Dolphins will bring in another quarterback, while Tagovailoa deals with concussion

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The Miami Dolphins will bring in another quarterback while starter Tua Tagovailoa deals with his latest concussion, and coach Mike McDaniel insisted Friday that the only thing that should matter to him — or anyone — is Tagovailoa's health.

For the short term at least, Skylar Thompson will be considered the Dolphins' starter while Tagovailoa is sidelined. Tagovailoa left Thursday night's 31-10 loss to Buffalo in the third quarter with the third known concussion of his NFL career, all of them coming in the last 24 months.

“The team and the organization are very confident in Skylar,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel said the team has not made any decision about whether to place Tagovailoa on injured reserve. Tagovailoa was at the team facility Friday, as expected and as McDaniel said would be the case, to start the process of being evaluated in earnest.

How long that process takes is one of the countless unknowns right now.

“The people that matter most, and their opinions, are Tua, the doctors and the experts,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel and Tagovailoa have expressed often over their time together that their relationship is close. And McDaniel tried to make clear multiple times Friday that his top priority is Tagovailoa's well-being — not when he plays again.

“All the science behind concussions tells you what we’ve learned is how delicate the time is right after an injury and how important it is that you don’t institute extra sources of anxiety,” McDaniel said. “So, from my vantage point, I feel it’s supremely important in understanding that, that I’m not giving off any sort of vibes.”

There are a slew of veteran quarterbacks available for the Dolphins to consider, including Jimmy Garoppolo and former Miami starter Ryan Tannehill. The Dolphins have not revealed any players who are under consideration, and — despite plenty of former players suggesting it may be time for Tagovailoa to consider his long-term health — McDaniel said it would be “so wrong” for him to even think about weighing in on whether the quarterback should play again.

“I wish people would for a second hear what I’m saying, that bringing up his future is not in the best interest of him,” McDaniel said. "So, I’m going to plead with everybody that does genuinely care — that should be the last thing on your mind.”

Concerns and opinions from around the football world were coming nonstop Friday, from former Alabama coach Nick Saban — Tagovailoa's college coach — urging the quarterback and his family to proceed with caution, to Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce saying he would tell Tagovailoa to stop playing the game.

“I’ll be honest: I’d just tell him to retire," Pierce said.

All that seems certain: McDaniel doesn't envision Tagovailoa playing in Miami's next game at Seattle on Sept. 22.

Tagovailoa was hurt on a play where he collided into Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin. Tagovailoa, who was rushing successfully for a first down, initiated the contact by lowering his shoulder into Hamlin instead of sliding as many quarterbacks do on a scramble.

Players from both teams motioned that Tagovailoa was hurt after that play, and as he lay on the turf the quarterback exhibited some signs — certain arm movements, for example — typically associated with a traumatic brain injury. He remained down on the field for a couple of minutes, got to his feet and walked to the sideline after the play in the third quarter.

McDaniel gave his quarterback a kiss on the side of the head as he left the field Thursday. McDaniel revealed Friday that, in that moment, he was telling Tagovailoa to focus on what matters most — his health and his family.

“All I'm telling Tua is everyone is counting on you to be a dad and be a dad this weekend," McDaniel said. “And then we'll move from there.”

There are five steps, as mandated by the NFL concussion protocol, that Tagovailoa will have to clear before he can return to the field. That process can take days or even weeks.

Tagovailoa was 17 for 25 passing for 145 yards, with one touchdown and three interceptions — one of which was returned for a Buffalo score — when he got hurt. Thompson completed eight of 14 passes for 80 yards.

“We’re just evaluating the pros and cons for the different situations and getting through all those possibilities to do the best thing for the team,” McDaniel said, when revealing that the team had already decided to bring in another quarterback. "But as it stands today, I’m expecting that Skylar is the next man up.”

Thompson said he feels “fully equipped” to run the Dolphins' offense.

“What’s going to lie ahead, who knows, but man, I’m confident, though,” Thompson said after Thursday's game. “I feel like I’m ready for whatever’s to come. I’m going to prepare and work hard and do everything I can to lead this team and do my job.”

AP NFL: http://www.apnews.com/hub/NFL

Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel talks during a news conference following an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel talks to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) as he leaves the game after suffering a concussion during the second half of an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) lies on the field after suffering a concussion during the second half of an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Dolphins will bring in another quarterback, while Tagovailoa deals with concussion

Dolphins will bring in another quarterback, while Tagovailoa deals with concussion

WASHINGTON (AP) — As stock markets tumble in the aftermath of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, Republicans in Congress were watching with unease and talking of clawing back their power to levy tariffs — but almost none seemed ready to turn their words into action.

The Republican president is upending longstanding GOP principles like support for free trade, yet despite clear misgivings and a Constitutional mandate to decide tariffs, most lawmakers were not ready to cross Trump. Instead, they were focusing all their attention on advancing the president's " big, beautiful bill ” of tax breaks and spending cuts, even as tariffs — in essence, import taxes — threatened to raise consumer prices across the board and push the global economy into a recession.

As the fallout from Trump's announcement reverberated around global markets, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has made it clear he is no fan of tariffs, told reporters that he would give Trump "the benefit of the doubt” in hopes that the announcement was just a scare tactic to prod foreign leaders into negotiating better trade deals with the U.S.

“The president is a dealmaker if nothing else, and he's going to continue to deal country by country with each of them,” said Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican who is no. 2 in GOP Senate leadership. He added that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had told Senate Republicans this week that the tariffs announced by Trump would be a “high level mark with the ultimate goal of getting them reduced” unless other countries retaliate.

But countries like China are already retaliating with tariffs of their own, and while the president has signaled he is open to negotiations, he was mostly sounding a defiant tone Friday, saying on social media that “MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE” while claiming that foreign investors were lining up to invest in U.S. industries. He was on the golf course Friday near his Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida.

Congress, however, was jittery.

A handful of Republicans have rebuked Trump's strategy as a foolhardy path that will burden U.S. households. Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the longtime Senate leader who was the standard-bearer for past generations of Republicans, released a lengthy statement saying, “As I have always warned, tariffs are bad policy, and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most.”

McConnell and three other Republicans joined with Democrats this week to help pass a resolution that would nullify Trump's tariffs on Canada, sending a rebuke to the president just hours after his “Liberation Day” announcement. But House Speaker Mike Johnson quickly indicated he has no interest in giving the resolution a vote.

Lawmakers' struggle to act showed the divide among Republicans on trade policy, with a mostly younger group of Republicans fiercely backing Trump's strategy. Rather than heed traditional free trade doctrine, they argue for “America First” protectionism and hope it will revive U.S. manufacturing.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said that workers in his home state of Missouri were “absolutely thrilled” with the tariffs. “We've been losing jobs left and right. Farmers want to see a fair deal for our products, both in Canada and in Mexico and from the (European Union)," he added.

For their part, Democrats slammed Trump's tariffs as a reckless maneuver meant to do nothing more than raise funds for the tax breaks Trump and Republicans are trying to pass.

“Why would he raise the costs on American families by $5,000, as it’s estimated? Simply because his very wealthy billionaire friends want a greater tax break,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech Friday.

Other Republicans were looking for roundabout ways to at least check the president's power on trade policy. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a senior Republican from Iowa, introduced a bipartisan bill Thursday that would require presidents to justify new tariffs to Congress. Lawmakers would then have to approve the tariffs within 60 days, or they would expire.

Although Grassley emphasized that he had long been working on the idea, the timing of the bill was notable. It gave Republicans a chance to talk about their distaste for import taxes and raised the prospect of Congress clawing back some of its power over tariffs. The Constitution gives Congress the responsibility of setting taxes and tariffs, but over the last century, lawmakers have ceded much of their power over import taxes to the president.

A handful of Republicans said they were favorable to Grassley's proposal, though the idea of directly defying Trump seemed to squelch potential for quick action.

“I don’t want to do it in a politically charged environment,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican. “But I absolutely agree. This was set up by the Founding Fathers to be Congress’s role. And, I think we’re way past the point of what the Founding Fathers ever wanted to have happen."

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz seized on the hesitation from Republicans, saying on social media Friday that the Senate would overwhelmingly repeal or constrain tariff authority “if every Senator voted their conscience and their state’s interest.”

“Mostly everyone hates this, they are just too afraid of the Mad King at the moment,” Schatz added.

Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, also predicted the bill would never pass “because of the voting requirements in the Senate.”

But he was still taking to social media to offer a folksy bit of advice: “Tariffs are like whiskey: A little whiskey, under the right circumstances, can be refreshing — but too much whiskey, under the wrong circumstances, can make you drunk as a goat.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., criticizes the agenda of President Donald Trump and the tactics of billionaire Elon Musk in a pivotal Wisconsin election where Democrats won, during a news conference at the Capitol, in Washington, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., attends a news conference discussing the Republican-backed budget plan at the Capitol, in Washington, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., joined by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the GOP whip, left, talks to reporters ahead of announcements by President Donald Trump on tariffs, at the Capitol, in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks with reporters as he arrives for a closed-door strategy session with fellow Republicans ahead of announcements by President Donald Trump on tariffs, at the Capitol, in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R- Iowa, takes his seat as the panel meets to consider prescription drug pricing and other measures, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)