Tua Tagovailoa injuries history should be concerning for Dolphins future

Tua Tagovailoa has been called an injury-prone football player and the Miami Dolphins have seen their share of that being potentially true. Now they need to think hard and long about his future.

Since his time at Alabama, he has suffered broken fingers, ribs, a slight knee issue, and of course a fractured hip. When he entered the NFL, many wondered how long he would last. Some called him brittle and others wondered if he was cut out for this level of football.

In his rookie season, Tua suffered a thumb injury and missed a game. In 2021 he was hit by a Bills defender and broke several ribs. He missed time after being placed on IR. When he came back, he would miss another game with a broken finger.

Fast forward to this year and we know about the “back” injury against the Bills and the concussion this past Thursday. Should we be concerned?

Some of these are freak accidents. Breaking a finger on a helmet can’t really be avoided but you have to start to wonder if Tua is going to ever make it through a full season and if he can’t the Dolphins need to start thinking about his future.

The Dolphins should love Tua. He is a great kid with a lot of heart and he has shown that he can win football games but if he can’t be on the field, what value does he have? Should we be worried?

I like what I have seen in Tua and Thursday was hard to watch but as the days have passed, you have to wonder if the Dolphins will be gambling with their own futures after this season.

Tua will enter his 4th season in 2023. This will be a very important year for him both on the field and in the injury department. For the Dolphins, it’s about the 5th year option that is guaranteed in case of injury. As we have seen, Tua is likely to suffer an injury of some sort but would it be a season-long injury? If so, we then have to ask what happens after that 5th season and that is when we start truly asking this question.

Ask yourself, would you invest in Tua Tagovailoa financially right now? When you look at the massive contracts being handed out around the NFL to quarterbacks who have done nothing but shown statistical abilities, would you hand a big contract to a QB who may be one or two hits away from being out of the league? Tua is showing his more than a statistical QB. He is winning.

I shouldn’t say that. It’s not fair. Any player is one or two hits away from being out of the league. No one is immune to that possibility but you do have to weigh the potential.

After two seasons and four games, Tua is finally showing consistency and leadership but even among the Dolphins fan base, there are questions about whether or not he can be the Dolphins quarterback for the next 10-15 years.

Miami doesn’t have to answer that question right now and we as fans don’t have to answer it all. We can speculate and we can hope for the best from him. But at some point, we may have to ask this question.