MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Mike McDaniel admitted he found it hard to focus on football after watching his quarterback go down with his third concussion in three years.
The Miami Dolphins head coach walked a wobbly Tua Tagovailoa to the sideline after the player took a hard hit on the field and appeared to bang his head against the ground in a scary scene in the third quarter of Thursday’s 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
McDaniel’s concern immediately after was the health of his quarterback, who has a history of sustaining head injuries, even with so many factors concerning where the Dolphins go from here still unclear.
“When I tell you that absolutely it’s very, very tough,” McDaniel said during an emotional news conference about 10 hours after Tagovailoa’s concussion. “At the same time, there’s not a moment that goes by that I don’t take with absolute severity and sincerity how many people are counting on me.
“In this job, honestly, a lot of people can do this job when things are going awesome. There’s a lot of people. I think it’s important that when you sign up for it, that you recognize that as a leader, it actually only matters when times are tough. That’s when you need to — I think that it’s moments like these that you really have to tap into that to handle it appropriately and in ways that in hindsight I won’t regret.”
McDaniel didn’t have many details about what Tagovailoa’s injury means long term or short term. The only thing he offered with certainty was that Tagovailoa will not be available when Miami travels to face Seattle on Sept. 22, and that the Dolphins will bring in another quarterback eventually.
Until that happens, it’s on backup quarterback Skylar Thompson to lead a team that had expectations of contention before the season started.
“We’re just evaluating the pros and cons for the different situations and getting through all those possibilities to do the best thing for the team,” McDaniel said, “but as it stands today, I’m expecting that Skylar is the next man up.”
Thompson completed 8 of 14 passes for 80 yards when he came in for Tagovailoa on Thursday night.
The Dolphins’ seventh-round pick got starting experience as a rookie in 2022, when Tagovailoa was diagnosed with two concussions and then-No. 2 quarterback Teddy Bridgewater battled injuries as well.
Thompson played in eight games and made three starts, including in Miami’s loss to the Bills in the wild-card round. Thompson did not play in 2023, operating as the team’s emergency quarterback in all 18 games.
“What’s going to lie ahead, who knows, but man, I’m confident, though,” Thompson said. “I feel like I’m ready for whatever’s to come. I’m going to prepare and work hard and do everything I can to lead this team and do my job.”
Thompson, who beat out Mike White — now with the Bills — for the backup role during training camp, said he feels ready to run the entirety of the Dolphins’ complex playbook that includes various types of shifts and motions.
“I’ve gotten three years under my belt now of digesting that and learning it,” Thompson said. “Yeah, I feel like I’m fully equipped to run whatever Mike (McDaniel) wants and not be limited at all whenever I’m in the game.”