When Miami Dolphins general manager Chris Grier was asked Tuesday why the team’s 2024 season fell way short of expectations, he pinned some of the blame on Tua Tagovailoa’s inability to avoid injuries.
“Injuries happen, it is what it is, every team deals with it,” Grier said. “Our biggest one is obviously the quarterback. When he misses six and a half games and we miss it by a game getting into the playoffs — to me that’s the difference.”
Tagovailoa, 26, suffered a concussion early in the second half of a Week 2 game against the Buffalo Bills. That hit sent him to the injured reserve, which cost him four games. Later in the season, he suffered a hip injury that sidelined Tagovailoa for the last two games of the season.
In his absence, the Dolphins went 2-4 with Tyler Huntley and Skylar Thompson taking over starting duties.
“[Tagovailoa] needs to be available,” Grier said. “He needs to know how to protect himself. Like, you’re going to get hit at times, it’s always going to happen, but he needs to control what he can control.
“He understands that not being available for taking chances and risk is unacceptable to us. And he knows that.”
When Tagovailoa returned from IR in October, he said as much in his first press conference back.
“Just got to be smart,” the quarterback told reporters. “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.”
In five seasons with the Dolphins, Tagovailoa has played more than 13 games in just one year. Multiple concussions cost him four regular season games and a playoff start in 2022, and he sat out four games in 2021 due to ribs and finger injuries.
