Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa spoke to reporters on Tuesday, looking like a new person: Thin, nimble and ripped.
But it also prompted some confusion and very few answers.
For starters, Tagovailoa was already on the smaller side for quarterbacks. Last season, he was listed at 6-foot-1 and 227 pounds.
Tagovailoa was listed at 218 pounds for his final season at Alabama and he reportedly looked to add weight coming into the 2023 season to help with longevity and injury prevention.
Now, he’s dropped weight, completely eliminating all sugars in his pursuit of being quicker on his feet.
Asked at Dolphins camp what weight he was down to, Tagovailoa responded, “I don’t know. Just whatever I’m down to right now.”
The Palm Beach Post pegged his weight loss at 25 pounds.
Talk of Tagovailoa’s dramatic drop in weight has spread like wildfire across the NFL and media platforms.
“I cannot believe there wasn’t at least one Miami Dolphin upstairs who said ‘Wow, he looks thin,’” Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd said on Monday. “He’s already small, he’s already got an average arm… I don’t know, it’s something.”
Cowherd noted that none of the all-time great quarterbacks — Eli and Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Tom Brady and the like — were skinny.
“I like my quarterbacks like my furniture – big and hard to move,” Cowherd added. “Tua is not a hyper-athletic quarterback who wants to get faster. He’s not really that mobile, he’s not big, he doesn’t have a power arm.”
People want answers, but Tagovailoa remains silent on the issue.
On top of this, one more aspect awaits Tagovailoa’s contract.
This year will mark the last of his rookie deal, and Tagovailoa hopes to join other quarterbacks — Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert — from the 2020 draft who have already signed lucrative contracts.
Miami’s top reciever, Tyreek Hill, who joked Tuesday that Tagovailoa was previously “fat as s–t” and took Ozempic to drop the weight, told reporters that his QB already “should have been paid.”
