Dolphins 'Excited' To Get Tua Back

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will resume practice Wednesday as the starter for the Miami Dolphins for their Week 7 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers

Two days after Tua Tagovailoa was cleared from the concussion protocol, Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel made it official Monday that Tua will begin the week of practice as the starter for the team's Week 7 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Tagovailoa has missed the past two games after being stretchered off the field in the Week 4 Thursday night game against the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Dolphins have been deliberate and thorough in bringing him back into action.

Now, the time has arrived.

“The plan is for him to approach the game as the starter," McDaniel said Monday. "So he’ll be able to get those reps in on Wednesday. I felt really good about how he was able to get back on the field. What’s unique about his whole process was that his last really full week of practice was the week of the Buffalo Bills game, because when you have a Thursday night game, you’re walking through. So you’re talking about your last full-speed practice.

"So last week was a big week to get through the protocol, see all the specialists, get all the information and then get him back moving around. So, he responded really well and was his exuberant self. We’ll be excited to see him practice on Wednesday, and I know the team will be as well.”

TUA LOOKING TO PICK UP WHERE HE LEFT OFF

The Dolphins are hoping the return of Tagovailoa to the lineup can help stop the slide that has seen the team lose three in a row following its remarkable 3-0 start, which featured the greatest comeback in franchise history in Week 2 at Baltimore.

But the Dolphins haven't had a quarterback start and finish a game since that Week 4 against Cincinnati — it was Tua and then Teddy Bridgewater that night, then Bridgewater followed by Skylar Thompson in Week 5 against the New York Jets, and Thompson followed by Bridgewater in Week 6 against Minnesota on Sunday.

Tagovailoa was playing the best football of his young NFL career when he was sidelined, and he's currently leading the league in passer rating with a 109.9.

McDaniel explained the ways having Tua back should help the Dolphins.

“He’s a captain," McDaniel said. "He’s a captain for a reason, and as I’ve told you guys from the onset, I think he’s a very, very good player at that position. So very good players, they definitely give people a boost — not because of what other people aren’t but more just because he is who he is. So he’s a strong fabric of this team, and that’s exciting when you get to go play with one of your brothers, which is why the team will be excited, and it will be exciting.”

“Tua is Tua," guard Robert Hunt said. "Tua is our leader. He’s the guy who has been running the show and we’ll be excited to get him back. But exactly what you said – if not and it’s somebody else back there, we still got to do our job and try to play a game and win a game.”

POSSIBLE CHANGES IN TUA'S GAME?

While the game against Pittsburgh will mark Tua's first live action in 25 days, McDaniel said he does not anticipate any rust from a physical standpoint, perhaps maybe in terms of getting back into a weekly routine.

One thing that probably does have to change from Tua's routine is his habit of trying to make something out of every single play, even when it appears doomed from the start.

It was on one of those plays that he sustained his concussion against Cincinnati because the sack that got him injured came after the line gave him a lot of time to find a receiver.

McDaniel says drilling into Tua the idea of giving up on a play isn't something that's going to be new this week.

“I talked to him a lot sooner than this week," McDaniel said. "When he’d come by the office and we just kind of talk about how things have kind of gone, there’s risks in this game and you’ve got to be able to control the controllables. One thing for him is you love his competitive nature, but there is a time in a play where you have to kind of concede, and that’s where he’s kind of been focusing on because it’s something that’s not natural to him. He wants to break every tackle, and he doesn’t like when plays don’t work. Well, sometimes they won’t. So that’s something that he’s mindful of, and I think that that’s a consistency of all the really great quarterbacks that you think of, the guys that you look up to, the guys that kind of set forth the example of how to play the position, they do find ways to be available. And part of that is that concession, but that is – all things considered, that’s probably a good problem to have in terms of a competitor. You just need to be able to understand your importance to the team and how sometimes the best play you can make is a throwaway.”