Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was eligible for a new contract last offseason. Instead, the Dolphins exercised their fifth-year option on his rookie contract to extend their hold on the former Alabama All-American through the 2024 season.

With another offseason starting for Miami after a 26-7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL playoffs on Saturday night, general manager Chris Grier said on Monday the Dolphins want to keep Tagovailoa “here long term.”

But with 2024 already secured and the franchise tag available for 2025, how pressing is the need for the Dolphins to devote Joe Burrow-type money to Tagovailoa?

“Like we said, we wouldn’t talk throughout the season in terms of contract stuff,” Grier said when asked if it was his intention to reach a long-term contract with Tagovailoa this offseason. “But we’ve stayed in touch with his agent and had good conversations throughout the year. We were never talking about money or anything, just good conversations about where he is and the relationship with (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.”

Last year, Grier said he didn’t want contract negotiations to become a distraction for Tagovailoa with the Dolphins hoping for a breakthrough season. The quarterback also had missed five games with two concussions during the 2022 campaign, and Grier had admitted “I can’t lie and say no” when asked in March if Tagovailoa’s durability concerned him.

Tagovailoa came back to start every game in the 2023 season as he led the NFL in passing yards and Miami reached its highest victory total since 2008.

But while the Dolphins went 10-1 against teams that didn’t reach the postseason, they were 1-5 during the regular season against playoff qualifiers, then bowed out of the AFC tournament in the first round.

RELATED: TUA TAGOVAILOA AFTER PLAYOFF LOSS: ‘IT JUST WASN’T UP TO OUR STANDARD’

In Miami’s 11 victories, Tagovailoa completed 257-of-361 passes (71.2 percent) for 3,283 yards with 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions for a passing-efficiency rating of 111.3.

In Miami’s seven losses, Tagovailoa completed 151-of-238 passes (63.4 percent) for 1,540 yards with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions for a passing-efficiency rating of 79.5.

Tagovailoa was sacked 11 times in the victories and 20 times in the losses.

“I just want to see him make sure the curve continues to be exponential in his growth,” McDaniel said on Monday when asked where he’d like to see Tagovailoa improve. “We’ve seen at every stretch of the way him improving. That doesn’t mean it’s void of a result that isn’t desired. But what we’ve seen is him learn from all the things that he goes through. I think that’s the one thing that I can say in my two years of experience with him is he’s as good of a learner as I’ve ever seen. Take jiu-jitsu or throwing left-handed or etc. I think that’s what I want to see is that continued thirst to find different ways, while maintaining and growing your confidence, to always create new edges in your game. …

“It’s all about progression. I think he just needs to continue to do what he has been doing in terms of progressing, and I’ll be very much happy with that.”

Tagovailoa joined Miami as the fifth pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. He signed a four-year, $30.275 million contract, and like the rookie deals of all first-round draft picks, it contained a team option for a fifth season.

The Dolphins picked up that option on March 20, and it guarantees Tagovailoa a $23.171 million payday for the 2024 season. Based on current contracts, that ranks 17th among NFL quarterbacks’ pay for next season.

After Saturday night’s loss, Tagovailoa said was not worried about his contract and didn’t feel any pressure about the 2024 season.

“I have full trust in myself,” Tagovailoa said. “I have full trust in what I’m capable of doing for our organization. But outside of that, we’re focusing on tonight and what happened. We’re going to simmer on this and see what we can do to get better from it for next year.”

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