Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa won’t play Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 6. But if all goes to plan, it’ll be the last game he misses due to the scary concussion suffered 16 days ago.
Tagovailoa has cleared the concussion protocol and is expected to play in Week 7, Pro Football Network has confirmed.
The Dolphins’ opponent that game: Brian Flores and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Flores, the ex-Dolphins head coach who had a fraught relationship with Tagovailoa during their time together, is a defensive assistant on Mike Tomlin’s staff.
Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa Clears Concussion Protocol
Tagovailoa has made a swift and encouraging recovery from a head injury that hospitalized him on Sept. 29. He returned to practice this week, and was able to participate fully on Friday — which is a leading indicator of a player about to be phased out of the protocol.
Even with that significant progress, however, the Dolphins elected to keep him out of action for another week.
Skylar Thompson will start Sunday. Teddy Bridgewater will back him up after also clearing concussion protocol late this week.
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As ESPN first reported, the Dolphins and Tagovailoa’s camp took steps that far exceeded the league’s mandate to make sure it is safe for him to return to action.
NFL Network reported Saturday that Tagovailoa met with brain specialists in both Detroit and Pittsburgh over the past two weeks.
Per ESPN, he received four outside opinions who “unanimously agreed that his scans showed no signs of long-term impact to the brain.”
The team’s decision to start Thompson over an available Tagovailoa and Bridgewater is a one-week scenario. Assuming all three are healthy and available next week, Tua will start, Teddy will back up and Skylar will likely be inactive.
“Teddy has been No. 2 forever,” McDaniel said Friday. “We decided to start Skylar because we knew it was best for the team in terms of having the week to prepare and all of those things. Nothing has chanced. The team really believes in all three quarterbacks. That’s one thing we’ve been fortunate that we talked about since the preseason is the luxury to have three quarterbacks at your disposal.”
Prior to getting hurt, Tagovailoa was having the best season of his young career. He had thrown eight touchdowns and just three interceptions with a passer rating of 109.9.