Time may be closing fast on Tua Tagovailoa’s run in Atlanta.
The former Dolphins quarterback was already facing an uphill climb, and his latest setback only makes the picture look bleaker. This time it wasn’t a knee or an ankle. It was a non-contact oblique injury after he turned the wrong way, another reminder that his body has not held up the way teams hoped when Miami made him the 2021 fifth overall pick.
That matters because the issue isn’t just that Tagovailoa is hurt again. It’s how he got hurt.
If he’s breaking down on a simple movement, the concern is obvious about what happens when he has to move to escape pressure. It leaves him in a precarious place, and the reality is harsh: he may be one play away from calling it a career.
Atlanta gave Tagovailoa every chance to claim the job. Michael Penix Jr. was injured, and the path was wide open.
There was no real battle for the starting role, with only Cooper Rush and an undrafted rookie in the mix. Even so, Tagovailoa’s preseason and practice work was not enough to lock down the position until days before the opener.
Then came another setback. After suffering the oblique injury while walking around the practice field ahead of week two, Tagovailoa still wasn’t ready to play, and the Falcons were left to turn back to Cooper Rush.
Penix did practice all week and split first-team reps with Rush, but he still wasn’t fully ready to go. The Falcons ruled him out on Friday, leaving Rush as the starter again while Tagovailoa’s lack of practice had him listed as “doubtful.”
Tagovailoa also hasn’t had to meet with the media because of the injury.
There’s no big public debate about what comes next for him, aside from Mike Florio’s comments a week ago that he could be released. But from where things stand, the signs are hard to ignore. In my view, Tagovailoa should step away, take the year off, and think seriously about his future.
That idea isn’t coming out of nowhere. Dolphins fans know the injury history.
They’ve watched the physical setbacks pile up, and they’ve also seen a change in his demeanor over the years. The conviction doesn’t look the same.
The urgency doesn’t look the same. Without saying he’s simply going through the motions, it’s fair to note that’s the impression he has left.
If Atlanta ends up being the end of the road, it should be. Tagovailoa has made it clear that his family comes first, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Still, it raises a real question about whether that priority is keeping him from giving the game the attention he would need to succeed at the highest level.
He may not be done in the NFL altogether. If a starting quarterback goes down somewhere else, teams will be watching. But for one of the league’s most polarizing players of the last six years, the writing looks like it’s on the wall.
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