Tua Tagovailoa out for at least Miami’s next game
The Miami Dolphins won’t take a day-to-day approach with Tua Tagovailoa after the former Alabama All-American sustained a concussion on Thursday night.
Miami coach Mike McDaniel told reporters on Monday that Tagovailoa would not play in Sunday’s game and the Dolphins would start Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback against the New York Jets.
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“I can comfortably say that he’ll be out for this game against the Jets,” McDaniel said. “But anything beyond that, we’re just focused on making sure he’s at optimal health and then crossing that bridge, so it’s a little early for definitive timelines beyond that.”
Through four weeks of the NFL season, Tagovailoa is the league’s highest-rated passer with an efficiency rating of 109.9. He has completed 80-of-115 passes for 1,035 yards with eight touchdowns and three interceptions.
Tagovailoa was at the eye of a storm swirling around the NFL’s concussion protocol last week.
On Sept. 25, the back of Tagovailoa’s helmet bounced off the turf when he took a roughing-the-passer hit with two minutes left in the first half against the Buffalo Bills. Unsteady getting to his feet, Tagovailoa stumbled to the ground after a few steps and was sent off the field.
Tagovailoa’s behavior is listed among the signs of a potential concussion in the NFL guidelines, specifically “stumbles” and “trips/falls,” perhaps to the point of gross motor instability, a “no-go” symptom in the league’s head-trauma plan that calls for the immediate removal of the affected player to the locker room, which is what happened to Tagovailoa.
But when the second half started, the former Alabama All-American was back at quarterback for the Dolphins and helped them rally for a 21-19 victory.
In the locker room, Tagovailoa had passed his concussion test, and he later told reporters his momentary balance issue was the result of a back injury suffered earlier in the first half.
A club physician and an unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant examined Tagovailoa before he returned to the game. Last week’s game was barely over when the NFL Players Association requested an investigation to determine if all the safety barriers had been properly followed in allowing Tagovailoa to play in the second half.
Then the quarterback sustained an undeniable concussion after landing on the back of his helmet again during a sack against the Cincinnati Bengals four days after the incident in the game against Buffalo. Tagovailoa’s injury caused a break in play of about 10 minutes while he was placed on a backboard, then strapped on a stretcher before being transported to University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
“Right now, he’s in the building,” McDaniel said of Tagovailoa. “He’s had a couple of good days. But he’s just trying to go through with the proper procedure and protocols so that he’s feeling 100 percent. I know he’s going to be diligent with it. And if there’s obviously any things that are giving him issues in terms of light and those things, then we will shut that down.”
Allen Sills, the chief medical officer for the NFL, said the results of the investigation into the handling of Tagovailoa’s injuries during the Buffalo game would be made public when finished. But on Saturday, the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant was removed from that position by the NFL Players Association, which jointly funds the consultant program with the NFL.
The NFL and the NFL Players Association also issued a joint letter on Saturday that said the two groups agreed “modifications to the concussion protocol are needed to enhance player safety.”
Reports have indicated the procedure will be modified so that no player who exhibits gross motor instability will be allowed to return to a game regardless of the outcome of locker-room concussion tests.
McDaniel said when Tagovailoa would be ready to play again would not be his decision.
“It’s not one person,” McDaniel said. “It’s a collection of contributing factors, that, again, however, the league mandates their influence and the union’s representative, we’ll obviously abide by, but we’ll always have our medical opinions from our in-house guys. It’s not just one doctor. It’s a collection of people advising. And that is something that we’ll always hold ourselves accountable to.”
Miami wide receiver Tyreek Hill gave reporters an update on Tagovailoa during his Monday press conference, too.
“Tua’s fine,” the former West Alabama standout said. “I’ve had a chance to talk to him on our off days. There’s really nothing to talk about further. Tua is fine. He’s in good hands.”
With Tagovailoa going down, Cincinnati defeated the Dolphins 27-15 to drop Miami to 3-1. The Dolphins visit the Jets at noon CDT Sunday.
“I think myself, I can speak for the team, offense and defense and special teams, we’re very, very confident in Teddy Bridgewater,” McDaniel said. “It’s one of the reasons you decide to go that direction in an offseason and prioritize your backup quarterback is for these moments. We went out and signed him, and it’s been one of the better things that could have happened to us for the team’s dynamic, for his contribution in how Tua is playing and his ability to play, as well as his part in the development of Skylar (Thompson), so he’s had a big role. Everyone’s super confident in him. He’s done it before. It’s a different deal coming off the bench than starting. Teddy knows that, and he’ll be fully prepared and ready to go. I don’t think that the team will bat an eye when we lace them up on Sunday.”
McDaniel said he didn’t anticipate calling the offense much differently for Bridgewater than he did for Tagovailoa.
“You can tell (Jets coach) Robert Saleh that the entire offense is way different but the exact same,” McDaniel said. “No, I think that there are certain times where you will have a large disparity between the type of offense you run from your starter to your backup. I don’t see this being one of them. I think Teddy does a lot of very good things at the quarterback position that are similar to Tua’s strengths, and he’s done a great job within the offense, so we’ll obviously cater to certain things specifically that Teddy prefers or is comfortable with, but for the most part, the aesthetic presentation should look very similar to what it looks like now.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
