Tua Tagovailoa’s return shouldn’t mask Dolphins dire need

The Miami Dolphins gave their fans the best news possible following their Week 7 loss against the Indianapolis Colts, as the team has activated Tua Tagovailoa off of IR ahead of their Week 8 game against the Arizona Cardinals.

Tagovailoa had been out since Week 2 after suffering the third known concussion of his career. Many analysts suggested he should retire given the amount of head injuries he's had to deal with, but Tagovailoa elected to keep playing and is finally set to make his return.

This is great news for a Dolphins team that entered the season with playoff aspirations, if not Super Bowl aspirations, but stumbled to a 2-4 start - going 1-3 without Tagovailoa. That one win was an ugly 15-10 win against the 1-6 New England Patriots in Week 5.

Getting Tagovailoa back should help ignite this Miami offense that currently ranks 27th in passing yards per game and dead-last in points per game by a ton. Whether they can make the playoffs after their sluggish start remains to be seen, but they should, at the very least, be far more watchable.

As great as this Tagovailoa return is for Miami, this roster still has one glaring hole that they'd benefit from addressing sooner rather than later.

Backup quarterback is still a glaring need following Tua Tagovailoa's return

Despite Tagovailoa's extensive injury history, the Dolphins entered this season with Skylar Thompson, a seventh-round pick back in the 2022 NFL Draft with only two starts under his belt, as his backup. That felt like a major risk, and sure enough, it backfired.

Thompson looked overmatched in his one start in Tagovailoa's place and wound up leaving that game due to his own injury. In came the well-traveled Tim Boyle, a 30-year-old with three times as many interceptions as touchdown passes. That, predictably, did not go well.

Rather than start Boyle in Week 4, the Dolphins wound up starting Tyler Huntley, a player claimed from the Baltimore Ravens practice squad. He certainly gave Miami a better chance than Boyle and even started in their Week 5 win in New England, but over his three games, he completed just 59.1 percent of his passes with one passing touchdown. He left Miami's Week 7 contest prematurely due to injury.

Instead of rostering an established backup like Tyrod Taylor, Joe Flacco, or Andy Dalton, the Dolphins chose to ride with cheaper, inexperienced options like Thompson, Boyle, and Huntley. It failed miserably.

Despite rostering dynamic weapons such as Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, De'Von Achane, and Raheem Mostert, this Dolphins offense ranks dead last in points per game. The 11.7 that they've averaged is nearly three points fewer than the second-worst team, the New York Giants, who start Daniel Jones every week.

Any offense will take a hit without its starting quarterback. It'd be alarming if it didn't. One of this magnitude, however, could've been avoided. The Dolphins have the talent and the head coach to at least run a competent offense with a backup quarterback, but instead since they chose to ignore that spot on their roster, they've been the worst offense in the league.

Getting Tagovailoa back is great news, but given his injury history, it's unrealistic to expect him to play every single game. Given that fact, acquiring a legitimate backup feels like a necessity. If the Dolphins had one this time around, they might've found a way to win an extra game or two. Hopefully, GM Chris Grier will take that position seriously so Dolphins fans won't be subjected to watching the likes of Thompson, Boyle, and Huntley as the next man up.