't do this, we can't do that.'

"And so I think it's just the consistency. A lot of the guys on the team, we hear the noise, we hear all of that. But it's OK. That's OK for everybody to have their opinion—now what are we going to do about it?"

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