Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill told reporters Sunday evening that he found out Tua Tagovailoa wouldn’t be playing in Week 17 “the same time as y’all.”
The Dolphins announced their decision to hold Tagovailoa out 90 minutes before kickoff of their game with the Cleveland Browns.
Which means that there was a real possibility that Tagovailoa could have played Sunday — and augurs well for his chances in Miami’s Week 18 de facto playoff game against the New York Jets.
Details on Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa’s Hip Injury
The Dolphins kept Tagovailoa out Sunday’s game after he exacerbated a hip injury he suffered in Week 15 against the Houston Texans.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel provided important context on a weird week in which Tagovailoa went from an active participant in practice to unable to play in 72 hours.
“The hip injury which he sustained in the Houston game was made worse on one particular play against the 49ers [in Week 16],” McDaniel said after the Dolphins’ 20-3 victory over the Browns.
“Then you come in and you see that the injury is a little worse, but then you try to forecast how things will heal based upon the only thing that you have to work with, which is the previous week’s forecast, you know, from the Houston game to the San Francisco game.
“So we were hoping and anticipating for a timeline similar to that. And as the week progressed we didn’t see the improvement we had hoped.”
McDaniel had Tagovailoa and Snoop Huntley split first-team reps early in the practice week, but as the game neared, Huntley was getting far more work than normal with the starters. The Dolphins downgraded Tagovailoa from questionable to doubtful on Saturday and then ruled him out Sunday afternoon.
“He absolutely wanted to play,” McDaniel said. “It wasn’t a pain tolerance thing because that’s not in the equation for him.
“… [He] was super susceptible to a much more significant injury based upon that injury if you were to fall in harm’s way. A major factor was the lack of strength due to the injury, and his inability, as we forecasted to protect himself and his teammates within the pocket and doing the things that he normally has to.”
McDaniel added that:
“Surgery is not currently on the table. … Like I said, we had reasonable, hopeful expectations for his body and he absolutely had the same expectations. To even begin to forecast this next week, I think it’s difficult because we were waiting till the last hour or so.
“He’s obviously super important to our team. It was not ideal in any way, shape or form to have a game like this and not have him available. But it was also, from a medical perspective, not an option for him to play.
“We’ll be hopeful for that, you know, as we progress, but I can’t even lean one way or the other, really. So we’ll see what the world has in store for us.”
With Tagovailoa sidelined, the Dolphins needed Huntley to play well to keep their playoff hopes alive. He did, posting career highs in completion percentage (84.6%), passer rating (115.5), and yards per attempt (8.7).
If Tagovailoa doesn’t improve enough to play in Miami’s season finale, it will again be up to Huntley to keep the Dolphins’ playoff hopes alive. With a win and a Broncos loss to the Chiefs, they would return to the playoffs for the third straight season.