More Details on Tua Injury and Status for Week 18

Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa missed the team's victory at Cleveland because of a hip injury

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) drops back against the San Francisco 49ers during the fourth quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins are not counting out quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for their must-win Week 18 finale against the New York Jets, but they will prepare all week for the possibility he'll have to miss a second consecutive game.

Head coach Mike McDaniel offered that update when he met reporters for his weekly day-after-the-game media session Monday.

This means it's possible that Tyler "Snoop" Huntley will be making a fifth start for the Dolphins in 2024 against the Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET.

McDaniel reiterated that Tagovailoa didn't play in the 20-3 victory against the Cleveland Browns would have put him at risk because of an inability to move around in the pocket, but was clear the injury was not related to the one the quarterback sustained at Alabama.

"Your question is absolutely fair, because your question is the same that I had immediately, that I posed to the medical staff and then understanding that they're unrelated and not consequential or there's no causation involved in it," McDaniel said. "It's a fair question, but they are unrelated in terms of really the nature of that injury versus this, but it's a fair question.

"It was not safe at all based upon a litany of things that his body was vulnerable to, as well as his inability to avoid and move within the pocket. It's just leaving him really unprotected, is the way that I would say both on impact and the ability to avoid impact."

TUA'S OUTLOOK FOR WEEK 18

McDaniel said after the game Sunday that surgery was not currently on the table for Tagovailoa, and that he would have played against the Browns had his hip progressed the way it did before the game against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 16 in the aftermath of the original injury the previous Sunday in the game against the Houston Texans.

That basically has left the Dolphins in a wait-and-see mode with Tagovailoa, according to McDaniel.

"I think what was tricky is we were basing all of our timelines with this particular unique injury to Tua and how this body (would) respond to that based upon the week previous," McDaniel said. "So with the change in momentum or trajectory of it getting better, it was about the timing of when the game was relative to his recovery process from the last week, which was a different timeline than the week previous.

"So where does that leave us? Firmly in the unknown just because, all right, you have this one sample size of time that would lend you to believe one thing, and then a second sample size, which is very converse. So then, what does that mean for this week? Well, honestly, I don't really know that. There was a lot of optimism last week in my mind based upon the previous experience. So this week, I know one thing, Snoop will get more reps than Tua this week as we we go through the week and have to be prepared for both guys to play because I don't really know exactly what it's going to look like this next Sunday. We're kind of in a gray area now because of just how his body did not cooperate with my agenda."

TUA WAS NOT MEDICALLY CLEARED

McDaniel said the final call for Tagovailoa to sit out against the Browns was made Sunday after things started to look bleak the previous day.

McDaniel said there was no setback, per se, with Tagovailoa and simply a matter of his condition not improving throughout the week the way it had the previous week, which is why he had no problem having Tagovailoa in the lineup in that game against the 49ers.

"He was medically cleared and there's inherent risk every time you play," McDaniel said. "And so that's why you have to be very concrete with your medical team and very communicative with Tua. I think it would be safe to say that I don't foresee ever as a head coach retroactively saying I regret playing someone because that insinuates that you're bending that threshold of both safety for individual players and you have to account for other players, specifically when you're talking about the quarterback position and how they involve everyone. But no, he was cleared to play."