More Reason for the Miami Dolphins to Sit Tua Tagovailoa in Their Preseason Opener
If Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel already was inclined to sit quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for the team’s preseason opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday night, his decision should be even easier now.
Maybe the biggest development in the preseason action Friday happened at Lincoln Financial Field when Jets starting quarterback Zach Wilson left in the first half with a knee injury that looked ominous.
Based on the way Wilson was injured, planting his right leg when making a cut, there was reason to be concern the injury could be significant — as in torn ACL significant.
Wilson’s injury is exactly the kind of nightmare scenario every head coach dreads and weighs when deciding whether to use quarterbacks and other front-line players in preseason games, whose value has a limit in the first place because opponents usually employ pretty vanilla game plans.
McDaniel repeated Thursday that he was “pretty confident” that certain players would not play in the Dolphins’ preseason opener, and one of those sure appeared to be Tagovailoa based on the coach’s comments.
And the reason is partly to keep him safe and away from any potential injuries and partly because of the solid work he continues to do in practice, the latest example coming Thursday.
I will say that based off of the last couple practices, I’m encouraged about the idea of not playing him,” McDaniel said before practice Thursday. “But again, that remains to be seen from what happens today and again, that has nothing to do with bottom-line results offensively. It’s more how prepared he is at practice; I just want to continue to build off what he’s building on. All those things, there’s certain players that I feel pretty confident might not play, but I do not get ahead of myself. I did talk to the team this morning about it and as far as they’re concerned, everybody is expected to be prepared to play, but there’ll certainly be players that don’t, which today will have a good impact on.”
If Thursday was a test of sorts, Tua passed it with flying colors again.
Last summer, Tua played three series in the preseason opener against Chicago, played the entire first half in the second game against Atlanta, and was among the many starters who sat out the finale at Cincinnati.
On the one hand, the Dolphins do have a new offense and maybe some game action would be good before the real thing starts Sept. 11 against New England, but on the other, there really is no need to expose him to any potential injury. And, besides, Tua got way more reps in the two joint practices against the Bucs this week than he would figure to get in a limited appearance Saturday.
McDaniel did say the likelihood was that Tua would make a preseason appearance at some point, and the game against Las Vegas at Hard Rock Stadium next weekend would seem like a logical time to do it.
“Yeah, I would be surprised if he didn’t (play at all in the preseason),” McDaniel said. “That being said, I honestly try to take it day by day and not get ahead of myself because if you start thinking that way, then you can start creating reasons to fit what your agenda is. I understand the value of doing both things. There’s tremendous value in preserving and going through that rep, but that’s why I don’t spend time that far out. It’s in the immediate. But yeah, I’d be surprised if we didn’t get some of that done before the regular season starts.”
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WHAT ABOUT HILL, HOWARD AND ARMSTEAD?
When McDaniel mentions “certain players” not likely to play, the focus automatically shifts to the players on the roster who have a Pro Bowl or more on their resume, and that would be Tyreek Hill, Xavien Howard, Terron Armstead and Melvin Ingram III.
With Armstead coming off offseason knee surgery, there’s certainly an argument to be made for sitting him out the entire preseason, and in the case of the other players, it’s not like they really need to preseason game reps.
“To me, I feel like I need to work, but whatever Coach sees fit for this team,” Hill said Thursday. “I came here to play ball. Football is football to me, so if I’m out there in the preseason I’m going to give 110 (percent).”
As reference, Hill, Armstead, Howard and Ingram all got preseason action last year with the Chiefs, Saints, Dolphins and Steelers, respectively.
The most snaps they got in a preseason game last year were 20 for Ingram, 16 for Armstead, 14 for Hill, and 9 for Howard in the game against Atlanta.
Asked whether he feels he needs the preseason work, Armstead said Thursday: “Always. We all need work. Everybody, everybody. You never get to a place where you got it or you’re perfect. It’s a daily progression so whatever Coach feels like that is, we’re going to roll with it.”
The best guess from this vantage point is that all of them do end up getting some preseason snaps, but they will be limited and they probably will come against Las Vegas on Aug. 20.
WHAT ABOUT WILSON AND THE JETS?
If the injury to Wilson proves as severe as feared, the immediate question is going to turn to what the Jets will do at quarterback.
One option would be to turn to veteran Joe Flacco as the new starter, another would be to talk to the San Francisco 49ers about a trade for Jimmy Garoppolo, who the team already has said is done as its starter.
There’s an obvious connection with Garoppolo, that being Robert Saleh, who was defensive coordinator in San Francisco before he became Jets head coach. And the Jets offensive coordinator, Mike LaFleur, was Garoppolo’s QB coach with the 49ers from 2017-20.
The Jets severely upgraded their roster in the offseason after their 4-13 finish in 2021, but quarterback remained a question mark after Wilson’s very uneven rookie season.
That position remains a question mark, but for a potentially different, more significant reason.
