FOXBORO, Mass. — The New England Patriots won’t see the Dolphins’ No. 1 quarterback on Sunday. Tua Tagovailoa is in concussion protocol and won’t play, meaning journeyman backup Teddy Bridgewater will start behind center for Miami.
That change should favor the Patriots, especially since Tagovailoa, for all the criticism he’s received at different points in his career, is a perfect 4-0 against New England. Just look at the betting line: The Dolphins opened as 1.5-point road favorites, but with Tagovailoa now out, they’re pegged as 3-point underdogs for this pivotal Week 17 matchup as of Thursday morning.
But another injury situation could tip the scales back toward the Dolphins’ shorthanded offense.
Miami boasts two of the NFL’s best — and fastest — wide receivers in Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Hill ranks second in the league in receiving yards and is Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded wideout. Waddle is sixth in receiving yards and ninth in PFF grade.
That dynamic duo will challenge defenses regardless of who’s throwing them the football. And the Patriots might need to defend them without as many as three of their top cover men.
Cornerbacks Jalen Mills (groin), Jack Jones (knee) and Marcus Jones (concussion) all missed the team’s first Week 17 practice on Wednesday. It remains possible that any of the three could return in time for Sunday’s game at Gillette Stadium, but if they can’t, New England would need to hope a severely depleted secondary can keep pace with a pair of elite receivers.
Losing Mills and the two rookie Joneses would leave the Patriots with only Jonathan Jones, Myles Bryant and Shaun Wade at the cornerback position.
Jones generally has held up well in his transition from slot specialist to starting outside corner and has the speed to run with Hill, but he’s been flagged for eight penalties in the last six games and has allowed four touchdowns during that span. A chest injury also limited him in practice Wednesday. Bryant has been the Patriots’ top slot corner all season but has struggled against faster opponents in the past, most notably against Buffalo’s Isaiah McKenzie last season.
The real concern here, though, is Wade, who seemingly would be next in line to start on the outside opposite Jonathan Jones.
The Patriots already were down to their third option in that spot, with 5-foot-8 Marcus Jones starting the last two games with Mills and Jack Jones sidelined and having issues against taller perimeter receivers. Wade, once a highly touted Ohio State prospect who slid to the fifth round after a poor 2020 season, has played just 18 defensive snaps this season and 29 in his Patriots career, sitting out the vast majority of his NFL games to date as a healthy scratch.
Despite playing without Mills and Jack Jones last week, the Patriots gave Wade just one snap against the Cincinnati Bengals, and he allowed a touchdown in a game they went on to lose 22-18. The 6-foot-1, 191-pound Wade also doesn’t possess Marcus Jones’ straight-line speed and maneuverability, which would be an asset against the dangerous Hill-Waddle combo. (Losing Jones also would rob the Patriots of a dangerous weapon on offense and in the return game.)
New England’s other reserve options at the position are practice squadders Quandre Mosely and Tae Hayes.
Mosely is an undrafted rookie out of Kentucky who posted some intriguing times at his pre-draft pro day, running a 4.4-second 40-yard dash and leaping 36 inches in the vertical jump at 6-foot-1, 185 pounds. He’s spent time with Dallas, Seattle and Tampa Bay this season but has yet to make his NFL debut.
The 25-year-old Hayes, who signed this week, saw sporadic action in five games for the Carolina Panthers earlier this season and also has appeared in games for Jacksonville, Miami and Minnesota since coming in as a UDFA in 2019.
ESPN’s Mike Reiss also floated versatile practice squad receiver Lynn Bowden as a potential emergency cornerback option if the Patriots get desperate.
Though Tagovailoa’s absence might lower Miami’s offensive ceiling, Hill and Waddle haven’t needed him to be productive this season. In a Week 6 loss to the Vikings that rookie Skylar Thompson started and Bridgewater finished, Hill had 12 catches for 177 yards, and Waddle had six for 129. They combined for 163 yards and a touchdown on 12 receptions in the Dolphins’ 20-7 win over New England in Week 1.
Veteran safety Devin McCourty said the Patriots are taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to this game, which New England must win to keep its playoff hopes alive.
“If you can go, you go,” McCourty said Wednesday. “You’re not saving it for anything. There’s no, ‘Man, it’s more important that my leg feels better later.’ There is no later. So I just tell guys it’s that simple, man. If you can go, you go. But it’s football. Injuries happen. If guys can’t go, you can’t go. There’s nothing you can do about that. Nobody wants to miss time. …
“Nobody feels sorry for you at this time of the year. Every team is dealing with something, every player. You don’t play 15 games and think (you’re) going to feel great for the 16th game. No, you’re going to feel bad. Things that might not put you on the injury report, but they just bother you — that continues to show up. We’ve just got to play through those things. (This is a) tough team. We’ve got a lot of tough individuals.”
