Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa isn’t as brittle as many in the media believed

It didn’t take long on Sunday for Tua Tagovailoa to get introdued into the NFL taking a big hit on his second play.

Entering the game, there were a lot of people who wondered if Tua Tagovailoa should be on the field given the injury he suffered last year.

On the second play from scrimmage, Tua took a big hit from Michael Brockers after being strip-sacked by Aaron Donald. He popped up, shrugged it off and went about his day. Through the course of the game he took a couple more and while we can’t be certain what kind of QB he will develop into, we can be certain that he isn’t having any lingering effects of the hip injury he suffered at Alabama.

It hasn’t quite been a year yet, his injury happened a year ago later this month. His recovery has been well documented and he has proven that the game is important to him, fighting to get back on the field and start no less.

Sunday wasn’t a great day for Tua statistically. He didn’t reach 100 yards in his first game but he did lead a short touchdown drive and he didn’t throw any interceptions. The strip sack fumble that resulted in the Rams scoring on a short field, wasn’t so much his fault as the offensive lines inability to protect on the blitz.

Tua hung in there, he wasn’t great, he wasn’t bad, but he was healthy when the game concluded and he got his first win. That was about all anyone could really ask for heading into Sunday and now, we can breath a little better knowing that the first few hits are now out of the way.