Thursday night was terrifying, again. Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered another concussion in a loss to the Buffalo Bills, giving him multiple incidents where he has been left in a state of extreme vulnerability on a national stage.
Tagovailoa needs to miss some time. For his own health, for the health of his family and so he can earnestly have some time to figure out what is the next step in his career. Having suffered three diagnosed concussions — and another hit to the head that ultimately led to the league changing its safety protocols — since the 2022 season with this level of severity makes him only more susceptible to accumulating more in the future. That’s a fact that he, the Dolphins and his loved ones will have to grapple with behind closed doors.
Unfortunately for the Dolphins, there’s also the cold, hard truth of the matter: The season doesn’t stop for anyone and they have to find a viable option — fast.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel spoke on the possibility of adding another quarterback in his news conference on Friday morning.
“That started late last night,” McDaniel said. “I think the way to best articulate where we’re at is the team and organization is very confident in [backup quarterback] Skylar Thompson. … That being said, we will bring in someone.”
The Dolphins have already seen the Skylar Thompson show and it’s not pretty. Thompson has largely looked outmatched 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 go and sign former Dolphin Ryan Tannehill, who currently is a free agent. He’s probably the only realistic starting option on the market. Outside of him, the Dolphins are probably looking at Brian Hoyer, Blaine Gabbert and A.J. McCarron as potential upgrades for their backup QB situation. A better option may 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 built to win now and it’s tough to just throw away a good chunk of the season on Thompson when not a soul on this planet knows when, or if, Tagovailoa will return to the field. McDaniel even said Friday morning he’s not putting a timetable on it.
Two things can be true at the same time: The Dolphins can have love, respect and deep care for Tagovailoa as they give him the bandwidth to make a decision on his professional future — and they also need to figure out a Plan B in record time. As Thursday night showed, the Bills are far ahead of the Dolphins right now and they can’t afford to start dropping games if they still wish to have a shot at catching Buffalo for the AFC East crown.
Through all of this, it’s important to note that McDaniel seemed first and foremost concerned about the health of Tagovailoa, which is objectively the most important part of this. There will be a million NFL games for years to come, but Tagovailoa has only one chance to ensure that his post-football life is as healthy and fulfilling as possible.
“I will not do anything to make things worse or hurt any of our players,” McDaniel said. “There’s a lot of people who have vested interest in the Miami Dolphins, but questioning timelines — that gives forth anxiety.”
McDaniel also opined that speculating on Tagovailoa’s future right now is not in his best interests, which is true. Tagovailoa just needs to get healthy first, no matter how long that takes.
This is a mess for the Dolphins, but the priorities couldn’t be more clear: give Tagovailoa whatever length of time he needs to heal and come to a decision, and immediately find a backup quarterback who gives them a chance to win some ballgames.