It goes without saying that there are many things in life that are more important than football. After Tua Tagovailoa suffered yet another concussion on Thursday night, it may be time for him to hang up his cleats and move on to the next phase of his life.
Tagovailoa’s roles as a father, a husband, a brother, a son, and a friend should far outweigh those of a competitor and a football player. It is not like the potential ramifications of suffering further concussions has been lost on him and his family after a single season without suffering one. There is a very strong possibility Tagovailoa has enough money to take care of his family for the rest of their lives, so he owes it to himself and his family to give them the best quality of life that is possible going forward.
Even if Tagovailoa’s football career stops, the games will not. After Tagovailoa exited the game on Thursday night, Skylar Thompson replaced him in a game that was already well out of reach. Head coach Mike McDaniel has already proclaimed that Thompson is the next man up as Tagovailoa’s future remains uncertain.
𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧: The #Dolphins plan to move forward with Skylar Thompson as their starter, but intend to sign a veteran quarterback for depth, says HC Mike McDaniel. pic.twitter.com/YkhT3eU9Iv
— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) September 13, 2024
Thompson also played in 2022 when Tagovailoa missed time due to concussions. The results were not great.
Of the games listed above from 2022, the most notable are the two games against the Jets — the only two starts Thompson drew during the regular season. In those two games, Thompson had at least 31 attempts in each, but failed to exceed 166 yards passing in either game. Thompson also attempted 21 passes against the Patriots and 13 against the Vikings while splitting time with Teddy Bridgewater, but was never able to finish higher than QB29 in any given week of the 2022 season.
Thompson also drew the start in the Dolphins’ playoff game against the Bills in 2022. In that game he was able to throw for 220 yards and a touchdown, along with two interceptions. While not looking awful on the surface, Thompson was only able to complete 18 of his 45 pass attempts in the game, for an abysmal 40% completion rate.
Mike Mcdaniel trying to gameplan with Skylar and no offensive line pic.twitter.com/jJ3fKVAcwu
— John Christo (@WhitePepperGDF) September 14, 2024
Unless Thompson has grown exponentially over the course of 2023, it is not advisable to add him to rosters outside of superflex. And even then, best ball formats are preferable so managers do not have to make the cringeworthy decision of actually playing him. But the Dolphins do have multiple star players whose performances are directly influenced by Thompson’s play. With that being said, how big of a hit do the values of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle take while Thompson leads the Dolphins’ offense?
When looking at Thompson’s regular season starts in 2022, it is not surprising that neither Hill nor Waddle did particularly well. When there are only 166 yards at best to go around, it is hard for any receiver to have a good day. In Miami’s playoff loss to the Bills that year, Hill was able to salvage a respectable stat line of 15 targets resulting in seven catches for 69 receiving yards to go along with two carries for five yards. Waddle was not so fortunate, as he pulled in three of his seven targets for 44 receiving yards, on top of one carry for eight yards.
Across Thompson’s three games as starter in 2022, Hill averaged a stat line of 9.0 targets, 5.3 receptions, and 46.3 receiving yards per game. Waddle fared even worse, averaging of 4.3 targets, 3.7 receptions, and 37.0 receiving yards per game. It is fair to believe that another year of seasoning has allowed Thompson to develop somewhat, but probably not by the leaps and bounds necessary to support such high-profile fantasy assets. The best hope fantasy managers have is that the Dolphins can acquire a veteran QB quickly, in hopes that the new acquisition is ready to start as soon as Week 4.
If there is a silver lining to the situation, it looks like De’Von Achane will continue to stay heavily involved in the passing game as long as he remains healthy. In Thompson’s 2022 starts, he targeted the team’s running backs 7.7 times per game on average. In Miami’s first two games of 2024, Achane has earned seven targets in each; catching all of them for 145 receiving yards and a touchdown. With continued usage in the receiving game, Achane could achieve the highly-coveted rushing and receiving EP double-double that creates legendary fantasy seasons for RBs.
It will be hard for any QB the Dolphins acquire to replicate the game splits that Tagovailoa has had with his top-two receivers during their time in Miami. On the other side of the coin, things cannot get much worse than they were during Thompson’s starts in 2022. With the Dolphins very much in a window to compete for a playoff spot, the team should aggressively pursue all viable QB options available to them. While there will probably not be any options capable of helping Hill and Waddle produce like they did with Tagovailoa, there will almost certainly be options out there that can surpass Thompson.
