At 5-7, the Miami Dolphins are almost out of time in 2024.
If they're going to make the playoffs, they essentially need to win out. After dropping their first game in a month on Thanksgiving, their backs are officially against the wall.
It's a scenario most never would've imagined for a team as talented as the Dolphins.
"Very surprised. I don't think that shows the character of who we are as a team," quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said Wednesday of the team's current standing. "It doesn't show the work that we've put in this offseason together."
Dolphins fans will understandably rationalize this disappointing season by pointing to one fateful moment way back in Week 2, when Tagovailoa attempted to scramble for a first down in a prime-time game against Buffalo and suffered his latest concussion. The head injury landed him on injured reserve, forcing him to miss four games over five weeks.
During that span, the Dolphins cratered offensively, putting up a total of 40 points over the four games Tagovailoa missed. They went through three quarterbacks during that stretch, starting with backup Skylar Thompson (who ended up getting injured in his first start), shifting to Tim Boyle and eventually turning to veteran Tyler Huntley. Though Huntley won one start (Week 5 over New England), none of the replacements got the job done well enough to revive Miami's offense.
All Tagovailoa could do was watch from the sideline as his teammates struggled mightily.
Since he's returned, Miami has gone 3-3, including two one-possession losses in his first two games back. They've resuscitated their offense enough to remain competitive in all but one game: their last, a 30-17 loss in Green Bay.
Tagovailoa understandably feels things would be a lot different had he been on the field this entire time.
"Nobody else will say it but me, and I feel like this has a lot to do with myself obviously putting myself in harm's way in the second game, going down -- basically leaving my guys out to dry, that's what I would say," he lamented ahead of Miami's Week 14 game against the Jets. "Anyone can have an opinion about, 'It's football. It's this, it's that.' I do take heart to that as well and still don't want to do that to my guys again."
A year after completing a full season for the first time in his career -- and leading Miami to a wild-card berth on the back of its highly explosive offense -- Tagovailoa has once again been forced out of action and watched his team pay for it. It's a harsh reality, but one from which Tagovailoa isn't running.
The Dolphins will have to reach sprinter's speed to make the playoffs in the time remaining, though.
