Almost immediately after it was learned earlier this week that Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love wasn't practicing in the early days of training camp amid his desire for a contract extension, many assumed Miami Dolphins starter Tua Tagovailoa would follow in Love's footsteps.
As Marcel Louis-Jacques of ESPN shared, Tagovailoa planned to practice Wednesday but not participate in 11-on-11 drills as he also looks to ink a long-term deal.
"I think it's important to acknowledge that Tua's in the midst of a contract negotiation," Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel told reporters on Wednesday, per Bobby Kownack of the NFL's website. "That's important to him and the football team. That being said, we communicate very well. It's very fluid. We're taking it day by day. Today I expect it to be kind of like [organized team activities], and we'll move on from here."
Tagovailoa is in the final year of his rookie contract, and it was reported on Monday that he and the Dolphins were not "as far along right now as the Packers and Jordan Love" regarding negotiations.
Logic suggests Tagovailoa's camp may not want him to sign anything before Love potentially resets the market for young quarterbacks with an extension that could be announced as soon as Wednesday afternoon.
"I know where my place is in my relationship with him," McDaniel said about Tagovailoa. "I'm not involved in those things. My job is to focus on him getting better -- solely. ... I know as an organization we've prioritized it by entering into negotiations a long time ago, whenever that started. I think it speaks to how important [it] is, both sides, they're relentlessly working on it."
"Great things take time," McDaniel added. "The one thing that's come [out of] this whole process is I'm very, very confident in my relationship with Tua and how he can separate the business entity from ... Ultimately he knows, any way you cut it, our focus has to be on what it looks like when he's playing football."
As of early Tuesday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Dolphins tied for sixth among the betting favorites at +1100 odds to represent the AFC in Super Bowl LIX.
While Tagovailoa is presumably eager to help his teammates pursue such a goal, it doesn't sound like he's all that close to signing an extension.
