The Miami Dolphins have options with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa this offseason.

The NFL team can let the former Alabama All-American play the 2023 season on the final year of his $30.275 million contract signed after he joined Miami as the fifth selection in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Tagovailoa also is eligible to sign a contract extension with the Dolphins because he has completed three NFL seasons.

And Miami holds a fifth-year option on Tagovailoa’s rookie deal. If the Dolphins pick up their option, they will keep the quarterback out of free agency next offseason while guaranteeing him an estimated $23.171 million for the 2024 campaign.

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Only one of those choices comes with an impending deadline. Miami has until May 1 to decide on exercising its fifth-year option.

On Tuesday, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel called the decision “incredibly important to the franchise and to the individual.”

Tagovailoa had the NFL’s best passing-efficiency rating during the 2022 season, which normally would make picking up his fifth-year option an easy choice for Miami. But the Dolphins’ decision is complicated by Tagovailoa’s two concussions sustained during the 2022 campaign, which caused him to miss four regular-season games and one playoff contest.

During a press conference at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday, McDaniel said Miami general manager Chris Grier is still working on the team’s next step with Tagovailoa.

“Like any other player, you factor in every variable,” McDaniel said when asked about the fifth-year option. “When you’re talking about those types of decisions, I think it’s important to recognize that we have a congruence of interests by the Dolphins and the player — Tua — that both parties really want him to play at a very high level for a long time for the Miami Dolphins. So what’s the best way to really engineer that or to help manifest that?

“Well, those are the things that we’re kind of weighing in terms of the various options with the same desired end as Tua would like. You factor in everything as best you can. But it’s part of this game that we’re all involved in is there is some unknowns, so you weigh those and you press forward and make the best decision possible for the organization.”

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McDaniel said Tagovailoa already is at work in putting his concussions behind him and being ready when the Dolphins’ offseason program begins.

Because both of Tagovailoa’s concussions occurred when the back of his helmet hit the turf, McDaniel said the quarterback is working with martial-arts instructors to practice falling.

“The ground is not his friend, so we’re trying to avoid that opponent,” McDaniel said during an appearance on Peacock Network’s “Pro Football Talk.” “That’s been the correlating factor from this past season, so jiu jitsu – I think he threw judo out there, but it’s really jiu jitsu that we’ve kind of focused offseason attention.

“And I think it’s kind of like anything else. If all contributing favors, if the people teaching him the trade are all in, if they’re doing their due diligence and the person involved is doing their due diligence, you have something to work with. So far, so good. I probably couldn’t have conceived a better plan than what they’ve come up with. It’s very concerted. …

“No one trains you for anything after your follow-through, so it’s training that and really how to dissipate force. And there’s some strengthening in the neck and core that are involved in that, but also just reps. When you really think about, as a quarterback, you’re saving all those reps for the game on how to fall, so kind of really attacking that seeing different creative ways we can come up with in incorporating that into even beyond the strict offseason but into OTAs and training camp, so that your quarterbacks aren’t getting all the experience live-action getting tackled. There’s got to be a better way, which is what we’re really chasing right now.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.