Tua Tagovailoa injury update: Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel reveals QB’s status for Sunday vs. Cardinals

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will be playing football again Sunday. Tagovailoa, who has missed the last four games, has cleared concussion protocol and will start against the Arizona Cardinals, Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said Friday.

ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter reported Friday, relaying information from the Dolphins organization, that Tagovailoa followed the league’s five-step “Return to Participation” protocol, and that, after Thursday’s practice, Tagovailoa was examined and cleared by the independent neurological consultant to play in Sunday’s game.

Schefter also reported that the medical experts who spoke with Tagovailoa during his recovery didn’t recommend he retire from football.

Tagovailoa is expected to be activated off injured reserve before the Week 8 game.

The former Alabama star quarterback has remained steadfast in his desire to continue playing football despite sustaining another concussion, at least the third of his professional career.

“He’s done an outstanding job of not doing anything but controlling what he can control,” McDaniel said of Tagovailoa’s journey back to the field, via NFL.com. “So in that, he’s put his best foot forward to take care of himself as well as to be the leader of this football team, just in a different way. In all of that, he’s been fully engaged, but he’s also become very aware that he is not interested in becoming a coach anytime soon, that his love is playing football.

“He’s eager as everybody is. If you had any questions about how valuable he is, I think it’s pretty obvious.”

The Dolphins went 1-3 and scored 40 total points in Tagovailoa’s four-game absence, a stretch during which Miami played three different quarterbacks: Skylar Thompson, Tyler Huntley and Tim Boyle.

At the moment, the Dolphins are averaging just 11.7 points per game, the fewest of any team in the NFL. Last year, though, Miami was second in the league with 29.2 points per game — and Tagovailoa played in all 17 regular season games that season.

Tagovailoa, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, has played 55 games in his now-five-year NFL career: He’s completed 66.8% of his passes while throwing for 13,122 yards and posting an 83:40 touchdown-to-interception ratio.