Tua Tagovailoa injury: Five emergency QB options for Dolphins, including big-name trade targets

In the wake of Tua Tagovailoa’s Thursday injury, the third documented concussion for the Miami Dolphins quarterback since 2022, it’s fair to say many are more concerned with the 26-year-old’s long-term health than what’s next under center in Miami. CBS Sports HQ injury expert Marty Jaramillo, for example, said that Tagovailoa’s medical history suggests retirement should be on the table, and former NFL greats like Tony Gonzalez and Richard Sherman have already echoed as much, urging Tagovailoa to call it a career.

At some point, however, the Dolphins will need to make a decision on their quarterback plans. Coach Mike McDaniel emphasized in his postgame news conference Thursday that Miami’s blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills will serve as a “gut check” for the 2024 campaign, arguing the dire straits of Week 2 will either propel or sink what remains of this year’s playoff aspirations. Presuming Tagovailoa is sidelined indefinitely, the Dolphins’ response may well depend on who’s running McDaniel’s offense moving forward.

With Tagovailoa, after all, SportsLine had the Dolphins projected to hit nine wins in 2024, with a 50.3% chance of making the playoffs. If he’s out for, say, 10 weeks, that projected win total drops to 6.4, and the playoff chances plummet to 8.7%.

Thursday fill-in Skylar Thompson has stepped in on multiple occasions since arriving as a seventh-round draft pick in 2022, but the third-year reserve has been erratic in every appearance. So where else could the Dolphins turn for help? Here are five emergency options at quarterback:

If the Dolphins are looking for the most seamless, most experienced replacement, Tannehill is the guy. At 36, he’s a shell of his 2019-2020 self, which helped redefine the Tennessee Titans as a scrappy contender, but he’s got 150+ starts under his belt and has been waiting on the “right opportunity” as a free agent. More than that, he knows the city well, spending the first seven years of his career with the Dolphins, and has enough play-action prowess to be a figurehead for McDaniel’s run- and timing-based attack.

The former No. 3 overall pick has failed to earn the top backup job with the Dallas Cowboys in successive seasons, and he remains something of a total unknown as a passer. But McDaniel is very familiar with his game, serving as the San Francisco 49ers‘ run game coordinator in 2021, the year Kyle Shanahan and Co. moved up to draft Lance. If nothing else, McDaniel might be able to redraw parts of the offense to work in favor of Lance’s rushing ability, and the youngster isn’t likely to cost a lot via trade.

If it’s not Lance, then how about Lance’s predecessor/successor in San Francisco? The Los Angeles Rams probably prefer to keep him as veteran insurance behind a 36-year-old Matthew Stafford, but they also carried Stetson Bennett into the season as the No. 2 with Garoppolo serving a brief suspension. And Garoppolo may prefer one last shot at a first-team gig. Where better than in sunny Miami, where he’d reunite with McDaniel after five years together in the Bay Area? There might not be a better stylistic fit.

Released by the Jacksonville Jaguars ahead of the season with an injury settlement, Beathard has only started three games the last five years, but he’s been well-regarded as a No. 2 in multiple spots, firstly with Shanahan, McDaniel and the 49ers from 2017 to 2020. During that time, the Iowa product appeared in 19 games while filling in for an injured Jimmy Garoppolo. He notably threw six touchdowns to zero picks during the 2020 campaign, and also went 1-0 as the Jags’ emergency starter in 2023.

It always comes back to San Francisco, doesn’t it? Dobbs just signed with the 49ers this offseason, but he’s No. 3 on the depth chart behind Brock Purdy and Brandon Allen. He’s also no stranger to last-minute trades, embracing abrupt fill-in jobs with the Titans, Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings in the last two seasons alone. His magic proved short-lived in 2023, but he’s still got enough dual-threat flair to keep a team competitive, and McDaniel would almost certainly welcome Dobbs’ well-publicized intelligence.