In the upcoming days, Tagovailoa will go through the NFL’s concussion protocol. It’s possible that Tagovailoa will eventually be cleared to return to the field by the team’s physicians and trainers. He would have to decide if he wanted to continue playing if this were to happen. It’s also possible that the doctors won’t give him the all-clear to go back.

Tagovailoa may have to resign from the NFL if he is unable to clear concussion procedures a third time throughout his career. The Dolphins would have to forfeit a sizable portion of his $212.4 million deal if he retired.

$167 million in guarantees are included in the deal, which Dolphins general manager Chris Grier signed in July. Of that pay, $43 million has already been paid to Tagovailoa. Should he be medically forced into retirement, he is entitled to the full $124 million.

But he would lose that assured money if he were cleared to return and decided to retire nevertheless. In that scenario, a settlement would need to be reached between him and the team.

Even though he acknowledged considering retiring during the previous offseason, the contract was negotiated long after he had suffered his third concussion. However, Grier stated he wasn’t concerned by the quarterback’s history of concussions at a team news conference on February 28.

Grier was questioned if the quarterback’s history of concussions affected the way the team assessed Tagovailoa’s contract extension months before it was inked.

 

“No,” was Grier’s reply. “I think, for us, every athlete deals with various things. As seen by the numerous quarterback injuries observed this season throughout the league, other quarterbacks and excellent players have also sustained several season-ending injuries.”

Grier suggested jiujitsu training throughout the offseason as a treatment for the quarterback’s suspected concussions.

“Tua’s one action was to use the summer to demonstrate his ability to maintain his health. It paid off for him to take the time to learn how to fall, along with some jiujitsu and other things’, he said.

Mike McDaniel, the head coach of the Dolphins, stated that he and the group were “comfortable” with jiujitsu as a means of reducing concussions for their quarterback.

We came up with a few different ideas for it, some of which I won’t include here as they weren’t as good as that one. At a team news conference held on February 28, McDaniel stated, “We were prepared to go to any length.”

We feel very comfortable that this is the best way to prepare him for things that he hasn’t been able to prepare for, though, because he is invested in it, talks to him about it, and hears how the trainer is invested in him and how he was really into it and getting good residuals from it. We’re attempting to train him on something that looks like a follow-through throwing motion, and he’s all in, going for it with gusto and enthusiasm.”

 

In 2023, Tagovailoa began training under master jiujitsu practitioner Ricardo Liborio over the offseason. The idea was to teach him how to manage his body so that he wouldn’t hit the turf with too much force when he fell to the ground.

Jiujitsu is a martial art that emphasises techniques for opponent self-defence. Still, the art form started out as a Brazilian adaptation of Japanese judoka. It doesn’t take into consideration getting tackled by several NFL players.

In Tagovailoa’s example, the 200-pound Hamlin made a solo tackle without using any of his jiujitsu training. When Tagovailoa lunged forward to gain yards, his head struck Hamlin’s torso, causing an injury.

In a sign of head trauma known to neurologists as the “fencing response,” Tagovailoa’s arms froze.

Tagovailoa now has ten days to complete the concussion protocol set down by the league.

The team may be compelled to put Tagovailoa on injured reserve, which would keep him out of the lineup for at least four games, if he is unable to clear protocol within the next ten days. It might force the front office to begin planning for a time when its great quarterback and maybe the $124 million are gone.