NFL viewers saw the play Sunday where it looked like quarterback Tua Tagovailoa may have suffered a concussion after he took a brutal hit from the Buffalo Bills just before halftime. Although the Miami Dolphins claim that Tagovailoa didn’t suffer a concussion, and instead that he suffered a back injury, the NFL Players Association is looking into the incident.
Regardless, Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel says the quarterback plans to play Thursday against the Cincinnati Bengals despite lingering back and ankle injuries.
Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa (back) planning to play Thursday vs. Bengals: "Doing everything I can to get back out there"https://t.co/QeoH5qbmn7 pic.twitter.com/8P0WiY1K7x
— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) September 27, 2022
McDaniel said he talked to Tagavailoa on Monday night and the young signal-caller is determined to play.
“I know if he doesn’t play, that it literally was not possible,” he said in his weekly press conference. “And we’re just taking measures accordingly for Teddy beyond that. But happy with the way he’s, so far, progressed. And feel very optimistic because of how he’s going about it.
“It’s the functionality of it because all of a sudden your back is overly tight or you feel that crazy pain — your body has a reaction process that you can all of a sudden lose power in your throws, you can’t redirect,” McDaniel added. “And once you can’t protect yourself on an NFL football field, we have to protect you. So it’s both. Yeah, there will be some pain regardless. It’s whether or not that pain hurts him from being able to put his production on the field and escape impending danger, which is part of the job of an NFL quarterback.”
The last time Joe Burrow and Tagovailoa faced each other was in college when LSU and Alabama faced each other back in 2019 with the Tigers winning and eventually winning the national title.
If Tua Tagovailoa is able to play, Thursday will be 1st matchup between Tua & Joe Burrow since November 2019 when Burrow’s LSU Tigers beat Tua’s Bama Tide in 46-41 thriller.
Burrow says he & Tua have texted each other after their injuries & “it’s exciting” to see Tua play well.
— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) September 27, 2022
It was an epic game that Tagovailoa almost missed because he was coming off an injury that season. That is probably a big reason why he has no intentions of missing this contest.
{Miami Dolphins, ProFootballTalk}
