The Miami Dolphins don't play again until Sept. 22. But that layoff won't prevent – and might even fuel – speculation about the football future of their injured quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa.
The Pro Bowler suffered what was at least the third concussion of his five-year NFL career in Thursday night's 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills and exhibited the same "fencing" response that he displayed when he was knocked out of a prime-time game two years ago in Cincinnati.
Tagovailoa was ruled out almost immediately after leaving the game against Buffalo, his concussion diagnosis arriving with unusual speed compared to the typical timeline for most players who sustain in-game head injuries. The circ*mstances around his latest setback unsurprisingly led to virtually instantaneous calls for Tagovailoa, 26, who's married with children, to strongly consider retirement.
"It's so sad, guy just got paid," Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez said on Prime Video's postgame show in the game's immediate aftermath.
"It was great to be Tua, and it is great to be Tua. However I'm looking at these concussions," Gonzalez continued, "if I'm him, at this point, I'm seriously considering retiring from football. If that was my son, I would be like, 'It might be time.' This stuff is not what you want to play around with.
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"Tua's future? I'm thinking retirement here."
After passing for a career-best 4,624 yards and 29 touchdowns in 2023, Tagovailoa, a first-round draft pick in 2020 out of Alabama – where he suffered another concussion – signed a four-year extension in July worth up to $212.4 million with $167 million guaranteed. However money, statistics and wins had been relegated deeply onto the back burner Thursday evening.
"The furthest thing from my mind is, you know, 'What is the timeline?'" said Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel when asked if Tagovailoa was likely to land on injured reserve, which would require him to miss a minimum of four games and keep him out of action until at least Oct. 27. (Miami has its bye in Week 6.)
"We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are. We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here."
McDaniel doubled down on Friday morning when asked his thoughts about Tagovailoa's playing future.
"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," he said. "You're talking about his career. His career is his.
"Bringing up his future is not in the best interests of him," McDaniel went on, referring to his quarterback's immediate well-being.
"I don't think it's appropriate simply for my care and regard (for him)."
Asked what he said to Tagovailoa as he came off the field, McDaniel, who'd said he regarded the quarterback "as a family member of mine," replied after a brief pause: "I told him he's the starting quarterback of his family and to go in the locker room, take a deep breath, and I'll see you soon."
There's little debate that Tagovailoa's circ*mstances carry much more gravity than a player suffering from chronic knee or shoulder issues.
"There's so many injuries we can have surgeries for, there's so many things we can fix," said Prime Video analyst and longtime NFL offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth.
"But a head trauma and getting knocked out on the field? There's really not much you can ever do about that. You can't go to a doctor and say, 'Hey, fix my brain and the damage I've done to it.'"
The risks were already piling up in 2022, when Tagovailoa was concussed twice and dubiously cleared the league's concussion protocol in another game – the NFL modifying the protocol after that incident and mandating that if a player presents possible concussion symptoms, including balance or stability issues, he cannot return to play that day.
Last year, Tagovailoa bulked up and learned jiu-jitsu in a bid to better protect himself, the martial arts theoretically providing a safer way to absorb big impacts while hitting the ground in a way that would lessen the blow and protect his head.
But he slimmed down noticeably this year and appeared to simply collapse Thursday – and after what seemed like a relatively routine and innocuous tackle by Bills safety Damar Hamlin, whose shoulder made contact with Tagovailoa's helmet before it slammed into the turf.
Early returns were promising.
"He was highly communicative in the locker room with the trainers and doctors," McDaniel said.
But given the nature of concussions, it's possible more serious symptoms can surface in the coming hours and days.
"There’s something about that previous concussion that can make the brain more vulnerable – especially multiple concussions," Julie Stamm, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told USA TODAY Sports in 2023.
"The data would suggest that there is an increased risk of concussion, because he had these previous concussions. How much increase? We can’t really say. Maybe it’s not actually that much."
Like many of his teammates, Dolphins backup quarterback Skylar Thompson was rattled after seeing his teammate incapacitated once again.
"I'll tell you what, it makes me sick," an emotional Thompson said afterward.
"Have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him. And you care more about the person than the player – everybody in the organization would say the same thing."
Bills quarterback Josh Allen also expressed his concern while current and former players around the league reacted on social media.
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"You can't help but feel for him. He is a great football player, but he's an even greater human being," Allen said of his AFC East rival. "He's one of the best humans on the planet. I've got a lot of love for him, just praying for him and his family, hoping everything's OK.
"It's tough, man, this game of football that we play – it's got its highs, and it's got its lows. And that's definitely one of the lows."
And the game's inherent danger will surely continue to feed sentiments, which had already been expressed by some after Tagovailoa's previous head injuries, that continuing his career isn't worth the risk.
"I hope he gets to do whatever he chooses that he wants to do," said former All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman, another of Prime Video's current NFL analysts, while suggesting retirement might be the young QB's best option.
"If I'm him – I think you gotta go home."
Contributing: Tom Schad
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Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.
