The Miami Dolphins are coming off their biggest win in a long time after knocking off the division rival Buffalo Bills on Sunday, and a big reason for their success is the emergence of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
Through the first three weeks of the season, Tagovailoa is behind just Josh Allen in NFL passing yards, and has already accumulated eight touchdowns to go along with just two interceptions throughout the first three weeks of the season.
However, Tagovailoa of the subject of a scary moment during the Bills win when he went down hard after taking a hit from linebacker Matt Milano. After looking wobbly, he was put in concussion protocol but released and finished the rest of the game under center for the Dolphins.
Oh no, scared for Tua right now, doesn't look good.pic.twitter.com/iefLwI2PS6
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 25, 2022
Even though the Dolphins faced some backlash for allowing Tagovailoa to finish the game, head coach Mike McDaniel is still insistent that his quarterback is fine and not currently in concussion protocol.
“The one thing that our players know more than anybody is there’s certain things that I’m very sensitive to — I’ve been called emotional from time to time — and one of those things is player health,” he said to ESPN. “I don’t mess around with that at all. Tua was pretty annoyed with me in the game because he knew what hurt and didn’t understand why people kept talking to him about what we were talking to him about. I think watching replays, he probably could.
“The pillar of importance for all of it is player safety — that’s why the protocols are in place. We’re happy to comply and I feel fine about that whole process, really.”
It’s going to be a quick turnaround for Tagovailoa and the Dolphins, too, as they’re set to compete against this Cincinnati Bengals for Thursday Night Football in Week 4.
“It’s my first time on a Thursday night game with Tua, so I don’t assume anything,” McDaniel said. “As far as me being able to access my crystal ball — it’s broken right now. That’s one of the reasons why you have a roster of capable people, that’s why we brought Teddy [Bridgewater] here and drafted Skylar [Thompson]. You have to be ready for these type of adjustments. Just like Teddy was ready in the game, we’ll be ready for whatever we have to deal with moving forward.
“These Thursday night games, you just try to do the best you can. We’re trying to get information as fast as possible and we’ll be working fluidly from that. Right now, not just Tua, but there’s a lot of players that we’ll be adjusting to on the fly, seeing if they can turn it around and give a healthy outing on Thursday.”
All signs point to Tagovailoa being available for the marquee matchup this week.
