When can Tua Tagovailoa return and what’s next for the Dolphins?

In 2023, Tua Tagovailoa, the quarterback for the Miami Dolphins had the privilege of playing in an entire season without any injury in the NFL. He finished first in the NFL in passing yards and orchestrated the top-ranked offense in the league to an 11-win season and a wild-card playoff spot.

The Dolphins helped him become a multimillionaire who signed a four-year and $ 212.1 million extension this offseason with a vision that they would all improve as a team in 2024.

With Tua Tagovailoa’s near-miraculous performance in the 2023 season behind them. The staff brought the best of them in front of Tua Tagovailoa hammering a clarion call during the sat season. For the entirety of the Week 2 loss to the Buffalo Bills, Tagovailoa jostled a third piecing cringe upon his head. He was put away days later with an injury reserve.

The Dolphins prevailed 24-3 in the absence of Tannehill to the Seattle Seahawks, which was their first game without the player. QB Skylar Thompson managed only 107 yards of passing while getting knocked out from the game with a rib injury, after huge loads of beating and thuggish tackling in the middle of the third quarter. His alternative Tim Boyle went 7÷13 for 79 yards himself. The offense could get a total of 205 yards from the scrimmage, which is approximately 200 short of the average stats from the season in 2023.

Miami Dolphins Tua Tagovailoa

The Dolphins have just completed three out of seventeen games in the season but they are right in the middle of a tough AFC conference. With Tua Tagovailoa out for at least the next three games, the forecast is not so bright for Miami’s offense even though the hard work put in has paid some dividends.

Having the Tennessee Titans, New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, and Arizona Cardinals in the mix before traveling to the Bills on November 3 is a good thing at the start of the Dolphins season. However, this is likely to be a problem concerning the Quarterback who is undoubtedly going to limit the most costly wide receiver room (worth up to $ 48.7 million) group within the NFL and hampers this offense as a whole.

With a future still in Tagovailoa’s wordings leaving the Dolphins and possibly returning to American football again, here is what we know regarding the positions he and the most sought-after club.

Tua Tagovailoa was present at the Dolphins game this past weekend which was held in Seattle, for how long is he out of the game due to the injury reserve list and what are the obstacles that they must overcome to perform again?

By the NFL regulations, a player who is on injured reserve must be absent in at least four of his team’s next games Tagovailoa still has three games to go. The Dolphins play the Tennessee Titans and New England Patriots over the next two weeks before their Week 6 bye. The last game of that stretch is at the Indianapolis Colts on Oct. 20.

McDaniel

McDaniel evaporated the idea of sticking a timeline on Tua Tagovailoa’s return to his five earlier reiteration. The Dolphins are not in any rush to let their franchise quarterback get back to business.

McDaniel noticed last week that “the wonderful thing about IR is there are no timelines – for a month only.” I say this a lot but I don’t think that people quite appreciate it; if you timetable on the information you have today, how much of whatever goes on is fulfilling the prophecy of that timetable. And is that such a good thing? Particularly with competitors and stuff, sometimes you can do more damage than good. As regards, but will it work or not?

“Being able to not worry about any timelines is pretty liberating for him as a human being to recuperate from injury, and this is irrefutably the only motivating factor that you have when you are working with players surrounding their careers and the injuries they sustain.”

Tua Tagovailoa

If Tagovailoa is medically cleared for participation, taking into consideration the information retrieved so far, how do the Dolphins see his future this season and going forward?

Although they are intent on him recovering fully, the Dolphins have not gone on record to say that Tua Tagovailoa will not be their starting quarterback for as long as his performance makes him deserving of the position.

What must be modified though is the way that he defends himself in the future.

Tagovailoa’s most recent concussion was sustained when he came into contact with Bills defender Damar Hamlin and tried to reach a first down. That is not what he has been taught. He specifically reconfirmed in October that Tua Tagovailoa ran with the ball, rather than steamed through on click ‘slide and remained on the bench’.

Tagovailoa stated, “I had my coaches telling me, ‘We don’t ever want you to [initiate contact.]'” “Of course, I get that, coming off of the injury and what had happened prior with the concussion. But to me, it’s football. You go out there, and for me, I can see the first down in some instances, and I want to do all that I can to go and get it.”

McDaniel remarked before the third-week game in the season in Miami that he appreciates what might lead a player to run into contact during a run, but he neither approves of nor permits his quarterbacks to do so.

McDaniel remarked

“As much as I love the competitive nature and the will to battle for every inch I have to say that I do not teach quarterbacks the art of running through defenders,” McDaniel proclaimed. “However, when you play such a game where people are trying to take you to the ground, you tend to get carried away sometimes. It’s not something I find myself examining that much as I do try to keep to the lessons learned and be able to tell somebody, ‘So what can you do about it next time?’ It’s not self-correction – I still believe the same way. That is well, maybe in this case, learning the line of scrimmage and avoiding the tackle by putting in place or something.”

If he is not deemed fit to play again and is not cleared medically, what are the monetary obligations that the Dolphins have towards Tua Tagovailoa? How would this affect their salary cap? What if he is medically cleared to play but decides to retire, how does that figure change?

Tagovailoa’s contract extension will pay him $167.1 million in equity, with $93.1 million already paid out. Should he never be medically cleared to play, he will still be paid in full for the entire $167.1 million. In that sense, the Dolphins have cover for Tagovailoa’s contract for a maximum of $49.3 million, though it is unclear if such policies cover player concussions.

Speaking to ESPN, two insurance industry sources without direct access to Miami’s policy said that the sources’ experience working with insurance carriers leads them to expect that Tagovailoa’s concussions would be a noncovered injury in the policy.

Tagovailoa

If Tagovailoa does step down because he has been given medical clearance to do so, he will lose his entire postponed guarantee. The concussion cases were completely expanded, taking neither the team nor the player’s concerns into consideration. There was the most likely resolution that Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins would reach a nice arrangement — the team relaxing its efforts to recover the signing bonus of Tagovailoa for $42 million. Speaking to ESPN, one NFL consulting source who did not have any direct knowledge of the Dolphins’ strategy assumed that if Tagovailoa were to decide to retire then after the end of the season, the Dolphins may advise him to do it after June 1, thus non excluding them 8.4 million cap charge in 2025 all towards the end of the plan. Out of that total, the remaining $25.2 million would go to the 2026 salary cap management.

The outcome that the source labeled as the ‘most probable answer’ would, if Tua Tagovailoa were to call it a career, have the Dolphins letting him retain his signing bonus and perhaps some other payment – although this would most likely be small in relative terms to his contract.

Tagovailoa along with his Dolphins teammates and coach, has not claimed that he has any intention of retiring.

Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, and De’Von

Supposing he does not play again, this would leave the Dolphins in what position?

Tagovailoa hangs up his boots and that would immediately throw out the entire chain of events in which the team positions itself as a contender for the Super Bowl. Miami understands that right now, the team was constructed to win with toys like Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, and De’Von Achane who are all under team control for several seasons. Again, the supporting cast should not mean anything without having the right quarterback in place.

Thompson, Boyle, and Tyler Huntley are the current quarterbacks for the Dolphins but if Tagovailoa fails to make a return, a veteran like Ryan Tannehill may come into Miami, or other options such as trading for a veteran like Jimmy Garoppolo or a young quarterback looking for a new situation in Bryce Young.

Having one more year left in his rookie deal, Thompson’s chances of starting the 2025 season with the Dolphins’ jersey are minimal. If Tagovailoa does not play again this season, there is a chance that Miami will draft high in the 2025 NFL draft and select a quarterback. Among the quarterbacks appealing in the 2025 draft are Colorado native Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward from Miami, and Carson Beck from Georgia.

In any case, the quarterback position would have to be dealt with in the absence of Tagovailoa. This would be a cardinal sin that cannot go unpunished especially since there have been many moves that had previously been made to push for a rebuild of the team.

Thompson Rib Injury

If Thompson comes back from the rib injury, will he start again?

This is the least seasoned quarterbacks room in years for the Miami Dolphins franchise since the drafting of Tagovailoa fifth overall in 2020. When the Dolphins signed Huntley off the Ravens practice and he was made to ensure Thompson had depth, McDaniel said that he was rather more appreciative.

Regardless, he left the door open for competition. Specifically, after Thompson and the Dolphins’ showing against Seattle in Week 3, Huntley was getting the impression that it wouldn’t be long before he was to see the field. McDaniel called Thompson’s rib “sore,” and the team anticipated learning more on Sunday.

McDaniel explained last week about Huntley’s signing, “I do think that it helps the dynamics of the room to give another guy with starting history to this team, and gives another added addition of a guy that’s a signal caller that a team can get behind.” I was happy adding — what we were able to do in the quarterback room — in adding Boyle, but I think adding Huntley is more directly to back up Skylar and then you always let competition play out when it’s out on the field, but this was a depth move, for sure.

Miami Dolphins

Miami could also look to Boyle, who has starting credentials. Thus far in his career, he has started five games for the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets in which he connected on 102 of 157 passes for 853 yards and 4 touchdowns against 9 interceptions. He made a relief appearance for Thompson and directed the Dolphins in two of the day’s longest offensive marches on Sunday.

Tagovailoa still has the opportunity to step back on the field for the remaining 11 regular season games. If Miami loses four more games and is at 1-5 when he plays again, it still has a slight chance of extending its stay in the variation rather than being relegated. Actually, with the schedule of the Packers, Jets, Texans, 49ers, Browns, and Jets again at the end of the season, it will be challenging for the Dolphins to make the playoffs for the third successive year.