If there was on knock on quarterback Tua Tagovailoa coming out of Alabama, it was that he was injury-prone. That has carried over to his NFL career. Tagovailoa has never come close to playing every regular-season game, and he won't this year either, already ruled out for Sunday's AFC East matchup at the New York Jets as he remains in the concussion protocol. The spread has dropped from Dolphins -4 to -3 and the total from an open of 45.5 to 43.5 at Caesars Sportsbook.
Tagovailoa has really been b attered the past two games. He left last Thursday's loss in Cincinnati with a head injury. Tagovailoa's arms grew rigid and his fingers curled in what appeared to be a “fencing response.”
The southpaw quarterback initially seemed to exhibit concussion symptoms after a previous hit to his head late in the first half of Miami's Week 3 home game against Buffalo. The doctor who cleared the Dolphins quarterback to return to the field in Week 3 has since been dismissed. Images of Tagovailoa's brain are being sent to three independent doctors to obtain as many opinions as possible about his condition. We don't want to speculate, but that Miami already has ruled him out for Sunday could mean he'll miss multiple games. Tagovailoa is having his best season, leading the league in passer rating (109.9).
Veteran Teddy Bridgewater, a south Florida native, will make his first start for the Dolphins. He's 33-30 in his career as a starter. La st year while with Denver, Bridgewater also started vs. the Jets and led a 26-0 victory by completing 19 of 25 passes'for 235 yards with no scores or picks. His backup Sunday will be seventh-round rookie Skylar Thompson out of Kansas State. Thompson led all NFL quarterbacks in passer rating (138.4), touchdowns (five) and had the seventh-most yards (450) in the exhibition slate.