Tua’s hip good enough to keep him off injury report
It appears Miami Dolphins rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has cleared another significant hurdle in his return from the gruesome hip injury he sustained in college.
The Dolphins did not list Tagovailoa on the injury report this week as they prepare for Sunday’s game against the rival Buffalo Bills at Hard Rock Stadium.
Typically, NFL teams list players on the injury reports if they receive treatment on an injury or to determine whether injuries limited their availability in practice in any fashion.
Tagovailoa was listed on the Week 1 injury report for the hip butwas a full participant in practice leading up to the the season opener.
And now he’s off the list altogether.
“He’s doing well,” coach Brian Flores said Thursday. “From a rehab standpoint or a strength-training standpoint, he’s doing what everyone else is doing.
“So we felt like we could take him off [the injury report].”
Tagovailoa’s body continues to make sharp progress nearly 10 months after sustaining the hip dislocation and posterior wall fracture in his final game with the Alabama Crimson Tide in November.
Tagovailoa was a full participant in training camp practices last month, practiced in Week 1 and was available to play in Miami’s season-opening loss to the New England Patriots.
Miami’s release of former quarterback Josh Rosen — which left veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tagovailoa as the only quarterbacks on the Dolphins’ roster — a week before the season was also a positive indication of Tagovailoa’s recovery.
“He’s doing well physically and mentally, and getting practice reps and trying to improve from a football standpoint, from a learning and being-a-professional standpoint, like all rookies,” Flores said of Tagovailoa. “He’s doing well. And he’s learning.
Tagovailoa may not yet be ready to push Fitzpatrick for the starting job, but he’s making strides toward that possibility.
While seemingly taking a cautious approach with Tagovailoa, his long-term health appears to be a greater factor for the Dolphins than trotting him out prematurely.
“From a health standpoint, obviously it was a serious injury,” Flores said, “and he’s done a great job as far as getting himself back healthy and getting himself to a point where he can practice and take a lot of reps.
“He’s trending in the right direction from a health standpoint.”