Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel confirmed that Tua Tagovailoa suffered a concussion and will miss their Week 17 game.
The quarterback played all of Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers. While the team didn’t notice anything remiss during the game, McDaniel said the coaching staff saw some troubling signs when watching film on Monday.
“It specifically had to do with consistencies of things that I study daily on tape, which provoked some direct questioning with a high degree of concern,” McDaniel said Wednesday, per Henry McKenna of FOX Sports.
McDaniel had Tagovailoa meet with team doctors Monday. He then entered the concussion protocol.
This is Tagovailoa’s second confirmed concussion of the season, but the first occurred days after losing his balance on the field. While Miami diagnosed it as a back injury, the consultant who cleared him to return to the Week 3 game was later fired.
Following criticism of how the Dolphins handled the situation earlier this season, the NFL and NFLPA have begun a joint review of their response to this latest case.
Per ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques, McDaniel said Tagovailoa’s health is his “foremost and only priority.” Teddy Bridgewater will start Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots