Mike McDaniel hadn’t spoken to Tua Tagovailoa Friday morning when he met with reporters just hours after the Miami Dolphins quarterback suffered his fourth diagnosed concussion in the last five years.
So McDaniel was loath to speculate either way about the severity of Tagovailoa’s latest head injury, which has renewed a national debate on whether Tua should retire.
Miami Dolphins Provide Update on Tua Tagovailoa
McDaniel said that any conversations about Tagovailoa retiring “would be so wrong of me to even sniff that subject.”
McDaniel added: “Bringing up his future is not in the best interests of him. … To people that genuinely care, this should be the last thing on their minds.”
Still, McDaniel did allow that it does seem quite unlikely that doctors will clear Tagovailoa — and he will want to return to the field — in time for the Dolphins’ Week 3 game against the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 22.
“I don’t have any information from Tagovailoa or the doctors,” McDaniel said. “[But] I don’t see how he would play in the next game. I don’t see it.”
That means the likelihood is near 100% that the Dolphins will need to add a quarterback to their roster simply to get through the next few weeks.
The only healthy QB on the 53 is Skylar Thompson, who finished Thursday night’s game against the Buffalo Bills after Tagovailoa’s injury.
“As it stands today,” McDaniel said, the Dolphins expect Thompson to start in Seattle but plan to bring in another arm.
However, if it becomes clear that the Dolphins will be without Tagovailoa for an extended period of time, it certainly seems possible that the Dolphins would entertain bringing in someone like Ryan Tannehill, who has a track record of success in the NFL, to compete with Thompson.
Everything McDaniel said was with the condition that his opinion on Tua’s healthy isn’t what matters. But it’s fair to come away from the conversation optimistic that this wasn’t the worst concussion Tua has suffered.
“There was no discussion of him not walking off the field and he was highly communicative and in the locker room with the trainers and the doctors,” McDaniel said.
“So I think relative to some other times, I guess you could black and white assess that. The people that matter the most and their opinions are Tua and, and the doctors, the experts and both of those, those people, I called him about an hour ago. He’s still asleep so I haven’t talked to him. They should be meeting here shortly for the first after-action time spent with the experts.”
As for what he told Tua in a private moment as Tagovailoa came off the field Thursday night?
“I told him he’s the starting quarterback of his family. And to go in the locker room, take a deep breath, and I’ll see you soon.”