Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was caught without his thesaurus on Tuesday.
He could have used one when asked about the state of his contract negotiations.
"Not frustrated," Tagovailoa told reporters following the team's first mandatory minicamp practice this week. "I'm another word … but yeah."
Annoyed wasn't the right word. Neither was bothered.
"Just want to get something done," he said after pausing and laughing. "That's it. Just want to get something done."
Even the word concerned didn't quite hit Tagovailoa's feelings on the head.
"Not concerned," he said when asked if that described his current mood. "Concerned is not the right word. That's way off from the word."
Tagovailoa eventually settled on how best to describe how he felt while waiting for the lucrative extension that has yet to arrive from the team. As things stand now, his the fifth-year option of his rookie contract is due to pay roughly $23.2 million in 2024 with Tagovailoa set for free agency next spring if no agreement is reached.
"Probably antsy," Tagovailoa told reporters. "I wouldn't say pissed off. This is the nature of the beast, right? That's how it goes."
On the one hand, Tagovailoa isn't the only extension-eligible NFL quarterback currently awaiting a new deal, as Dak Prescott, Jordan Love and Trevor Lawrence are also. But on the other hand, Jared Goff signed a lucrative extension this offseason worth $53 million per year, and free agents Kirk Cousins and Baker Mayfield signed for top-20 money.
Tagovailoa told reporters on Tuesday that he sees the deals being signed at the position. Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson had already secured massive deals by this time of the offseason one year ago, although Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow didn't sign their new contract extensions until late July and early September, respectively, in 2023.
"Yeah, I'm not blind to people that are in my position that are getting paid," Tagovailoa said. "Am I concerned about it? I'm not concerned about it, but there's a lot of discussions that we've had that we are just trying to move that thing in the right direction where we can both be happy."
Tagovailoa said he doesn't want incremental updates from his agents, Ryan Williams and Austin Lyman of Athletes First -- just the big news.
"I don't like updates every time," Tagovailoa said. "You don't got to tell me the little things, just tell me things that matter. Are we getting to where we want to, or are we not?"
They're not there yet. But despite the lack of a deal, Tagovailoa warned not to read that as a lack of headway.
"I think there's been a lot of progress at this point," Tagovailoa said. "From where we started, there's been a lot of progress. Now, you can ask the other question, 'Then why aren't we seeing an agreement?' Well, that's the tough part about it, that's why it's business. That's why you've got one side and the other trying to meet in the middle."
The Dolphins currently have multiple balls up in the air, contract-wise. Tagovailoa's top target, Tyreek Hill, might want to get paid again following Justin Jefferson's record-setting deal with the Vikings on Monday.
Hill joked on Tuesday that Jefferson's deal made it a "great day in the Hill household," knowing that it could lead to another payday after he signed his previous extension back in 2022 when he was traded from the Chiefs to the Dolphins.
But this situation -- at least compared to what Tagovailoa is going through -- feels less stressful from the player's standpoint. Hill told reporters that he's letting his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, handle the negotiations this time around and is trying not to worry how it ends up.
"His job is to be great at that," Hill said, . "My job is to do whatever I can to help this team win. Whether that's a restructure, whatever that may be.
"We want to make sure it benefits both sides, and I want to help the team as much as I can. … Being greedy ain't gonna help the team."
