Dolphins' Tua Tagovailoa takes another step to avoid concussions

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is practicing with a newly designed helmet as he attempts to avoid future head injuries. 

"I’m still trying to feel it out, so what better time to feel it out than (organized team activities)? I heard it’s supposedly better than the helmet I was wearing last year," Tagovailoa told reporters, as shared by Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. "If it could be that much more safe, then why not give it a shot?"

Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press explained back in April that the NFL and the NFL Players Association approved a helmet made specifically for quarterbacks that is meant to reduce concussions suffered during games. Maaddi said the helmet decreases the "severity of helmet-to-ground impacts" linked with head injuries.  

Tagovailoa suffered a minimum of two reported concussions during the 2022 season and spent over a month in the league's concussion protocol this past winter. The 2020 first-round draft pick who turned just 25 years old in March admitted the following month he considered retiring due to fears related to his history of head injuries, but he's now on track to once again serve as Miami's QB1 this September. 

Tagovailoa spent portions of the offseason training in jiu-jitsu "to learn how to fall," and Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said in May that the club had "incorporated" aspects of that training "into some of the drill work we do with the quarterbacks." 

Regardless of numerous rumors and stories, there's no indication the Dolphins made a serious move to land Baltimore Ravens star Lamar Jackson when his rights were secured via the non-exclusive franchise tag before Miami picked up the fifth-year option attached to Tagovailoa's rookie contract that reportedly guarantees him roughly $23.2M for 2024. 

Retired free agent Tom Brady is seemingly no longer an option for the Dolphins or any team other than the Las Vegas Raiders, so Miami needs Tagovailoa to do everything possible to remain in the lineup as the club pursues more than just a playoff berth beginning with the Week 1 game at the Los Angeles Chargers on Sept. 10.