After Buffalo defeated Miami 31-10 in the NFL’s Week 2 Thursday night game, Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez, in his role as a Prime Video analyst, said it should be the final one of Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s career.
Tagovailoa sustained a concussion during the contest, triggering flashbacks to 2022, when a pair of concussions caused the former Alabama All-American to miss five games.
But after Thursday night’s game, Miami coach Mike McDaniel described Tagovailoa as being “in good spirits.”
Tagovailoa started all 18 games for Miami last season, but the latest concussion renewed concerns about the quarterback’s long-term health.
“For me to go ahead and forecast things that are in my non-field of expertise, I don’t think that’s appropriate,” McDaniel said when asked after the game if he thought it was safe for Tagovailoa to continue to play. “I think we’ll find out some more information tomorrow in terms of where Tua’s at. He’ll be able to spend a good amount of time being evaluated, and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate.”
Tagovailoa left the game with 4:24 remaining in the third quarter. He walked to the locker room unaided.
Tagovailoa sustained the concussion when he scrambled for 6 yards on a fourth-and-4 snap from the Buffalo 13-yard line. Tagovailoa did not slide at the end of the run, and after being tackled by Bills safety Damar Hamlin, the quarterback did not get up until he had been attended to by the Miami training staff.
McDaniel said Tagovailoa was able to go home after the game but not until “he went around the locker room and connected with (teammates) as a leader just trying to keep the guys’ heads up.”
Concerns about Tagovailoa and concussions are heightened by what happened to the quarterback in 2022.
On Sept. 29, 2022, in another Thursday night game, Tagovailoa was slammed to the ground during a sack. That time, the quarterback did not get up, but was placed on a stretcher, loaded into an ambulance on the field and taken to a nearby medical center in Cincinnati.
Tagovailoa missed the next two games before clearing the NFL’s concussion protocol.
In a Christmas game against the Green Bay Packers later in the 2022 season, Tagovailoa threw three interceptions in the fourth quarter of a 26-22 loss. The next day, the Dolphins determined Tagovailoa had a concussion. He missed Miami’s final two regular-season games and its playoff contest.
“Every situation is unique to its own,” McDaniel said when asked if Tagovailoa’s past concussions would affect how the Dolphins handled this one. “For me, I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands. I’m just worried about the human being, and he’ll drive the ship when we get the appropriate information.”
After the 2022 season, Tagovailoa said he had considered retiring because of the concussions.
“I think I considered it for a time,”Tagovailoa said on April 19, 2023, “having sat down with my family, having sat down with my wife and having those kind of conversations. But really it would be hard for me to walk away from this game with how old I am, with my son – I always dreamed of playing as long as I could so my son knew exactly what he was watching his dad do.
“I mean, it’s my health, it’s my body, and I feel like this is what’s best for me and my family. I love the game of football, and if I didn’t, I would have quit a long time (ago).”
Tagovailoa came back in 2023 to lead the NFL in passing yards.
McDaniel declined to speculation on how long Tagovailoa would be sidelined by the current concussion.
“Right now, it’s more about getting a proper procedural evaluation tomorrow and taking it one day at a time,” McDaniel said. “The furthest thing from my mind is what is the timeline. We just need to evaluate. …
“We’ll get more information tomorrow and then take it day-by-day from there.”
FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
