Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa Recovering 'Miraculously Well' After Hip Injury

The Miami Dolphins made Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa the future of the franchise when they selected him with the No. 5 overall pick of the 2020 NFL draft, and it is surely welcome news within the team that he is apparently progressing well on his injury rehab.

"He's doing miraculously well," Kevin Wilk, Tagovailoa's physical therapist, told Safid Deen of the South Florida Sun Sentinel (h/t Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk). "The miraculous part is that he healed so well. The second part is, he's been so well at getting his strength back, which usually takes a long time after something like this." 

Tagovailoa's final season at Alabama was cut short by a hip injury. In addition to the hip, he is rehabbing his ankles and throwing shoulder around three-and-a-half hours a day as he prepares for his first NFL season.

ESPN's Laura Rutledge reported in March that the signal-caller was medically cleared for all football activities, but his health was a major talking point heading into the draft.

After all, teams had less opportunity to evaluate his health before the draft with team facilities closed and travel restrictions in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also missed on a chance to prove himself in Alabama's final few games, which stood in stark contrast to LSU's Joe Burrow.

Burrow led the Tigers to an SEC title and College Football Playoff national championship as the Heisman Trophy winner and went No. 1 overall to the Cincinnati Bengals.

Tagovailoa completed 69 percent of his passes for 3,966 yards, 43 touchdowns and just six interceptions in 2018, his last full season.

If he can replicate numbers like that in the NFL, the Dolphins will quickly become a threat in the AFC East. The division could be in something of a transition period after Tom Brady left the New England Patriots dynasty for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Miami is looking for its first playoff win since the 2000 season.

That is the type of pressure Tagovailoa will be playing under, putting all the more onus on his ability to get healthy during the offseason before his rookie campaign.