Read the full transcript from Tua Tagovailoa's press conference on August 13, 2025.
Q: How was it to at least have WR Tyreek Hill and WR Jaylen Waddle back on the field in pads and working early on, although you didn't get the pad stuff but they're getting back in?
"It's good to have them. Obviously we care a lot about their health and what's going on with that prior to these practices and prior to the preseason games and then the leadup for the games. It's good seeing that they're doing better. It's cool to see them suit up but can't wait for the day where they get back on the field with us."
Q: I know one of the big things was that Alabama fraternity and then you went against someone like Lions S Brian Branch. What did you think about the Alabama guys on the Lions and what's your initial thoughts?
"Any time you get an Alabama dude, you know what to expect. Yeah, everyone is cool, it's the Alabama fraternity; but we're about work. We're going to put that work in regardless of what that looks like. Maybe you see somebody fight, I don't know, but it's all love at the end of the day and got a lot of respect for those boys on that side of the ball."
Q: How would you grade today's practice after you had to bounce back from the three interceptions last practice?
"For a grade, I wouldn't give myself a grade. I don't think that's fair to grade yourself. I think that's something –"
Q: Your assessment?
"My assessment – I still wouldn't give myself a grade. I think that's for you guys to do with however you guys report that and whatnot. I think today offensively was a very frustrating day in regards to what we wanted to do, what we said we wanted to do. Came out and we just weren't able to get things jumpstarted, so that was very frustrating today."
Q: What do you think the Lions can provide in the looks that you might see later on?
"They've made it deep into the playoffs. They made it to the NFC Championship, not just one time, so they've got something good going on. When you face an opponent like that in practice and you get to see some of those looks early on, that's good for a lot of our younger guys. That's good for our guys up front to see with how different games can look, where they bring guys from inside, outside and present their different looks within their pressure. I definitely think it helps in challenging us early on for those looks when we get to later December and January."
Q: What were some of the frustrating things you spoke about?
"Some of the frustrating things like I said were we couldn't get ourselves jumpstarted as an offense. We couldn't gain that momentum to where, OK, all we needed was one play and then jumpstart the offense whether it was move the ball, whether it was one of the third down team periods, another team period, red zone. It just felt like we didn't have the energy that we're used to when we practice and when we play against opponents, so that's what I'm talking about when I talk about it was frustrating today."
Q: What can you guys learn about yourselves as a group when you're going through these joint practices against a team like the Lions, as you said they went deep in the playoffs before? What can you learn about yourselves as a group?
"It's good. I think they can learn some things; we can learn some things. This is a game of learning. This isn't a game of, 'OK, I'm satisfied and I'm going to be good.' Everybody can learn from something in this game and we take a lot of what they did today; we're going to go look at the film, we're going to go watch it, see what we can correct and learn from that."
Q: You mentioned the issues on offense – how much of it was what they were doing as opposed to what you guys were not doing?
"I think it was a combination of both. I think it was a combination of us communicating what we were in, what they were in, what we wanted to do protection-wise, what we wanted to do in the run game and then our timing in the pass game as well off of what our pass pro looked like. It's not a good recipe for success in this league, and against a good team, things like that are going to happen. Like I said, it's frustrating but we're going to go watch the film and we'll learn from it."
Q: What's the key to putting this behind and moving on for tomorrow?
"I don't think you put this behind you. I think you've got to face it head-on. Any of these challenges, any of these hardships that you go through as a team collectively, you've got to look at it head-on, you've got to face it, you've got to look at it for what it is. You've got to learn from it. That's what it is. Then you come out the next day and then you show your teammates – did I learn from it, from yesterday, or did I not?"
Q: Seeing a little bit of WR Jaylen Waddle. How much did you enjoy that? I saw he had a touchdown in a red zone situation.
"That was cool. It's always good to have those guys, but like I said, their health is their main priority right now, making sure they're good for the season games, the games that matter. That's going to be what's most important, but in practices like these, you'd really love to have those guys just to see what we can, what we can't do, what we can get away with, what we can't get away with. But it's all right. Like I said, their health takes precedent over any of this and looking forward to tomorrow's practice and we'll report to you guys later."
