Dolphins downgrade Tua Tagovailoa to questionable for hip injury

CLEVELAND — The Miami Dolphins downgraded quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to questionable for Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns with a hip injury.

Tagovailoa initially suffered the injury during the Dolphins’ Week 15 loss to the Houston Texans, but he was able to finish the game and play in the team’s Week 16 win over the San Francisco 49ers.

He downplayed the injury earlier this week, describing it as typical wear and tear at this point in the season.

“I mean, it’s good. It’s like everybody else on the team and everybody else around the league,” Tagovailoa said Thursday when asked how his hip felt. “You get beat up a little bit toward the end of the year, so you just have to deal with that.”

Tagovailoa was limited in every Dolphins practice this week and was initially listed as questionable to play Sunday.

Tagovailoa suffered a compound hip fracture during his final season at Alabama in 2019 that put his playing career in jeopardy.

He was cleared in time to play his rookie season; this would be the first time he missed a game with a hip injury in his NFL career.

The next two weeks are critical for the Dolphins, who can secure a third straight playoff berth if they win both games, finish with a better record than the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos lose both of their remaining games.

If Tagovailoa is unable to play Sunday, Tyler Huntley would start at quarterback for the Dolphins, with Skylar Thompson serving as the primary backup. Huntley started three games for Miami this season, resulting in one win and two losses.

In those three starts, he completed 59% of his passes for 377 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

This would be a return to Cleveland of sorts for Huntley, who signed with the Browns as a free agent in March but was released in August. Miami signed Huntley off Baltimore’s practice squad in September after Tagovailoa suffered the third documented concussion of his NFL career.