Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is not in concussion protocol but remains questionable to play in Thursday’s game against the Bengals, coach Mike McDaniel said Monday.
McDaniel revealed that his starting signal-caller was sore after the weekend’s 21–19 win over the Bills, which he said was to be expected after Tagovailoa took a hard shot from Buffalo linebacker Matt Milano while attempting a pass in the second quarter. Tagovailoa’s head hit the ground on the play and he stumbled shortly after getting back on his feet, prompting the team’s training staff to come out onto the field.
Tagovailoa left the game but returned for the start of the second half after he was cleared by the team. He finished the contest with 186 passing yards and one touchdown.
After the Dolphins improved to 3–0 on the year, Tagovailoa said that he had injured his back earlier in the game and that it “locked up” on him when he stood up after the hit from Milano, causing the stumble. He also revealed that he cleared concussion protocol.
“I kinda hit my back and kind of hurt it then I got up and that’s kind of like when I stumbled. My back kinda locked up on me,” he said, per Daniel Oyefusi of the Miami Herald. “But for the most part, I’m good, passed whatever concussion protocol they had.”
Although Tagovailoa was confident in his own health and the team’s assessment, the NFL player’s association launched an investigation into the handling of the quarterback’s concussion check, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. The result of the investigation is still unknown.
McDaniel said Monday that he’s sensitive to player safety and that the Dolphins would not have put Tagovailoa back in the game if there had been any red flags during the game.
“I don’t mess around with [player health] at all,” McDaniel said, per ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques. “Tua was pretty annoyed with me during the game when I was talking to him because he knew what hurt and couldn’t understand why people were talking to him about what they were talking about.”
Tagovailoa will look to rest up this week before undefeated Miami heads to Cincinnati for a game against last year’s Super Bowl runners-up on Thursday.
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