Dolphins vs Bills NFL Wild Card Weekend injury report: Why isn’t Tua Tagovailoa playing?
Though it is truly about ‘Any Given Sunday,’ the reality is the Dolphins are facing a particularly tough challenge with a depleted roster and an opponent who is not just favored, but highly motivated to win.
If the Buffalo Bills didn’t already have several advantages over the Miami Dolphins coming into this huge Wild Card game, you can now add the health of their roster to the list. At this point, it’s becoming of ‘what else can go wrong for Mike McDaniel’s men?’
Dolphins vs Bills: The Lay of the Land
The Bills come into Sunday’s game having finished the season with a 13-3 record, but perhaps the bigger story is that of their safety, Damar Hamlin. As has been well documented, Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on field during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals back on January 2nd. Since that time, there has been an incredible outpouring of love from fans, friends and family, as well as many teams and players around the NFL. Indeed, the Bills come into this game especially motivated and it should be said, considered one of the favorites in the playoffs.
On the other side, we’ve got the Dolphins (9-8) who started off the 2022-23 NFL season as one of the favored teams in the league. Unfortunately, the team has had to cope with a number of injuries to key players, not the least of which has been the case of starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Indeed, Miami’s signal caller has been in the league’s concussion protocol on no less than three occasions this season, with the most recent coming against the Green Bay Packers back in December. To be clear, Tagovailoa continues in the league’s protocol and will not face the Bills.
The Dolphins injury report
As mentioned above, the Dolphins have had major injury concerns throughout the season and one of the most recent is the aforementioned Tua Tagovailoa. That being said, there are definitely other key starters who are about sit out Sunday’s game. One of those, is the man who should have been Tagovailoa’s backup, Teddy Bridgewater, who is out with knee trouble and a dislocated finger. What that means, is that undrafted rookie QB, Skylar Thompson, will start against the Bills. Not ideal. At any rate, here’s a look at the injury report for the Dolphins:
The Bills injury report
To be honest, the Bills don’t have much of a injury report. With wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie and Jordan Phillips being the only players on the injury report - both listed as questionable - it’s not hard to see why Buffalo is heavily favored to come out on top in this contest. That’s no disrespect to Skylar Thompson, who did play a key role in the Dolphins season ending win over the Jets, but let’s be honest, unless Thompson is about to show us something we’ve not seen before, this is going to be a tall task. Here’s the injury report for the Buffalo Bills: