Tua Tagovailoa says Dolphins didn’t start protocols until after season

Tua Tagovailoa stayed in concussion protocols for over a month but it was the Miami Dolphins who were to blame, not the QBs inability to recover.

Speaking with the media this week, Tua was asked about his lengthy stint in the NFL concussion protocol following his diagnosis after the Green Bay Packers game. Tua said the Dolphins did him “the biggest service” by keeping him out of the protocols.

Tua said that Miami didn’t allow him to enter the concussion protocols which could have cleared him for the game against the Bills had they started him immediately in the protocols. Instead, Tua said that he didn’t go into the protocols until the season was over which made the long time seem longer.

Tua said the team was protecting him from himself. He said he saw a doctor in Pittsburgh and when he was cleared he still had cognitive testing to undergo. When asked about what was being said on social media, Tua said he doesn’t go on social media.

In fact, Tua specifically said that he has someone else running his social media accounts. So for those of you who believe he might be paying attention…he isn’t.

Tua will enter the off-season working to fix flaws in how he “falls” when being tackled. He is taking up ju-jitsu as a way to work on some of those techniques and will continue to work with his trainers at PERFORM.

Miami is counting on Tua to come back next year and hopefully, avoid the problems he had this year with the concussions.

If the Dolphins did in fact keep Tua from entering the NFL concussion protocols, they did so knowing that they would face the postseason without their starting quarterback and thus putting Tua above the team’s own goals for the season.