What was observed with Tua during absence, and why it’s meaningful to Dolphins teammates

The Dolphins this week aren’t merely getting back the NFL’s leader in passer rating.

With Tua Tagovailoa exiting concussion protocol, they’re also getting back a player who has worked diligently to cultivate relationships throughout the locker room, a player who has taken seriously the intangible responsibilities of becoming a captain.

“I’ve never been on a team in the NFL that has a quarterback that spends that much time with his teammates, to be honest with you,” linebacker Duke Riley said in a private moment at his locker on Friday. “I’ve never been invited to play golf with a quarterback ever, and he’s invited me.”

During snapshots when the media is allowed a glimpse behind the walls of team headquarters, we see Tagovailoa in his natural environment.

And what was witnessed last week, while not unusual, also left an impression: Tagovailoa bouncing from player to player, striking up conversations with several of them. We saw him walk over to joke around with safeties Brandon Jones and Eric Rowe for several minutes during the stretching portion of Friday’s practice.

“He was talking about how he’s going to kick our [butt] in practice today,” Rowe said later, smiling. “We were like, ‘OK, all right.’”

We saw Tagovailoa walk over to Riley’s locker, sit down and chat for 15 minutes on Friday.

There have been other Dolphins quarterbacks in recent years who have been popular with teammates — Ryan Fitzpatrick at the top of the list — but it’s difficult to recall any who made such an effort to engage teammates on both sides of the ball.

And that bond is another reason there was such concern among teammates when he crumbled to the ground with a concussion against Cincinnati.

“Everybody was worried about him because everyone has a relationship with him,” Riley said.

As tight end Durham Smythe said: “Tua’s personality and energy being back on the field… it really brings everyone’s spirits up.”

And while he’s a private person by nature — he expressed frustration that his summer wedding to his longtime girlfriend was reported in the media — he isn’t anything like that with teammates.

Though relationships with teammates have been important to Tagovailoa since joining the Dolphins, he has seemingly taken it to another level in the past year.

“He’s more vocal,” Rowe said. “Last year and the year prior, he wasn’t really saying too much. This year, he’s speaking a little more, taking command of not just the offense but of the team.

“He reaches out to everyone in the locker room. He doesn’t just talk to people on offense. He talks to players on defense, specialists. He’ll ask me personal life questions.”

Teammates have received repeated invitations to visit his home.

“He invites me all the time,” Riley said. “If he lived closer, I’d probably be there almost every day. He’s got a pool table, a ping-pong table. He has like a mini putt-putt thing outside to play golf in the yard, a movie theater. He invites me over for karaoke all the time. His family sings a lot. It’s all uplifting.”

But Riley wants to make clear that this is not merely a quarterback who invites players to his home. It’s a person who shows a genuine interest in learning about every teammate.

“He has a relationship with and knows something about everyone on the team and that makes Tua Tua,” Riley said.

What did Tagovailoa remember about Riley?

“He always asks me about my kids because my little boy’s uncle played for Alabama, Irving Smith, a tight end for the Vikings [who caught a TD pass against the Dolphins on Sunday]. He’s got a relationship with my son, which is an amazing thing too. That’s the type of person Tua is.”

Riley said Tagovailoa “calls everybody ‘uce,’ which Riley said is a Hawaiian term for brother.

Even during this recent health scare, when Tagovailoa left the Bengals game on a stretcher, entered concussion protocol and visited four independent doctors, he consistently told teammates “I’m fine, I’m good,” Riley said, noting “he’s always smiling, always happy.”

But when it comes to his play, which has improved considerably this season, he remains self-critical when talking with teammates.

‘Even if you tell him you’re doing good, he’ll [say], ‘I’ve got to do better,’” Riley said.

So does Tagovailoa’s relationship-cultivating make a difference?

Teammates say it does, and here’s why: “If you’re close as a team, you play better than a team separated internally,” Rowe said. “Creating relationships brings everybody together.”

Riley puts it this way: ”We have his back and he has ours. He’s a guy who’s a better person than football player to me. And obviously he’s an amazing football player. But the type of person he is, is unbelievable. He’s a good guy to have be a part of your life, not only as a teammate.”