Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is seeing “several outside specialists” as he continues to cope with a concussion suffered in Week 4 against the Cincinnati Bengals, coach Mike McDaniel said Friday.
McDaniel said the team is still gathering information about the third-year quarterback’s condition and isn’t ready — yet — to put him on injured reserve. Placement on the list would require him to miss at least four games, and McDaniel said Tagovailoa would not go on the IR “today or tomorrow.”
Tagovailoa will not travel north for Sunday’s game at the New York Jets. Veteran Teddy Bridgewater will start, with rookie Skylar Thompson backing him up.
The Dolphins set off a firestorm when Tagovailoa was allowed back in the game in Week 3 against the Buffalo Bills after he appeared to suffer a head injury, but the Dolphins later said he hurt his back. Since then, the doctor who cleared Tagovailoa to return to that game was fired by the NFL Players Association.
Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, said last week that Tagovailoa was checked for concussion symptoms every day between the games against the Bills and Bengals before an independent neurologist cleared him to take the field on Sept. 29 in Cincinnati.
The 24-year-old quarterback hit his head on the turf while being sacked by Bengals nose tackle Josh Tupou. Tagovailoa remained on the ground for roughly 12 minutes before he was carted off the field on a stretcher and eventually taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with a concussion and neck injury.
Since then, the NFL and the players association agreed on a revised concussion protocol, but the timing of when to implement the protocol remains a sticking point. The NFLPA released a statement Friday afternoon saying it wants the modified protocol to take effect before Sunday’s games.
“Our union has agreed to change the concussion protocols to protect players from returning to play in the case of any similar incident to what we saw on September 25,” the statement said. “We would like these changes to go into effect before this weekend’s games to immediately protect the players and hope the NFL accepts the change before then as well.”
In relief of Tagovailoa in Cincinnati, Bridgewater was 14-for-23 passing for 193 yards with a touchdown and an interception in the 27-15 loss.
–Field Level Media
