McDaniel: "Tua Very Unlikely To Play"

In no surprise, if you read this website, Mike McDaniel confirmed on Friday morning that Miami Dolphins starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is very unlikely to play vs the Jets on Sunday. As I have stated since early this week, the Dolphins have shut down Tua for the remainder of the 2024 season (which only extends if Miami sneaks into the playoffs).

But even if Miami does make the playoffs, Tua will not play in the playoff game.

The hip injury is more serious than they are letting on, and Mike McDaniel did confirm again Tua does not need surgery on his hip.

This injury though is something to monitor heading into the offseason, but there was and is zero chance he will play again this season no matter how long the season goes for Miami. Even if Miami gets into the playoffs and wins multiple games, Tua’s 2024 season is over. And when you factor in both Austin Jackson and Terron Armstead are out with injuries; they don’t want to risk a quarterback with a hip injury who has limited mobility behind a poor pass-blocking offensive line. Another hit to the hip may risk Tua’s 2025 season and playing for the Dolphins.

Dolphins plan to start QB Snoop Huntley vs. Jets. Tua Tagovailoa “very unlikely” to play with hip injury, HC Mike McDaniel tells reporters.

— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) January 3, 2025

As I stated on Monday, the Dolphins have been dropping hints that Tua’s season is over.

McDaniel, after the game on Sunday, said: “Surgery is not currently on the table. I mean, aren’t you talking about next year? It’s hard to forecast next year. C’mon – calendar joke? Like I said, we had reasonable, hopeful expectations for his body, and he absolutely had the same expectations. So, to even begin to forecast this next week is difficult because we were waiting until the last hour. Ultimately, he is 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 as we progress. I can’t even lean one way or the other really. We’ll see what the world has in store for us.”

Surgery?

The first words out of McDaniel’s mouth when asked about Tua was to mention surgery?

If surgery isn’t on the table, that tells you it was considered and ruled out if you read between the lines.

On Monday, McDaniel was again asked by the media who is making the final call on whether Tua plays or not. McDaniel said: “Well, I think with injuries it’s pretty cut and dry – 100 times out of 100, if someone’s not medically cleared to play, I don’t trump card that. I suppose, on game day, I guess by the letter of the law you could say it’s my final say. My final say is to choose to listen to the medical professionals with their expertise and knowing the pros and cons and that’s the only thing responsible to do with players. And then realistically, those conversations, Chris (Grier) and I get debriefed and sometimes more than other times depending on the injury in question, but that with our medical team and the doctors that are experts in the field, but to play for the Miami Dolphins, you have to have medical clearance to do so and when doctors tell you that a player is not safe to play football, we don’t ever deviate off of that. That would be extremely irresponsible on my part.”

For those fans who still don’t want to believe Tua is truly hurt and he “may come back and play this week vs. the Jets or if alive next week in the playoffs,” McDaniel gave more insight, stating on Saturday things looked bleak for Tua, and on Sunday, there was no chance he could play.

McDaniel said: “You get updates all week and you’re trying to figure out what it’s going to look like. Saturday, it looked bleak, but officially with zero ambiguity on Sunday morning, we knew. But that was based upon Saturday information that, ‘all right, it’s going to have to really take a turn,’ and when we saw it didn’t, it didn’t.”

McDaniel went on to say that Tyler Huntley will get the majority of the reps this week in practice, which is code for us getting him ready to be the starter vs. the Jets.

McDaniel also said that the risk of Tua playing with this injury is he would be put at risk of a “significant injury.”

And we should expect that is going to heal in a week or two? Please don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.

I was born at night, but not last night.

When you start to put the pieces of this puzzle together, what we see is that the Dolphins are really shutting Tua down for the season because of this hip injury.

Folks, the Dolphins are all but saying without saying Tua is hurt really bad and not close to being healthy enough or medically cleared to play. This seems like an injury that may take weeks or months or maybe even surgery to fix.

Realistically, Miami only has one game left because the odds of Denver losing to Kansas City’s backups are slim and none, so there is no need to make a bold move like putting Tua on IR to end his season. They can just have him be inactive and call up Skylar Thompson as the backup.

But even if Miami catches every break and does get into the playoffs and has to travel to Buffalo in a week to face the Bills, from all indications, Tua will not play in that game.

McDaniel is throwing out the word surgery, talking about how his mobility is limited and that they don’t want him to be a sitting duck behind the offensive line (which is laughable considering he has been a sitting duck behind the offensive line since the day he was drafted), and how Huntley is taking the majority of the reps in practice.

You don’t need to be Scooby Doo to solve this mystery, and that is Miami has shut down Tua for the rest of the 2024 season. Without actually publically saying he has been shut down for the rest of the 2024 season.