The Miami Dolphins hope to have Tua Tagovailoa back at quarterback when they play the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday in London.
The former Alabama All-American sustained fractured ribs when Buffalo defensive end AJ Epenesa slammed Tagovailoa down as he threw a pass on the Dolphins’ ninth snap against the Bills on Sept. 19.
Tagovailoa is eligible to return to the field this week after missing three games while on injured reserve.
“We’ll see how it goes with Tua,” Miami coach Brian Flores said on Monday. “I would say he’s moving in the right direction, Tua, I would say, based on what I saw today. We’re hopeful that he’s ready to go this week in practice and this week for the game.”
Tagovailoa threw the football on Monday, Flores said.
“I saw him today, and he’s making a lot of improvement,” Flores said. “What we’ll need to see is him move around, see him throw the ball, see him make throws on the run, see the deep ball. The one thing we won’t see is real and true contact on the quarterback. There’s obviously going to be, from a pain-tolerance standpoint, some things he’s going to have to push through, which I’m sure he will. Yeah, that’s what we’re looking for. Just get him to go through a normal practice, make all the throws and go through a two-hour practice.”
After winning their season-opening game 17-16 against the New England Patriots on Sept. 12, the Dolphins have lost four in a row – 35-0 to the Bills, 31-28 in overtime to the Las Vegas Raiders, 27-17 to the Indianapolis Colts and 45-17 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Since Tagovailoa went down, Jacoby Brissett has taken every snap for Miami, although Flores said he almost lifted Brissett for former practice-squad QB Reid Sinnett against the Bucs on Sunday.
“Definitely getting treatment. Definitely sore,” Flores said about Brissett on Monday. “I thought he really toughed it out yesterday with the leg injury. Look, he’s tough. He’s competitive. I thought about pulling him a couple times, and he fought me to stay in. That just speaks to his competitiveness. We’ll see how that goes this week, but he is definitely sore.”
Brissett has completed 103-of-158 passes for 858 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions and run for 57 yards and one TD on 16 carries since taking over for Tagovailoa. Brissett’s passing-efficiency rating of 82.2 ranks 28th among the 32 quarterbacks with at least 70 passes this season. He’s ahead of four rookies – the Houston Texans’ Davis Mills, Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence, Chicago Bears’ Justin Fields and New York Jets’ Zach Wilson.
The Dolphins and Jaguars are scheduled to kick off at 8:30 a.m. CDT Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. CBS will televise the game.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
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