Dolphins’ McDaniel backs up Tua’s offseason strength training; Ryan Clark apologizes
MIAMI GARDENS — After ESPN football analyst Ryan Clark took his shots at Tua Tagovailoa over what he perceived to be a poor offseason of training and the Miami Dolphins quarterback got his chance to fire back at Clark on Wednesday, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel offered his take on Tagovailoa’s offseason.
“I can say hard facts that I’ve seen with my own eyes,” McDaniel said. “You want to talk about someone that’s committed to doing what he’s doing for the right reasons. He was already invested before this year, but then taken a bunch of things that have happened, he really put an onus on controlling what he can control.”
McDaniel and the Dolphins have seen improvements in every measure of strength training from Tagovailoa, who worked to tack on muscle in the offseason to better withstand hits from NFL defenders that have led to injuries and, last season, multiple concussions.
“You want to talk about every metric that (strength and conditioning coach) Dave Puloka and our strength staff really track, which is pretty much everything,” McDaniel said. “Every metric of strength that is measured, he has shattered his previous highs. In some instances, he’s almost twice as strong with things. That’s been a daily commitment that he hasn’t wavered from. He’s taken his nutrition to another level. He has taken his commitment to what he’s trying to do and really thought outside the box and really worked at it. I couldn’t be happier with the work that he’s put in, and what I’ve actually viewed from my own eyes.”
Dolphins nose tackle Raekwon Davis, who goes back with Tagovailoa to time together at Alabama, also backed up his quarterback Thursday.
“They honestly don’t know nothing Tua does,” Davis said of outsiders opining on his work ethic. “He just works every day, in and out of here, he does his job and he continues to practice his technique. They just talk, as they do.”
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Monday, Clark had sharp and somewhat disrespectful commentary against Tagovailoa and his training/nutrition regimen, insinuating it made him thicker, while also throwing a jab at him over his tattoo sleeve.
“I can tell you what he wasn’t doing,” Clark said on ESPN’s “NFL Live”. “He wasn’t in the gym. I’ll bet you that. He might’ve spent a lot of time at the tattoo parlor. He was not at the dinner table eating what the nutritionist had advised. He looks happy. He is thick. He’s built like girls (that) work at Onyx (Gentlemen’s Club) in Atlanta right now.”
Thursday, while McDaniel was holding his morning press conference ahead of the day’s drills, Clark released an apology and explanation on social media.
“I truly just felt like was a joke to me,” Clark said. “I realized as the week has gone on, if this man has to answer questions about it, if so many Miami Dolphins fans are offended by it, then people ain’t taking it as a joke.
“So, let me be very clear. If I’ve offended you, Tua, if i’ve hurt you, if anybody that supports and loves you feels some sort of way because of what I said, I truly apologize.
“I’ve reached out. I hope to talk to you soon, brother, but just know, I wasn’t questioning the way you work. I wasn’t questioning how much it mattered to you. It was what I can consider now a bad joke, but for me, it’s been a lesson. I’ll be better.”
Tagovailoa’s response Wednesday to the original comments involved him finalizing his statement with: “I’d appreciate it if you kept my name out your mouth.”
Earlier, while saying his Samoan culture is about respect for one another, he also said, “If we need to get scrappy, we can get scrappy too.”
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McDaniel is proud of what Tagovailoa did for himself in the offseason.
“You’re happy for guys as a coach when you can see, in the present, down the road they’re going to have no regrets,” the coach said. “You know without any shade of grey that you put your best foot forward. He really has, and I think his teammates would agree we are getting the absolute best version of Tua that’s existed.”
Tagovailoa is expected to start the Dolphins’ Saturday preseason finale against the Jacksonville Jaguars after McDaniel said Thursday he wants the starters to get game reps.
