Thursday, September 12, 2024
Postgame – Buffalo
Dolphins DT Calais Campbell
(Not only do you lose to them, but you also lose QB Tua Tagovailoa, you lose by that kind of margin. Just sum it all up. How tough is this loss? A loss is a loss, but it sucks when you factor in everything.) – “Yeah, they played better than us today. Thursday Night Football, primetime, we obviously wanted to play better, but we didn’t get it done. But we’re not going to overreact. It’s just one football game. The only thing this really says is that we’re not going to be undefeated this season, but I know who we have in this locker room. We’re going to bounce back. We’re going to be a good football team. It felt like it was very similar to last week’s game. We were kind of spotting them points and making simple mistakes that were very fixable. The second half, I feel like we had a lot of fight in there. We just kept playing football. It wasn’t good enough to win but the way I see just how hungry our guys are and the way we keep playing football – I like this team and we will be just fine.”
(How difficult was it to see QB Tua Tagovailoa go down the way he did when he has a history of concussions? I’m sure that’s got to be tough to see. As a veteran, have you seen this many times before?) – “Yeah, you never like seeing them go down. Tua’s such a great guy and given his history, it makes it a little tougher. He’s tough. He’s resilient. It’s the worst part of the game. I’m hoping he’s ok. I’m definitely going to reach out to him and pray for him and go out there and continue to fight for him. I don’t know what the situation is or how things are going to go from here, but just be a good teammate, be there for him and support him until he gets back.”
(Although it’s a violent sport just how scary is it to still see it? I’m sure you’ve seen it many times before, but still every time, it’s still a scary situation for you, the media, everybody.) – “Yeah, but anytime you get up and walk off the field on your own power, that’s a good start. That makes you feel good about it. It’s always scary and definitely not anything you ever want to see, but I definitely feel good about the way he got up and walked off the field his own power. He’s a tough guy, a very tough guy.”
Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024
Postgame – Buffalo Bills
Miami Dolphins LB David Long Jr.
(When you look at it – losing to a division opponent, that’s had your number now, losing by that kind of margin and then losing your quarterback. Just sum it all up, how tough is this loss? Every loss sucks but this one has to sting just a little bit more with all the factors.) – “It’s tough but it’s also early. Let’s not jump to the end chapter of the book. This is football, get back and see how Tua [Tagovailoa] is doing and go from there. But the standard and the mentality, it shouldn’t change. That’s the (expletive) that stays. That’s the foundation we are built on so that stays put, but anywhere we go starts from the foundation. So I think we built that, I think we know how to come back from bad losses. We will do it again.”
(As an athlete how tough is that when you see one of your fellow warriors…) – “It’s very tough cause it’s a very violent game we play and any play can be your last. We’ve seen it before. But we know what we got in this game for. We know the highs and the lows that come out of it. And if you are playing scared or plan for that, like trying to avoid that, then it messes up your game. You have to go out there and be fearless and you take whatever comes with it.”
Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024
Postgame – Buffalo Bills
Miami Dolphins FB Alec Ingold
(On Tua trying to make a play and his injury) – “I saw him go down. He tried to protect himself diving head first and it’s an unfortunate situation. All the prayers are out to him, his family. I know his kids, his wife. We’re all a pretty tight-knit family right now on this team. First and foremost you’re just hoping that he’s safe and we’ll move forward with that but you’re always praying for our guys to come out healthy and yeah, it was a tough one to see.”
(Knowing what QB Tua Tagovailoa has been through in his career, how much more heart-wrenching is that to think that this could be more serious than for other people?) – “I think you always take that perspective into every single game. You’re always taking every single game as an opportunity to do what you love to do, to do what you’re made to do and we just hope that everything moving forward can be as positive as possible, uplifting every single human being in this locker room, praying for safety and health for everybody on the field always, and obviously it’s always tough to see your leader go down like that. So we’ll all be praying and moving forward having his family in our thoughts and prayers.”
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Postgame – Buffalo
Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel
Q. Have you talked to Tua and what have you observed from his condition?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I talked to him in the locker room. Obviously I talked to him on the field, then talked to him in the locker room before he was headed home. He was in good spirits.
Q. What was your immediate thought when you saw him go down into the fencing position?
MIKE McDANIEL: My thought was concern and I was just worried about my guy, so yeah, it’s not something that you ever want to be a part of. You hope not to.
Q. Obviously it’s very early in the process with Tua. Do you foresee a trip to the injured reserve list? Do you have any insight on that?
MIKE McDANIEL: Right now it’s more about getting a proper procedural evaluation tomorrow and taking it one day at a time. The furthest thing from my mind is what is the timeline. We just need to evaluate and I’m just worried about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are. But we’ll get more information tomorrow and then take it day by day from there.
Q. Regardless of how he progresses through protocol from here, how will what happened in 2022 impact how you and the team handle Tua this time around?
MIKE McDANIEL: I think it’s important to approach each and every situation much like you approach every injury, which is basically we’re going to handle this particular situation with this particular player. Every situation is unique to its own. I think for me, I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands in terms of I’m just worried about the human being. And he’ll drive the ship when we get the appropriate information. But it’s day-by-day health really. Try to approach all that stuff that way, particularly with concussions.
Q. Do you think it’s safe for Tua to play football considering he’s had four concussions in I think four or five years?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I think from a medical standpoint, I don’t approach things that I’m far inferior of expertise. I’m just there to support my teammate, like I said. I think for me to go ahead and forecast things that I don’t know in my non-field of expertise, I don’t think that’s appropriate. I think we’ll find out some more information tomorrow in terms of where Tua’s at. He’ll be able to spend a good amount of time being evaluated, then we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate. Like the rest of his teammates, who he went around the locker room and connected with as a leader, he was trying to keep the guys’ heads up, he’ll be in the office tomorrow to have the appropriate care.
Q. Even before that injury, it wasn’t the kind of night you probably expected. How do you explain what played out there?
MIKE McDANIEL: It’s a tough one that I think there was a lot of high expectations and ambitions for the game, fully knowing that it was going to be a tough one. But I think every person on the team would tell you when playing a good football team, if you’re minus three or four, whatever it was and then with the fourth downs on top of that; no one foresaw that. You might be able to win one out of a hundred with the nuts and bolts of that. And I think that’s the main thing that the football team is feeling, is supreme disappointment, because they’ve put a lot into it. They have high expectations. And you can’t even evaluate appropriately when you’re playing football that way and giving it to the opponent, giving them extra possessions, especially a quarterback like that. I think football’s a tough, tough business. Like I told the team, this hurts for a reason. And then you have to find out if you need – I think we have enough veteran players in that locker room that understand the belief will come from within because quite frankly, you can already turn the page, know what’s going to be said about us. And that’s probably going to last for a while. We’ll have plenty of opportunities to really take the sheer frustration and anger out on the way we approach our jobs day in, day out. It’s also very much Week 2 and that was our first division game. It feels way bigger than that because there’s a lot of history to this matchup and there were a lot of things we thought we were going to take care of that are definitely not taken care of. So I think it’s a gut check for the team early in the season. I look at things like if we would have won by 30, what does that mean? I think that puts the game in perspective. It’s one loss that really cuts deep. But that can either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you respond to it. So I really believe in the locker room. I believe in the coaching staff and I better believe it cause it’s going to be a while before it’s going to be anybody but us believing that and that’s okay. I think these types of moments where your expectations and what you put into things far exceed the result, you can’t hide in situations like that. And so I am expecting to move forward as a team and have this be a galvanizing moment in our season as we look back on it down the road. And how do you do that? You handle tough situations, you come together as a group and you make sure that you clean up the things in your game that led to this. The team wasn’t given a fair shot necessarily tonight because we had some absolutely catastrophic misgivings with the football. That’s what’s going to happen. I suppose it’s best to know that. It’s better to learn that sooner than later. We have a gigantic season ahead of us. We’re 1-1. There’s some adversity. Welcome to the NFL.
Q. That said, the adversity and the season ahead, with the uncertainty on what’s next for Tua, how much confidence do you have that you’re going to be able to bounce back with this Skylar for whatever foreseeable time it is?
MIKE McDANIEL: I think as a rookie – I know everyone doesn’t get to see Skylar play. I don’t know what our timeline is. I’m not concerned with that. We played with Skylar as a rookie with the season on the line, and found a way to win an elimination game and go toe-to-toe with this very same organization in a playoff game and he’s a much better player than he was then. Those are things that the team feels. I think guys really believe in Skylar. I have the utmost confidence in him. That’s why he’s our backup quarterback. And you’re always very aware that injuries happen in the National Football League. You can’t do anything in the National Football League getting ahead of yourself. You can look at one opponent and you can look at the next day and try to get better at something, then build on that and get better at something else the next day. That’s kind of the way this team will approach it. I think we have a very experienced team with a lot of leaders and leadership is called upon in moments in like this. I don’t see people putting all their – this was not the Super Bowl, although it was a very, very hard game to take. I know this will be imprinted in the minds of all our guys for the rest of the season, for sure. Storylines evolve every single year in a multitude of ways and you have to as a team, just like you can’t – a season ago or the season previous, it was new to the team to get excessive praise. That’s something that you have to defend yourself against. On the same token, when you’re 1-1, there’s going to be a million people that say we can’t and so you have to decide if you want everyone to be right or wrong. I think that’s what’s at stake. Is your team motivated by outside sources or is your team worried about the right stuff and getting better and continuing to evolve as a team together? Adverse times really, really suck on the front end, but are very, very validating when you push through them, especially on a team collectively. So that’s what we’ll be chasing here in the near future.
Q. You’ve grown particularly close to Tua. I was curious how you just focus your mind completely on football after seeing a scene like that? I think you gave him a kiss on the side of the head when he walked off the field. How do you coach the rest of that game thinking about his well-being?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I always have those extremely human moments just with all the things that come in football. In particular injuries are difficult for me. But at the same time there’s so many people depending on my focus that if I don’t really see, like, there’s a lot of other people that are also depending on me, just like Tua is. You have to look at it like that. That’s where my mind goes. It’s not the easiest thing in the world, for sure, but nor is having this job, so you’ve got to step up.
Q. Terron – is he okay?
MIKE McDANIEL: I’ll get more information. He was battling and I don’t really have much beyond what tomorrow’s assessment will be. It’s always super fast right after the game to be able to sort through that. We’ll have more information tomorrow, for sure. To be determined, I guess.
Q. How would you assess how De’Von played tonight, especially with the injury?
MIKE McDANIEL: I thought De’Von really showed some really cool professional growth in a short week. He was in the training room non-stop trying to take advantage of this opportunity. He knew we had already taken a shot at that position so what he was able to do tonight, I thought he performed very well. The only reason he was able to have the opportunity was because he really went all in, and in the process showed his teammates how much he can be counted on. He was literally living in the training room to get out there. I thought it was a cool individual piece of growth in an otherwise pretty miserable experience.
Q. On the first interception, why were neither Tyreek Hill or Jaylen Waddle on the field for that?
MIKE McDANIEL: On that interception, they were coming off. We were trying to put Jaylen back in the game, but we were kind of downing the clock and quite honestly, the way the defender was playing, the ball was a little behind Grant (DuBose). I’m not sure what difference that would have made. Early in the game, you’re trying to rotate guys and make sure that they’re fresh. We do that often. It was unfortunate that that was the result.
Q. When you see Tua checking on other guys in the locker room after the night that he’s had with a smile on his face, what goes through your mind?
MIKE McDANIEL: How much he loves his teammates, how much he loves being out there with his teammates really. Just another example of his great character and leadership. I think that when something happens to an individual and you see their response is less – I mean, he’s concerned about his teammates. That tells you everything about the type of person he is. He knows what he means to this team and shows a lot of awareness in that regard because he knows there’s a lot of guys that are worried about him, so yeah, I think what goes through my mind is he’s a great, great human being and a great teammate.
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Postgame – Buffalo
Dolphins QB Skylar Thompson
Q. What interactions, if any, were you able to have with Tua?
SKYLAR THOMPSON: I haven’t had an interaction with him. I don’t really have any information or anything to expand on that. When he went down, I immediately started getting ready and I have yet to have an encounter with him yet.
Q. How scary was that to see?
SKYLAR THOMPSON: I tell you what, it makes me sick. I think anyone for the human eye, like it sucks. In my position, you never want to have your opportunity come with something like that and have a lot of love for Tua. Built a great relationship with him. Yeah, you care about the person more than the player. Everybody in the organization would say the same thing. So just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.
Q. How do you think it went for you after you came in?
SKYLAR THOMPSON: I felt like we moved the ball a little bit. It’s always a good thing. Definitely want to score in the red zone there, those two opportunities. But had some positive plays and some stuff to build on. There’s always things to clean up and whatnot, but I feel like we got some first downs and had some good plays out there so that’s definitely a positive out of that.
Q. Tua last year missed two games after the first concussion, then three after the second. Why do you think you’re better prepared if it’s going to be two, three, four weeks with you as a starter to lead this team?
SKYLAR THOMPSON: This is my third year. I’ve gotten some really good experience, especially that first year. This entire time I have just kept working, trying to get better, just preparing for opportunities. What’s going to lie ahead, who knows, but man, I’m confident, though. 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. Not going to look too far ahead, but whatever is to come, I’m excited for, I’ll be ready for it. It will be fun.
Q. There’s a lot of complexity with what Tua was running in terms of the ball fakes and things like that. Do you feel like you’re prepared to run the entire playbook?
SKYLAR THOMPSON: Absolutely. Absolutely. I’ve gotten a lot of reps in this system. All the stuff that Tua is doing and has done with the ball-handling stuff, all the motions, everything; I’ve gotten three years under my belt now of digesting that and learning it. Yeah, I feel like I’m fully equipped to run whatever Mike wants and not be limited at all whenever I’m in the game.
