Dolphins GM says contract talks with Tua Tagovailoa to pick up - ESPN

MIAMI — The Dolphins hope to keep quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in South Florida for the foreseeable future, general manager Chris Grier said Monday.

Speaking to local media, Grier said while the two sides tabled contract negotiations during the regular season, they will intensify this offseason as Tagovailoa enters the final year of his rookie deal.

«We've stayed in touch with his agent, had good conversations throughout the year,» Grier said. «Never talked about money or anything, just good conversations about where he is.… The goal is to have him here long term, playing at a high level. That's always the goal.

»We'll communicate with him through the offseason and like we've always said in the past, you guys know me, we don't really talk to the media through all that stuff. So, we'll keep those talks internal and with his reps."

Tagovailoa led the NFL in passing yards this season with 4,624, playing a full season for the first time in his four-year professional career. He also set career highs with 29 passing touchdowns and a 69.3 completion percentage.

However, he threw just four touchdowns against five interceptions during Miami's final three games of the season, including Saturday's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC wild-card round, and failed to surpass 200 passing yards in two of them.

After completing a season-low 51.3% of his passes Saturday night against the Chiefs, Tagovailoa said he was not worried about his impending contract negotiations and didn't feel any pressure to get a deal done.

«I don't feel any pressure at all. 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.