Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa left the second quarter of a monumental AFC East showdown with the Cincinnati Bengals due to a possible head injury. Fortunately for Miami, the Dolphins have one of the league’s top backups ready to take his place.
Teddy Bridgewater signed a one-year, $6.5 million contract to serve as Tagovailoa’s understudy back in March. The former starter for the Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos was a 2015 Pro Bowler who was forced to rebuild his career after a catastrophic knee injury cost him all of 2016 and nearly forced him into retirement.
Bridgewater was a member of our top tier of backup quarterbacks when we separated all 32 candidates into groups back in July. He’s a perfectly average passer who may not engineer many fourth quarter comebacks, but who also does enough with the offense to put his team in position to win. He’s 33-30 as a starter in his career.
He’ll likely have to hold down the fort for the rest of the Dolphins’ Week 4 tilt against the reigning AFC champion Bengals. Tagovailoa looked extremely shaken up after hitting his head on the turf in the first half of Thursday night’s game and had to be stretchered off the field.
Bridgewater played three snaps in Week 3’s game after Tagovailoa left briefly with what appeared to be a head injury but later explained away as a back injury. He failed to complete either of his passes in that brief relief appearance.