2022 was a rough season for Tua Tagovailoa. Sure, it was another year of sustained growth for the former Alabama QB. He passed for over 3500 yards and 25 touchdowns, both career highs. The Dolphins made the playoffs and came within just a few points of beating the Bills in the Wild Card. But Tua also became the face of just how badly the league handles concussions. He missed the final five games of the season, including the playoff loss to the Bills, after suffering multiple concussions down the stretch.
Tua has had to prioritize the recovery of that during the offseason, working out in ways that would not risk re-aggravating the injury ahead of the season. However, former NFL player and current ESPN host Ryan Clark saw Tua's offseason another way. “Let me tell you what he wasn’t doing: He wasn’t in the gym, I’ll bet you that,” Clark said. “He might spend a lot of time in the tattoo parlor,” Clark said. “But he was not at the dinner table eating what the nutritionist had advised. He looks ‘happy' [but] he is thick. He’s built like the girls working at Onyx right now.”
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Tua Claps Back
"I think we all worked hard throughout the offseason. I am not someone to talk about myself the entire time...You think I wanted to build all this muscle? To some extent, I wanted to be a little lighter....There's a mixture of things that people don't know about, that people don't understand that go behind the scenes. You know, I'd appreciate it if you kept my name out of your mouth, that's what I would say," Tua said when asked about Clark's comments during media availability.
It's a more than fair answer from Tua. As reported by Miami's Palm Beach Post, the Dolphins are very happy about where Tua is at heading into the season. “You have to give credit to Tua for all of the stuff that he’s done in the offseason to prepare himself,” QB coach Darrell Bevell said. "I expect him to have a great year. You know, I thought he was on track to do that last year. And we've talked a lot about obviously being on the field for all the games and I think he's really taken that to heart and done the things that he needs to to at least put him in a position to be able to do that."
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