Will Tua Tagovailoa play in Wild Card game? [UPDATED]

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa hasn’t played since Week 16. Will he return for the Wild Card game?

The Miami Dolphins qualified for the NFL playoffs by the seat of their pants, and find themselves preparing for a Wild Card game.

One of the biggest questions will be the health of key players. While the immediate questions will surround Tyreek Hill’s ankle, an even bigger question will be: Can Tua Tagovailoa go?

Tagovailoa last appeared in Week 16 of the NFL season, where he sustained a concussion (which was either his second or third of thee season) that wasn’t diagnosed until after the fact when Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel recommended Tua see team doctors after Monday’s film session noticing memory inconsistencies.

Will Tua Tagovailoa play in Dolphins Wild Card game against Bills?

UPDATE: It has now been reported that Tua is officially OUT against the Bills.

The answer right now is that we just don’t know if Tua Tagovailoa will go. It’s not looking great, though.

Before the final game of the season, Mike McDaniel said he has yet to talk with Tua about when he’s playing, which is subject to the doctor’s recommendations. He also said he had no idea, “when, if, why or how,” Tagovailoa will play.

The concussion protocol is staged, and players can only progress through the various return-to-play stages on an incremental basis. There is not supposed to be any sort of jumping through multiple levels at once. So if Tagovailoa was unready last week, it’s almost entirely out of the question that he’ll be ready by next weekend for Super Wild Card.

On New Year’s day, it was reported that Tagovailoa hopes to go, but wants to and “medically cleared to” are two very different things. Especially with how publicly mishandled Tagovailoa’s first concussion of the year was, the Dolphins will want to do this one completely by the book.

It would be miraculous for Tagovailoa to be ready to go on Sunday.