Thursday night was once again awful. Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered another concussion in a loss to the Buffalo Bills, marking several incidents that have left him in a state of extreme vulnerability on the national stage.
Tagovailoa needs to sit out for a while. For his own health, for the health of his family, and to give him serious time to figure out what the next step in his career is. Having suffered three diagnosed concussions since the 2022 season – and another blow to the head that ultimately led to the league changing its safety protocols – the severity of those concussions only makes him more susceptible to accumulating more of them in the future. That’s a fact he, the Dolphins, and his loved ones will have to come to terms with behind closed doors.
Unfortunately, there is also the cold, hard truth for the Dolphins: The season is not over for anyone and they must find a viable option – fast.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel discussed the possibility of signing another quarterback in his press conference on Friday morning.
“That started last night,” McDaniel said. “I think the best way to express where we are right now is that the team and the organization have a lot of confidence in (backup quarterback) Skylar Thompson. … Regardless, we’re going to bring somebody in.”
The Dolphins have already seen the Skylar Thompson show, and it isn’t pretty. Thompson has largely seemed outclassed at the NFL level, which won’t help a team that now faces an uphill battle in its own division.
There aren’t many options at this point in the season. Miami could sign former Dolphin Ryan Tannehill, who is currently a free agent. He’s probably the only realistic starting option on the market. Besides him, the Dolphins are likely looking at Brian Hoyer, Blaine Gabbert and AJ McCarron as possible reinforcements for their backup QB situation. A better option might be trading for a backup like Jameis Winston or Russell Wilson to stabilize that position, but it takes two to tango. These are the options. It’s Week 2 of the regular season. It’s not supposed to be pretty.
This Dolphins team is set up to win now, and it’s tough to throw away a huge chunk of the season for Thompson when no one on the planet knows when or if Tagovailoa will return to the field. McDaniel even said Friday morning that he’s not putting a timetable on it.
Two things can be true at once: The Dolphins can love, respect and care deeply about Tagovailoa because they’re giving him the freedom to make a decision about his professional future – and they also have to come up with a Plan B in record time. As Thursday night showed, the Bills are currently way ahead of the Dolphins and they can’t afford to lose games if they want to have any chance of stealing the AFC East title from Buffalo.
With all of this, it’s important to note that McDaniel seemed primarily concerned with Tagovailoa’s health, which is objectively the most important part of the matter. There will be a million NFL games in the coming years, but Tagovailoa only has one chance to make sure his post-football life is as healthy and fulfilling as possible.
“I’m not going to do anything that makes things worse or hurts any of our players,” McDaniel said. “There are a lot of people who have a vested interest in the Miami Dolphins, but questioning timelines – that’s scary.”
McDaniel also said it’s not in his best interest to speculate about Tagovailoa’s future now, which is true. Tagovailoa needs to get healthy first, no matter how long that takes.
This is a big mess for the Dolphins, but the priorities couldn’t be clearer: give Tagovailoa as much time as he needs to recover and make a decision, And Immediately look for a backup quarterback who will give them a chance to win some games.
