Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said he considered retirement after sustaining two concussions during the 2022 NFL season. But after deciding he wanted to keep playing football, the former Alabama All-American has started preparing for the 2023 campaign by “falling a lot this offseason.”

Tagovailoa missed five games and more than half of another because of concussions – one sustained on Sept. 29 in a 27-15 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals and the other on Dec. 25 in a 26-20 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

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For the first concussion, Tagovailoa was at University of Cincinnati Medical Center by halftime after being taken off the field on a stretcher. On the second, Tagovailoa played the entire game before entering the NFL concussion protocol the next day.

Tagovailoa remained at that status through the final two games of the regular season and the Dolphins’ 34-31 playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills.

“I think I considered it for a time,” Tagovailoa said when asked during a Wednesday press conference if retirement had been an offseason option, “having sat down with my family, having sat down with my wife and having those kind of conversations. But really it would be hard for me to walk away from this game with how old I am, with my son – I always dreamed of playing as long as I could so my son knew exactly what he was watching his dad do.

“I mean, it’s my health, it’s my body, and I feel like this is what’s best for me and my family. I love the game of football, and if I didn’t, I would have quit a long time (ago).”

Because both concussions are thought to have occurred when the back of Tagovailoa’s helmet hit the turf, the Dolphins have had their quarterback working in the martial arts this offseason in hopes of developing a better feel for falling, which Tagovailoa said was “actually a lot cooler than you think when you hear of learning how to fall.”

Tagovailoa said he remains a white belt in his jiu-jitsu training, but he seems to be on the black-belt course for falling.

“You think it’s easy: Just don’t fall and hit your head,” Tagovailoa said. “But, I mean, there’s a lot more to it. …

“I’ve been falling a lot this offseason, so I think just like anything else you continue to train it, you continue to work at that, it becomes second nature. Then when the situation like that does happen, it’s not something new that’s presented to you. And for guys at my position, we barely get hit, if that, at practices throughout the offseason, even going into training camp. We don’t even get touched until the season starts.

“With jiu jitsu, I’ve been thrown airborne, I’ve been put in many uncomfortable positions for me to learn how to fall and try to react throughout those positions I’m getting thrown around in.”

To help him learn, Tagovailoa said he and his instructor watched the hits that produced the concussions and other times when he’s been knocked to the ground.

“It wasn’t tough to watch,” Tagovailoa said. “I want to get better at everything I can do to help the team win games. I know the biggest one is my health, staying out on the field, so looking at the film, I was able to watch that with my jiu-jitsu coach, and we were able to kind of relive the scenario in how I got tackled, how I fell. And it wasn’t just one particular game, it was multiple ways in how I got taken down and how I could have prevented that.”

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Tagovailoa had the NFL’s best passing-efficiency rating in 2022, and he’s looking forward to finishing this time around.

“It’s been hard throughout the ending of the year last year,” Tagovailoa said, “not being able to finish the season off the way we wanted to finish the season off last year. But this is a new year for us. This is a new team that we have. We’re all really excited.”

For the second season in a row, Tagovailoa will be working with head coach/play-caller Mike McDaniel, offensive coordinator Frank Smith and quarterbacks coach Darrell Bevell. Tagovailoa had a different offensive coordinator in each of his first two NFL seasons, and Alabama changed offensive coordinators annually during his three seasons with the Crimson Tide.

“It’s been a lot better of an offseason knowing that I don’t have to learn a new system, new formations, new motions, new snap points, new cadences,” Tagovailoa said. “It’s good to know that I already have a year under my belt within the offense. There’s always going to be nuances, but it’s not like a drastic change. This is really good. This is good as well because of the guys that we have with us last year under the same system, and we’re all really, really excited to get things going.”

The Dolphins started their offseason program on Monday.

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