Miami Dolphins star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is seeming to enjoy his off-season so far as he was seen playing guitar alongside musician Darius Rucker at a show in Las Vegas. It is expected that the signal-caller for the Dolphins is in Las Vegas since that is where the Super Bowl will take place Sunday as the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers will clash.
Seeing these two perform together is not surprising at all for a multitude of reasons, with the main one being that Rucker is an open Dolphins fan. Arguably his most famous song called “Only Wanna Be With You,” as a part of the band Hootie & The Blowfish, includes the lyric about his allegiance for the team.
“I'm such a baby, yeah, the Dolphins make me cry,” Rucker says in the song which I'm sure fellow Dolphins fans can relate to as the team has not had a playoff win since 2000, the longest active drought in the NFL.
Tagovailoa and Rucker teased playing guitar with each other before
The other reason why it is not surprising is because Tagovailoa and Rucker teased them performing together back in early December. When the University of Alabama product was on ESPN's Dec. 4 edition of the ManningCast for Monday Night Football where the Cincinnati Bengals faced the Jacksonville Jaguars, he was seen playing the guitar on camera.
This prompted a user on X (formerly known as Twitter) called “DolphinsTalk.com” to repost the video and say “So @dariusrucker I think we need you and @tua in the studio for a jam session after the season. #FinsUp.” Rucker would respond “I'm in.”
Tagovailoa would then give his two cents and only responded with three emojis being a pair of eyes looking to the side, a guitar, and the hand symbol of rock and roll. The 25-year old star quarterback is rarely on the social media website as his last post before responding to Rucker was in September of 2023.
They were both performing another song in the Hootie & The Blowfish catalog titled “Wagon Wheel,” another popular song from the band and Rucker. This was sure to be a nice sight for Dolphins fans, even if the team's finish this past season was not the most satisfying conclusion.
A career-best season for Tagovailoa ending in disappointment
For Tagovailoa individually though, he had his best season in the NFL as he led the league in passing with 4,624 yards, 29 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. It was another step in the right direction in the development of the Dolphins star, but it ended in disappointment as the offense was unable to score more than seven points against the Chiefs in the wild-card round.
Adding on to that, Miami lost four of their last six games of the season including the playoff loss and the week before where they were unable to beat the Buffalo Bills and win the AFC East. Even the week before that, the Dolphins fell to the Baltimore Ravens where they had the opportunity to be the No. 1 seed in the whole conference.
The focus is now on the Dolphins and Tagovailoa to come to a new contract as his rookie deal is coming to an end and according to the quarterback, he believes it will happen according to Joe Schad of The Palm Beach Post. He said this during his media availability as he was a part of this year's Pro Bowl festivities.
“I believe that will happen,” Tagovailoa said. “I'm gonna let, you know, my agents, Chris (Grier), Mike (McDaniel), let those guys talk about that and let them move forward accordingly.”
Chris Grier gives an update regarding Tagovailoa's contract situation
Dolphins general manager Chris Grier also spoke to the media earlier this year right after the season about updates regarding the status of the quarterback. Per the team's official transcript, Grier showed his confidence in Tagovailoa saying the “goal is to have him here long-term playing at a high level.”
“We've had conversations,” Grier said to the media, via the team's official transcript. “Like we said, we wouldn't talk throughout the season in terms of contract stuff, but we've stayed in touch with his agent and had good conversations throughout the year. We never talk about money or anything, just good conversations about where he is and the relationship with (head coach) Mike (McDaniel) and the team here and everything he's done. So the goal is to have him here long-term playing at a high level. That's always the goal and we'll continue to communicate with him through the offseason here. Like we've always said in the past, you guys know me, we don't really talk in the media through all that stuff, so we'll just keep all those talks internal and with his reps.”
It should be an interesting off-season to say the least for the Dolphins and their quarterback situation heading into the season. However, there is no doubt that the team showed improvement, especially from their talented young star in Tagovailoa, even on the guitar.
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