Why Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa's weight loss shouldn't concern anyone

Mandatory minicamp is all sewn up, and one of the more buzz-worthy things to come out is the physical transformation of Tua Tagovailoa from the end of last season to where we are now. Tagovailoa has lost a ton of weight, which has countless people talking.

Mind you, Tua has a flak jacket on to protect his ribs in the picture below on the left, but you can clearly see that the former first-round pick has lost a substantial amount of weight. The stud QB has dropped around 10-15 pounds, though he is yet to confirm an exact number.

Tua Tagovailoa's weight loss should have Dolphins fans excited

Naturally, reasonable thoughts entered the mind, such as the QB gained weight last year so that he could withstand hits better and thus wouldn't be as injured as he was in previous seasons. Tagovailoa played every game this past season for the first time in his career, so the weight gain in essence may have worked.

It's also been well documented that he started partaking in the discipline of Jiu-Jitsu in an effort to learn how to fall properly instead of thrashing his head against the ground. It was clear as day that his training worked because when he would fall, he would transfer his energy throughout his whole body and would roll through falling down.

So, why change that? Why not bulk up and continue his training? The answer is because Tagovailoa easily found out that he wasn't as fleet on foot as he usually is. He couldn't escape pockets and slide around as he once did, which led to several plays that when things broke down, it'd be the end of the play.

For Tagovailoa to take his game to another level, he needs to improve on extending plays any way he can. One of the obvious ways is to be a bit more elusive. We're not talking Michael Vick or Tyler Thigpen levels of scrambling, but just enough to be comfortable enough to roll right or left while keeping his eyes down the field to hit a receiver or to actually take off if he has a lane where he can safely slide or get out of bounds. Now that he's lighter, this all shouldn't be a worry at all.

A reason for not being concerned is that the injuries that we're worried about with Tagovailoa are concussion-based. We're not worried about him tearing up his knees and legs or blowing out his shoulder. So, him losing a substantial amount of weight won't have much to do with the concussion concerns. If anything, it will give him the ability to get away from would-be tacklers and avoid monster shots.

Tagovailoa has learned how to take care of his body possibly as much as anyone out there and he knows, even with his added agility back in his game, that he's not running around most defenders. He certainly isn't going to be lowering his shoulder too often either, even though it was epic when he did it to the Jets a few years ago.

Now we have to wait until late July to see anything out of the Miami Dolphins in terms of group football activities. All the talk will be when and if the Dolphins will be signing Tagovailoa to a long-term deal. We saw him be professional, while also being transparent about how he feels contract negotiations are going. All the talking heads are going to dissect Tagovailoa and whether he deserves a huge contract or not.

A positive from his weight loss too is that his teammates in Miami sure are having a lot of run with things. Classics guys being dudes with how Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle are handling how different their QB is looking these days:

As Seinfeld's Kenny Bania would famously say, "That's gold, Jerry, gold."

Regardless of where you stand on the issue, Tagovailoa will be signing a long-term deal with the Dolphins. It's just a matter of when and for how much. Deal with it and also deal with the fact that Tagovailoa is trying to do everything he can to get better. It may not work for him and the fans of the team, but he's trying just about everything, which is something people have to respect.