Tua Tagovailoa – June 4, 2024
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(You wouldn’t tell us back in March whenever we saw you at your event that you were losing weight, but you’re losing weight, man. What are you down to now?) – “I don’t know. It’s whatever I’m down to right now.”
(What was the reasoning behind it?) – “I felt like I’d be better. I feel better, quicker on my feet, more nimble, all of that.”
(What do you feel you can add to your game at that weight?) – “Probably extending plays more this offseason and then during the season, training camp, all of that.”
(What have you picked up from working with John Beck, two or three things?) – “Just sort of using my hips, getting my hips more involved with my throwing and sort of the rubber band theory. If you guys know about that, you know about it. If you don’t, I don’t want to explain it right now so I’m not going to explain it, but it’s sort of the rubber band theory.”
(Is this as low as you get weight wise or are you still trying to slim down from here?) – “You’ll see during training camp, we’ll see.”
(Is it more diet or just…?) – “It’s everything – diet and exercise.”
(Is there a food you gave up that you really hate to give up?) – “Just sugar. (laughter) Sugar, you just give up sugar. Give up sugar, you should be good.”
(WR Tyreek Hill mentioned getting you guys together a lot this offseason. Is that something you’ve tried to increase more this offseason?) – “I’ve got together with a couple of these guys more of this offseason, in regards to things that are going on. So I got with those guys a lot more, and we’ve been working a lot more.”
(Do you think of a different physical stature like every time you check in? Like last year it was more muscle. Does it take a few weeks to kind of get used to your new physical state to do what you want to do out there?) – “Not really, just because you’re training with the weight that you have and even the weight that you lose, so your body sort of gets used to it as you’re training. So it’s not like it happens all overnight. No, it’s a subtle change and as you start to shred, you get used to holding that weight. You get used to moving around with that weight and whatnot, so it’s not much of a change in that sense.”
(How concerned are you with your contract situation? And have you observed other quarterbacks around the league as they’ve gotten paid?) – “I mean, I’m not blind to people that are in my position that are getting paid. Am I concerned about it? I’m not concerned about it, but there’s a lot of discussion that we’ve had that we just are trying to move that thing into the right direction where we can both be happy.”
(Are you involved in it personally? Does your agent update you every time there are talks?) – “My agent updates me, but for me, I don’t like updates every time. Like you don’t got to tell me the little things, just tell me things that matter. Are we getting to where we want to or are we not? That’s it.”
(Did you think there’d be more progress at this point?) – “Well, I think there’s been a lot of progress at this point. From where we started, there’s been a lot of progress. Now, you can ask the other question, then why aren’t we seeing an agreement? Well that’s the tough part about it – that’s why it’s business. That’s why you’ve got one side and the other trying to work to meet in the middle.”
(How much did your contract negotiation have to do with your attendance during the first part of offseason program?) – “That I don’t know. I don’t control any of that. I control if I come or not, but I don’t control how they think about that.”
(Do you view those numbers that others get around the league as benchmarks for your negotiations like Jared Goff getting $53 million per year?) – “I’ll tell you one thing; the market is the market. If we didn’t have a market, then none of that would matter. It would just be an organizational thing. It didn’t matter if that guy got paid that because it’s up to the organization. So that’s what I would say – the market is the market. That’s it.”
(Are you confident that a deal will get done before training camp?) – “I’m confident that a deal will get done. But then again, it’s not in my control. It’s really up to both sides meeting in the middle with this.”
(You’re a passionate and emotional guy. Is it difficult for you to separate the two things out there?) – “Yeah, 100 percent, 100 percent. For people that talk about business is different than personal, sure, I can agree to some extent. But who you are as a person, for what you do business and personal, is who you are with how you do everything. That’s how I see it. That’s just how I look at it. And if not, if you can be two different people at once, hey by all means you can do that. But to me, that’s just not how I am.”
(Are you frustrated with where things stand right now?) – “Not frustrated, I’m another word.”
(Agitated? Annoyed? Bothered?) – “I just want to get something done, that’s it. Just want to get something done.”
(Concerned? Is that…?) – “Not concerned. Concerned is not the right word. That’s way off from the word.”
(Antsy maybe?) – “Probably antsy.”
(Pissed off?) – “I wouldn’t say pissed off. I mean, this is the nature of the beast, right? This is how it goes.”
(What was your reaction seeing WR Jaylen Waddle get his deal?) – “I was excited. I texted him. We all texted each other – Jalen Ramsey, Terron Armstead, ‘Reek’ (Tyreek Hill). We all texted each other in a group chat congratulating him.”
(That’s got to be a fun group chat?) – “I mean, (laughter). Those guys are hilarious, I’ll tell you. But I’m happy for my boy.”
(With that rubber band theory, what’s the football benefit to that?) – “The football benefit to the rubber band theory? It’s seamless when you throw. So your hips go before your upper body, and then it’s sort of like when you release it, it just snaps. Just a flick of the wrist, but that ball takes off for you.”
