Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered another concussion last night in his team's 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Thursday Night Football. The injury occurred in the third quarter on a scramble by Tagovailoa, when he collided head-first with Bills safety Damar Hamlin. Tua immediately fell to the ground and assumed a fencing posture. Tagovailoa was quickly ruled out with a concussion, which is at least the fourth of his football career going back to his time at Alabama.
Obviously the health of Tagovailoa is the most important thing here and for the good of his quality of life Tua should probably seriously consider retiring from the NFL before the repeated head injuries can do any more damage than they already have.
That said, there is still a season going on and as it happens the Seattle Seahawks are next up on the schedule for the Dolphins, who will visit Lumen Field next Sunday afternoon. Here's how Miami head coach Mike McDaniel responded today when asked if Tagovailoa would go on injured reserve, according to Alanis Thames at the Associated Press.
Mike McDaniel on Tua Tagovailoa
"I literally will not know any sort of anything, either way. That's how we're operating. As if we know nothing, because we don't... I don't see how he could play in the next game, but who am I to judge. I think it's a fair assessment to be prepared to have three quarterbacks on our roster for the next game, we'll need to add one for the next game."
Last night it was Skyler Thompson who took over at quarterback for the Dolphins after Tagovailoa was ruled out. Down the stretch he went 8/14 for 80 passing yards, no touchdowns, no picks, one sack and a 73.5 passer rating.
At least for now, we should probably project that Thompson will be starting next week for Miami against the Seahawks - assuming Tagovailoa is not available. We will keep posting updates on Tua's condition as the game approaches next week.
Needless to say, Miami's offense will take a serious hit if Tagovailoa can't play. McDaniel is one of the better offensive minds in the game right now and last season the Dolphins led the NFL in scoring at 29.2 points per game. However, as long as Tua is sidelined it's difficult to see them approaching anything near that average. Meanwhile, most advanced stats indicate that the new-look Seahawks defense is the meanest in the league this year.
There are currently no odds posted for next week's game at Draft Kings Sportsbook and there likely won't be until we know about Tagovailoa's status. For what it's worth, the Seahawks opened as two-point underdogs against the Dolphins when the schedule came out.
