How Tua Will Stay in the Game While Sidelined

Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa is trying to stay involved while on injured reserve.

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) tosses the ball during the first half against the Buffalo Bills at Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday night. / Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins placed quarterback Tua Tagovailoa on injured reserve (IR) this week to ensure there would be no chance that anyone or anything would rush his return from his latest concussion.

Tagovailoa cannot practice or play until he sits out four games, but he's allowed to do anything else — as long as it falls within the constraints of the concussion protocol.

But until he's eligible and ready to return to the practice field, at the earliest after the Dolphins' Week 7 game against the Indianapolis Colts, Tagovailoa will continue to be around his teammates to help and support them as best he can.

"I see a true, true leader and teammate that is worried about the right stuff," head coach Mike McDaniel said Wednesday, the day after the Dolphins placed Tagovailoa on IR. "What he's worried about is doing everything that he can for each day and then also very much invested with his teammates. For a leader, a captain, the quarterback of this franchise, he is approaching it the way that true leaders and captains would in terms of, hey, this is not about me. We have a game. I'm getting healthy.

"We literally have a opportunity today on Wednesday to, if you're trying to be a team that can handle adversity, you waste no time in doing it, and you have a good practice. And that is vitally important to the team, and the conversations that I've had with Tua today, most recently, that's what it's been about. And it's about how he's using today to talk to this teammate and this teammate, and for this reason or that reason. And that's what it is. That's what today is."

As he's said from the start — Thursday night after the Buffalo game, to be precise—McDaniel isn't interested in discussing timelines for Tagovailoa or providing details about exactly what the quarterback has been able to do because discussing milestones invariably brings up timelines.

McDaniel did not rule out the possibility that Tagovailoa could join his teammates when they fly to Seattle on Friday ahead of their Week 3 game against the Seahawks, though that decision will be made Friday.

"I would prefer on Friday, if he did or didn't travel, that to be based upon the feelings and motivations that he had on Friday," McDaniel said. "I wouldn't broach that, not because I don't care, but because...I mean, we have a grinder of a day. Wednesdays, there's a lot of stuff going on. Guys are enthused to work, and that's where it's very interesting, but that's all he wants to talk about right now is literally different sorts of formations, progressions, and things that need to get done today based upon the opponent we're playing."

THE DECISION TO PUT TUA ON INJURED RESERVE

In explaining why the team put Tagovaila on injured reserve, McDaniel returned to discussing timelines — or the lack thereof.

McDaniel said an "accumulation of information" led to the decision Tuesday after he had said the previous day that things were still up in the air.

"I think the great thing about IR is for a month's time, there's no timelines," McDaniel said. "And I always say that, but I'm not sure that people quite understand. Like, if you set a timeline based upon the information you have today, how much of whatever goes on is fulfilling the prophecy of that timeline? And is that the right thing? Especially with [a] competitor, sometimes you can do more harm than good. I think regardless, not worrying about anything as it relates to timelines is very empowering for him as a human being to recover from injury. And that's steadfast, the only motivating factor that you have when you're dealing with players and their careers and injuries."

McDaniel did not directly answer whether Tua fought the idea of going on IR, explaining that there's a trust built with Dolphins General Manager Chris Grier, himself, and the players that every decision will be made in everybody's best interests.

That decision has been made, so Tua will do what he can.

He's very active within the building, and I can firmly guarantee that he is fully committed to the day and his team and is involving himself in every way that the rules allow and that the process allows...

- Miami Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel

"He's very active within the building, and I can firmly guarantee that he is fully committed to the day and his team and is involving himself in every way that the rules allow and that the process allows because the process is what you focus on," McDaniel said. "It's not getting through it. And he's very much focused on that because we're all not trying to rush the process. I have zero concerns about him.

"I mean, he is in it with his teammates. And sometimes, you know, that means being on the field, sometimes that means meetings, sometimes that means in the training room, sometimes that means in the locker room doing things as a leader and a captain, you'd want them to do."