The one-third mark of the NFL regular season is a time to reconnoiter and perhaps to recalibrate expectations. Within the AFC East, these are times of hope and consternation.
The Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and New England Patriots have fed fans new reasons for hope.
The Miami Dolphins, alas, sent a message this week that was intended to be heartening but landed as discouraging instead.
This was coach Mike McDaniel, coming out of the bye week week and setting the stage as his club prepares to fly to Indianapolis for Sunday’s game at the Colts. The subject of course was quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, the 225-pound elephant in the room whose latest concussion is once against holding the team and its season hostage:
“There is still information that he’s seeking this week,” said McDaniel. “As far as timelines go, I know he’s not playing this week, and I do expect to see him playing football in 2024. But where that is exactly, we’ll let the process continue. It is exciting that I do think he’ll play football this year.”
We knew Tagovailoa would not play at Indy. That was not news. This will be the fourth game he will miss — the minimum for a player who was placed on the injury list.
And still Your Friend the Media treated what McDaniel said as newsworthy, spinning a positive in his saying he did expect Tagovailoa to play again at some point this season.
That was discouraging. It told fans how serious this concussion is, and how caution is overriding everything. Tagovailoa already has been sidelined longer by this concussion than by any previous — five weeks and counting including the bye and the next game missed.
The initial reasonable hope and expectation was that Tagovailoa would return as soon as he is eligible, October 27 at home vs. Arizona. McDaniel might have said that or hinted at it but did neither. The coach’s vagary, though likely necessary, left Dolfans to wonder: Is Tagovailoa’s return close? Will he be back by Thanksgiving? By Christmas?
Will he be back in time to save a wobbling season and rekindle flickering playoff hopes?
And when he does come back ... for how long? Would the next concussion end his career either by prudent personal choice or NFL edict? The word risk envelopes Tagovailoa now. It isn’t his fault or the team’s. It just is
Life can be cruel. Football certainly can be.
Dolphins teammate Jaelan Phillips missed half of the 2023 season with a torn Achilles tendon, went through arduous, lengthy rehabilitation to return this season. He was playing great — then sustained a season-ending knee injury two weeks ago.
The Detroit Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson, one of the NFL’s top defensive stars and leading the league in sacks, sustained a broken leg last week so gruesome they wouldn’t show it on TV.
And Tua Tagovailoa, after finally playing a full, healthy season last season, suffers perhaps his worst concussion two games into this one.
Fate doesn’t care who you are. It might give you the winning numbers in the Powerball. And it might end your career because that career keeps damaging your brain.
Meantime, as Miami still waits for Tagovailoa to feel safe enough to play, the rest of the AFC East moves forward:
▪ The Bills, desperate to win now, their perceived championship window shutting by degrees, traded for veteran receiver Amari Cooper on Tuesday to give Josh Allen another needed weapon to fill the void left by Stefon Diggs’ departure. Cooper at 30 is not what he once was but still is productive and will make Buffalo better.
▪ The Jets, also desperate to win now because Aaron Rodgers will soon turn 41, fired coach Robert Saleh and then, Tuesday, traded for receiver Davante Adams, who is 32 but better than Cooper. Rodgers and Adams combined for 76 touchdowns when both played for Green Bay. Both welcome the reunion. And now Rodgers — with Adams paring with talented Garrett Wilson — will have one less excuse for the Jets not scoring much.
▪ The Patriots, in post-Brady/Belichick rebuild mode and desperate to win again someday, unveiled QB-of-the-future Drake Maye last week, and with 243 yards and three TD passes worth of unwrapped promise and potential.
All the while the Miami Dolphins wait for Tagovailoa and the one invisible injury you don’t mess with, the one involving brain scans and cognitive function and neuroscience.
The conundrum:
The Dolphins need their starting quarterback to return desperately soon.
But his medical condition and science will take every moment of time they need to give him back.
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