Editor’s notice: This story was initially revealed Sept. 13, following Miami’s loss to Buffalo. On Tuesday, a supply confirmed to ESPN that the Dolphins are putting Tagovailoa on injured reserve.
MIAMI — After the Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa was identified with the third concussion of his NFL profession, a supply instructed ESPN on Tuesday that the quarterback can be positioned on injured reserve and be out for a minimum of 4 video games.
Tagovailoa was dominated out within the third quarter of the Dolphins’ 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Payments on Thursday after a play by which he scrambled up the center for a primary down and lowered his shoulder to provoke contact with Payments security Damar Hamlin. After Tagovailoa’s helmet made contact with Hamlin’s physique, the quarterback fell to the bottom and went right into a fencing response, a time period used to explain an individual’s arms going into an unnatural place.
Dolphins medical trainers attended to Tagovailoa for a number of minutes as gamers knelt round him. He was finally capable of stroll off the sphere and into the crew’s locker room beneath his personal energy.
From that time, Dolphins had 10 days till their subsequent sport towards the Seattle Seahawks to rule out Tagovailoa, no matter how he progresses by means of the league’s concussion protocol. They finally positioned him on IR.
He isn’t assured to return when Miami hosts the Arizona Cardinals in Week 8. The crew just isn’t dashing its just lately topped franchise quarterback again from one other traumatic head harm. Tagovailoa will search opinions from a number of impartial neurologists earlier than returning to the sphere.
When requested about Tagovailoa’s future in soccer, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel stated it was as much as the quarterback to resolve.
“So far as Tua’s profession is worried, I feel it is of utmost precedence of thoughts for Tua to talk on Tua’s profession,” McDaniel stated. “So I feel experiences are experiences. So far as I am involved, I am simply anxious concerning the human being and the place that is at everyday, and I feel I will let Tua be the champion of his personal profession and communicate on that.”
That is the primary time Miami has been pressured to play with out its beginning quarterback since 2022, when Skylar Thompson and Teddy Bridgewater began a mixed 5 video games, together with a playoff loss to the Payments. Since Tagovailoa entered the league in 2020, the Miami is 33-20 in video games he began and 7-9 in these all different QBs began, together with Thompson, Bridgewater, Jacoby Brissett and Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Based on ESPN Analysis, the Dolphins have a 19% probability to make the playoffs, which ranks thirteenth out of 16 AFC groups. Miami has a 3% probability to win the AFC East.
Here is what we find out about Tagovailoa’s scenario:
What’s Tagovailoa’s harm historical past?
Tagovailoa was a candidate to be chosen as the highest quarterback within the 2020 NFL draft throughout his last season at Alabama however suffered a hip dislocation and fracture of the posterior wall of his hip socket halfway by means of the season. He was additionally identified with a concussion and damaged nostril that 12 months.
Tagovailoa recovered in time to play for the Dolphins as a rookie however missed 5 video games throughout his first two seasons due to varied minor accidents. In 2022, he was identified with two concussions and took a 3rd hit to his head that finally led to the NFL altering its concussion protocol.
He did not miss a sport in the course of the 2023 season, nonetheless, and earned a four-year, $212.1 million contract extension in July.
What choices did Tagovailoa think about after his 2022 season?
Tagovailoa admitted to briefly contemplating retirement after conversations along with his household. Throughout an interview with “The Dan Le Batard Present” final month, he clarified that it was primarily his mom who requested him to rethink his taking part in profession.
Finally, he determined towards it and spent the 2023 offseason bulking up and coaching in a jiujitsu breakfall program to learn to fall with out hitting his head on the bottom.
Tagovailoa additionally started carrying a VICIS helmet particularly designed to restrict concussions for the wearer.
“It was like a share higher than the helmet that I had,” Tagovailoa stated in August 2023. “The whole lot issues and so I will play that share. So for those who take a look at it final 12 months, it wasn’t anybody actually hitting my head. It was actually simply the bottom.”
The coaching and helmet change appeared to assist as he performed in all of Miami’s video games final season, together with a playoff loss to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs. This offseason, Tagovailoa instructed CBS Sports activities he misplaced 14 kilos in an effort to be extra cellular.
If Tagovailoa desires to return to the sphere, what hurdles will he must clear in concussion protocol?
McDaniel stated Tagovailoa will endure thorough testing and analysis. The NFL’s return-to-participation protocol is a five-step course of that culminates in a crew’s doctor concurring with an impartial neurological marketing consultant {that a} participant can safely play once more.
Step one of the protocol is relaxation and restoration “till his indicators and signs and neurologic examination” return to “baseline standing.” The subsequent step is gentle cardio train, adopted by continued cardio train and introduction of power coaching.
A participant can return to soccer actions within the fourth step of the protocol, all of that are noncontact. The ultimate step is full clearance, as soon as the doctor and neurological marketing consultant agree the participant is prepared.
What are the Dolphins’ choices at quarterback? Will they signal one other participant?
Third-year quarterback Skylar Thompson is in line to begin. Thompson began three video games as a rookie in 2022, together with a playoff loss on the highway at Buffalo. On Monday, the Dolphins signed quarterback Tyler Huntley to be the backup. McDaniel stated the transfer so as to add Huntley “was not any direct reflection on Skylar” and was made to bolster the crew’s depth.
The opposite quarterback on the roster is Tim Boyle, who’s signed to the apply squad.
McDaniel expressed the “utmost confidence” in Thompson, who beat out veteran Mike White for the backup job this offseason — partially due to how the coach stated the crew responded each time Thompson was on the sphere.
Sunday will mark his second-ever highway begin. Dolphins linebacker Jordyn Brooks, who performed for the Seahawks for 4 seasons, stated his recommendation to Thompson for Sunday’s sport is to do not forget that his teammates are on the sphere with him, to belief on this week’s preparation and to simply play his sport.
