MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Here’s the worst part of Wednesday: You know what the Miami Dolphins have to do this offseason. You don’t know if they’ll actually do it, because, well, look at their past 20 years of wrong-way quarterback decisions.
It’s tough enough that Tua Tagovailoa will miss Sunday’s playoff game in Buffalo, that he’ll have to deal with his two (or three) concussions from this season and he’ll have a decision to make coming up about playing football next year — if, in fact, it’s a decision at all.
Lots of top players have had concussions. Name one who has quit after one season of suffering them.
You can expect Tagovailoa to return next season, full of hope and good attitude, unless there’s more medical risk than known or a far bigger surprise than Wednesday’s news that he’ll miss this playoff game.
It’s the Dolphins with the decision to make. They can’t allow themselves to be in this position again. They can’t ignore the constant injury risk of a player the franchise depends on, especially when it now involves head trauma.
So, they’ll need to find another quarterback to compete with Tagovailoa at the very least. It’s odd to be writing this with one game left this year — and the biggest game in six Dolphins seasons.
But look where we are. Tagovailoa is out. Backup Teddy Bridgewater might not play with a dislocated finger. That makes seventh-round rookie Skylar Thompson the practicing starter being asked to face what’s waiting in Buffalo. There have been bigger upsets. They involve a slingshot, though.
Look around the NFL, too. Here are the six other AFC quarterbacks in the playoffs: Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, Buffalo’s Josh Allen, the Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert, Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence and Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson (if healthy).
Mahomes is the best and the oldest of the group. He’s 27. So for the next decade, this is the group the Dolphins will have to go through in the AFC.
Would you take Tagovailoa’s future over any of them, especially now with the health concerns? You can say that and still feel for Tagovailoa, too. How can you not?
“Conflicting,’’ was the word Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel used to describe Tagovailoa’s reaction to being ruled out of this game. “He, himself, is learning that he needs to listen to the advice of doctors and medical professionals.
“He understands the severity of doing that, so there’s a little bit of things that he can’t control. He was an incredible part of the entire season. I think eight of our wins were as a result of him playing quarterback, amongst the team, and that did not come because it was just gifted.”
McDaniel had his part in that, too. Besides winning, his prime task this season was to rehabilitate Tagovailoa’s game to tell this franchise what they have. All the necessary information is laid before general manager Chris Grier.
Tagovailoa was dynamic in the second-half comeback against Baltimore and through the month of November. He led comebacks, threw big and was mentioned in MVP polls. He showed what he can do when all the pieces around him are functioning well during the five-game win streak. He was, for instance, sacked just twice in those 4 1/2 games.
He was sacked by San Francisco’s Nick Bosa three times on the first game of December and missed open receivers all day. Coincidence? Something to outgrow? That started a late-season slide that ended with his second (or third) concussion against Green Bay, a four-game losing streak — and now missing the final three games.
Here’s what we know: Tagovailoa is a leader, highly accurate and a quick read of finding the right receiver. We also know he’s small and slow, and that’s not a good combination when you’re being chased by lions on the Serengeti plains.
“There’s a place for the small player,’’ as coach Buddy Ryan once said. “It’s just not in front of the big player.”
So what does Grier do with all this information? That’s the question, because this is a front office whose plan dating back to the draft of DeVante Parker in 2015 is to cross its fingers involving players with health risks. Parker, like left tackle Terron Armstead now, had constant health issues.
It’s not easy to get competition for Tagovailoa ― or replace him, if that option can be found. Baltimore’s Jackson? His situation is up in the air even before getting to the cost. Las Vegas’ departing quarterback, Derek Carr. Not interested? How about San Francisco’s Jimmy Garoppolo? Yeah, another injury case.
Can everyone pretend last offseason’s embarrassing recruitment of Tom Brady didn’t happen? (And maybe return the draft pick the league took from the Dolphins?)
See, it won’t be easy finding someone to compete with, or replace, Tagovailoa. It won’t be fun or fair, either, being so cold-hearted. But is it fun going to Buffalo this weekend with a seventh-round rookie in the prime position?
The mission, coming up, is not to be in this position again.
