The Miami Dolphins suffered a season-ending playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday afternoon in a game that quarterback Tua Tagovailoa missed due to another concussion. Tagovailoa’s multiple concussions have led to questions about whether the team can count on him as their starting quarterback of the future, considering there are legitimate questions about whether he should even play football again. But it sounds like head coach Mike McDaniel plans to stick with him.
During the postgame press conference, Mike McDaniel was asked about the future of Tua Tagovailoa, and he made it clear he intends to “embrace him” when he’s fully healthy.
“You guys know how I feel about Tua and that hasn’t changed at all,” McDaniel told reporters. “I see, I think we all see him as the leader of this team and when it’s appropriate for him to lead the team, I will jump on that opportunity. He’s a great player with only improvement in front of him as well. We’re talking about a 24-year-old quarterback that I think when I signed up for this job, I spent six months trying to convince people that he was good. So the fact that people are – the fact that Las Vegas saw it as a four-point swing when it was announced that he was – it means that, he’s a — yes, this is a challenging time for him, yes, his health is of primary importance, but I would be a fool to not embrace him when he’s healthy and ready to go. We’ll all be excited for that.”
This is a big statement, considering Tom Brady has been rumored to be interested in joining the Dolphins this offseason. We’ll see how committed McDaniel really is to Tagovailoa if that’s true.
