McDaniel: Focus first on Tua’s health, not career

Marcel Louis-Jacques, ESPNSep 13, 2024, 12:26 PM ET

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MIAMI — Roughly 12 hours after Tua Tagovailoa was diagnosed with his third concussion in two years, Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel pleaded with fans and media members to allow his quarterback to focus on his health before discussing his career.

Speaking to local media Friday morning, McDaniel said he “totally understands” people’s concern about Tagovailoa’s health, but insisted that placing pressure and anxiety on the quarterback to make a decision about retiring is not what’s best for him right now.

“I think it would be so wrong of me to even sniff that subject, and it’s more in line of actually caring about the human being,” McDaniel said. “You’re talking about his career — his career is his … I just wish that people would for a second hear what I’m saying, that bringing up his future is not in the best interest of him. So, I’m going to plead with everybody that does genuinely care that that should be the last thing on your mind because you don’t, what do you think?”

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Tagovailoa suffered a hit to the head during Thursday night’s loss to the Buffalo Bills when he lowered his shoulder into Bills safety Damar Hamlin. Tagovailoa’s helmet made forcible contact with Hamlin’s arm, prompting a fencing response — a term used to describe a person’s arms going into an unnatural position — as a stunned crowd at Hard Rock Stadium let out a collective gasp. Tagovailoa remained on the field for several minutes, but was able to walk off the field and into the locker room under his own power.

He was almost immediately ruled out for the remainder of the game with a concussion.

McDaniel said Tagovailoa was still asleep when he tried to call him roughly an hour before speaking with the media at 10 a.m. E.T. and had not yet undergone further testing and evaluation. When asked about the severity of Tagovailoa’s injury, McDaniel again insisted that he is not focused on any sort of return to participation timeline.

“I’m not assessing the injury through the lens of like, ‘Alright, so what does this mean for him playing?'” McDaniel said. “I’m not trying to even look at, okay, well how serious is this relative to his past ones? I know the facts are that it’s important that he gets healthy day by day … the best thing I can do is not try to assess what this even means from a football standpoint.”

Tagovailoa was diagnosed with two concussions during the 2022 season and took a third hit to the head that led to the NFL altering its concussion protocol, specifically with how they’re reported and evaluated.

He is currently in the NFL’s return to participation protocol, although McDaniel said his message to Tagovailoa was that everyone was “counting on him to be a dad” this weekend, and that they’d figure the rest out later.

The Dolphins don’t play for another 10 days when they face the Seattle Seahawks in their first road game of the season. McDaniel declined to speculate as to whether Tagovailoa would be placed on injured reserve but did say the team had begun the process of bringing in another quarterback.

McDaniel suggested that third-year quarterback Skylar Thompson would be the Dolphins’ starter without a healthy Tagovailoa — who he said is a safe bet not to play against the Seahawks, although his opinion will not be the driving force in the decision.

“The only two opinions that really matter that are the absolute driving force for what we’re doing at that position: Tua and the doctors,” McDaniel said. “If I am a betting man, I’m guessing that those two people — I don’t see how he would play in the next game. I don’t see it, but who am I to know or judge? But I think it’s a fair assessment to be prepared to have three quarterbacks on a roster for the next game, that we’ll need to add one for that game.

“But again, I have no idea, and I’m not going to all of a sudden start making decisions. I don’t even see myself involved in the most important parts of those.”

Multiple former NFL players expressed on social media their opinion that Tagovailoa should retire, including Dez Bryant, Ben Watson and Tony Gonzalez.

While he didn’t address anyone specifically, McDaniel explained why he will refrain from voicing his opinion on Tagovailoa’s future.

“If I were to answer that question, I’d be like, ‘Alright, this is my thoughts on his career,'” he said. “And he reads it — if he agreed with it or he disagreed with it, either way I’ve just made him worse … I don’t think it’s appropriate simply because of my caring and regard. And I don’t think those types of conversations when you’re talking about somebody’s career, I think it probably is only fair that their career should be set by them.”

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