Tua Tagovailoa should play in the Miami Dolphins' first preseason game

I need to preface this with that I have wanted Tua Tagovailoa to play in the Miami Dolphins first preseaon game before yesterday's "average" performace as Mike McDaniel coined it this morning which obviously means I've wanted this before today's, up and down rendition of offense that has been reported by the beat writers.

It certainly appears that the two joint practices have not gone the way the Dolphins and Tua would have liked. I'm not terribly surprised because like Tua said a lot of what happens out there is figuring out what stuff could work and what stuff shouldn't really be tried again.

Predicably, at least by me and everyone else who doesn't work for the Miami Dolphins, the offensive line got wrecked again by the Falcon's front. Maybe just maybe all that talk Chris Grier put out there about him not being worried about the offensive line like all of us are was in fact a dumb way to go about business.

But even without the two last days of practice, I still want Tua to go out and play a drive or two on Friday. I realize that preseason games are getting held in less value as crypto as every year passes and that joint practices are all the rage now. But I like seeing the players, not all of them, but most of them getting real in-game work in real game situations.

Yes, you can simulate game situation in the joint practices but you can't simulate that real in-game feel for those situations. 3rd and 4 in a joint practice doesn't slap the same as 3rd and 4 in a preseason game and I won't be convinced otherwise on that.

I don't want to Tua to play a ton. I just want him to play enough to get some more confidence and even more chemistry with the other receivers. I have zero problem if Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, especially now after suffering an injury to his right side which I am praying ends up being nothing, sitting out on Friday. Hill, Waddle, Armstead, Howard, Chubb, Phillips, and Holland can all sit.

But I want Tua out there. Is it a risk? Sure it is. But I'll take my chances that he doesn't get hurt because stuff like that doesn't happen as often as we convince ourselves it does especially to starting QBs.

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