Tua Planning to Play; Decision Could Come Wednesday

Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa expressed confidence he'll be ready for the Thursday night game against Cincinnati

Tua Tagovailoa had a simple answer when asked whether he expected to be able to start for the Miami Dolphins when they face the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night.

"That's the plan," Tua said before adding this caveat: "Doing everything I can to get back out there. Hopefully I can get out there and play."

Head coach Mike McDaniel wasn't definitive, either, when he preceded his quarterback at the podium in the press conference at the Baptist Health Training Complex.

McDaniel said he was confident about Tua's availability based on the progress his back injury has made since Sunday.

"Had this been an actual real practice on a normal week, Tua would be limited," McDaniel said after the team conducted a walk-through. "And he would be questionable for the game. Just him talking to me. I can tell in his voice, he's literally going to do everything he can and in his power, so collectively, we’re always basically .,.. I know that he's going to do everything he can to play, so I'll know if he doesn't play that it literally was not possible. And we're just taking measures accordingly for Teddy (Bridgewater) beyond that. But happy with the way he's so far progressed and feel very optimistic because of how he's going about it."

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BACK INJURY THE ISSUE FOR TUA

Tua sustained back and ankle injuries in the 21-19 victory against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, but indicated only the back injury is a concern in terms of his availability for the game at Cincinnati.

The Dolphins' final injury report before the game will come out Wednesday, and it's on that day that McDaniel would like to finalize a decision as to whether Tagovailoa or Teddy Bridgewater will be starting at quarterback.

He did say the decision could be pushed back to Thursday as well.

"In a short turnaround like this, I don’t have reps at back and ankle injuries on a Thursday night game," the first-year head coach said. "So I'm gonna take the rest of the day. And then as soon as we can, probably at some point tomorrow, I'd like to (make a decision). If it's more up in the air, I mean, I know that's one thing that we can handle with our guy in Teddy is that part of the reason it was so paramount, I was so pumped that (GM Chris Grier) and the guys were able to get it done was because you have to be able to adjust as a backup quarterback and really nothing would change that much in terms of the way I’d call the game and we have a bunch of faith in him. So you know, we're walking through in general anyway. So Teddy has to take reps each and every play in terms of calling the play, and visualizing everything as it stands.

"So we'll probably just take it as long as we have to before we can be convicted, but at some point there has to be … it won't be five minutes before kickoff. I know that. Probably some time on Wednesday, but if we have to we'll move it to Thursday morning.”