Tua Tagovailoa has not improved enough says Mike McDaniel

Tua Tagovailoa is not looking like a candidate to start on Sunday against the Vikings and we may see Skylar Thompson take the opening snaps.

Mike McDaniel spoke with the media and made it clear that as of right now, Tua isn’t ready to come back.

"He was here today, but he is not ready to take the step to do some football stuff yet. So that will be – talk to me every 12 to 24 hours.”"

This is obviously ongoing and there is a chance that McDaniel could be playing it coy with his quarterbacks status but if this is indeed what is going on, it would be hard to imagine Tua returning this week to face the Vikings.

That would imply Teddy Bridgewater could start but unfortunately, Bridgewater is still under observation according to McDaniel. But this is where the rub is. Bridgewater passed all of the concussion protocols. He probably should have been able to return to the game on Sunday so if McDaniel is saying he is in the protocols still, the question is for what?

Well, we have that answer too. According to McDaniel, he must go through the protocols because he was ruled out as a potential concussion. This means he will go through the same processes as a player who was found to not pass the protocols. This will cost him practice time this week.

McDaniel said that in a perfect situation he will be allowed to return to practice on Thursday in a limited non-contact role. He said that coaches have no influence on the process and that Teddy will need to be cleared by the league.

We won’t know more until later this week but it will be interesting to see how all this plays out on Thursday when the Dolphins release more information and if either Tua or Teddy returns to the practice field in any form.