When Miami plays the New York Jets on Sunday, coach Brian Flores expects Tua Tagovailoa to take the first snap for the Dolphins despite the quarterback’s finger injury.
“He’s going to have some discomfort with the finger,” Flores said on Monday about Tagovailoa’s return to the starting lineup. “He banged it the other day. We were trying to avoid that, but it happened. He’s had some time to rest it and practice today, and that’s my expectation for this weekend.”
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Jacoby Brissett has started at quarterback in Miami’s previous two games because of a fracture in the middle finger of Tagovailoa’s throwing hand.
In the Dolphins’ most recent game, Brissett left with a knee injury on the third snap of the third quarter with Miami leading 6-3, and Tagovailoa took his place. The former Alabama All-American completed 8-of-13 passes for 158 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions and ran for a touchdown as Miami upended the Baltimore Ravens 22-10 on Thursday night.
“(Brissett) went down, went into the (medical) tent,” Flores said. “We decided to put Tua in, obviously. Then I think (Brissett) probably was OK to go back in, but we just decided to stay with Tua. He made a couple of passes, hit a couple of passes, and just felt like might as well just leave him in there. …
“The finger was an issue. Like we said, it was getting better. He was close. A lot closer than last week. We knew if there was an issue with Jacoby, we would be able to play him. That’s the route we went, and we put him in and he played well.”
The short week of practice before the Thursday night game meant Brissett got all the preparation work with the Dolphins’ starting offense.
“I didn’t have any reps with the first group,” Tagovailoa said. “Just mental reps just watching it, and then when we go inside and watch it on film, that’s kind of where I get my reps.”
After the game, Tagovailoa said the finger was a hinderance.
“It doesn’t feel good, I can tell you that,” Tagovailoa said. “Got it banged up a little bit in the game, but it’s good. You know, we got about 10 days to heal up, rest up, so we’ll take all the time we can. …
“Man, it’s tough when it’s fractured, trying to grip a ball. I don’t know if you have had a fracture before with anything, but it hurts to do things with it, so just tough. Just got to fight through it.”
Tagovailoa sustained fractured ribs in the second game of the season on Sept. 19 and missed the next three contests. Tagovailoa returned to start two more games before the finger injury sidelined him.
Tagovailoa said injuries do not curtail his desire to play.
“I wanted to play,” Tagovailoa said, “but, obviously, Flo got with (head athletic trainer) Kyle (Johnson), and they had their discussions, came up to me, and they made the decision to try to protect me from myself, obviously. But it’s the same thing with my finger.
“You just got to be ready at any time I would say. I would say I was ready, but you know, that was Flo’s decision. That was his call.”
The Dolphins and Jets are scheduled to square off at noon CST Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
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