After an offseason of building around Tua Tagovailoa … after reworking the receiving unit in the draft and free agency … after investing another second- and third-round pick in the offensive line … after naming co-offensive coordinators and bringing in a new quarterback coach …
After months of hirings and reshufflings and preparation, you’d expect this offense in order days before the Miami Dolphins opener at New England. But it’s not. It’s in “next-man-up mentality,’’ as coach Brian Flores said Monday.
Left tackle Austin Jackson and tight end Adam Shaheen were put Monday on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Flores said the plan is to move ahead like they won’t play Sunday. But they could. Maybe.
Flores promoted safety Jamal Perry to one spot and left the other open. So possibly, say, Jackson might return at an all-important spot?
“Wait and see,” Flores said.
He shrugged, palms up, when asked if one could return.
“Wait and see,’’ he said.
This is the motto around much of the league right now. Dallas, for instance, had nine players on the COVID list in just over the past two weeks. It had seven all last year.
One of them, All-Pro lineman Zack Martin, is out for the opener. Stay tuned, too. Teams just returned from having a long weekend off and testing is back in play, as the Dolphins discovered.
So is the debate about vaccinations. Shaheen, who has talked of being unvaccinated, was battling a knee injury and his status for Sunday was unknown even before this. Jackson’s vaccination status is unknown.
Anyone who is vaccinated can still get the virus. It’s just NFL protocol allows vaccinated players to return after two negative tests 24 hours apart, while unvaccinated players who test positive require a 10-day quarantine.
So vaccinations matter in the NFL, if not as a medical safety issue than from a purely practical standpoint. The NFL isn’t so much worried about players’ health here.
It’s worried about its multi-billion-dollar business. It doesn’t want decimated rosters and canceled games. How to avoid that? Push the vaccine — and the penalties for the unvaccinated.
Forget for a moment the larger world. Forget more than 96% of the people in hospitals from COVID-19 are unvaccinated.
Forget, too, New England coach Bill Belichick ignorantly downplaying a vaccine’s effect by suggesting, “a pretty high number” of vaccinated players and staff were suspended by league protocol.
Belichick walked that back Monday after the league pointed to released statistics that contradicted his thesis. Unvaccinated players tested positive at seven times the rate of vaccinated players.
“As a team, we’re better off if everyone is vaccinated,’’ Belichick said Monday.
Here’s the time to point out Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay team announced it joined Atlanta as the league’s only fully vaccinated teams. Coach Bruce Arians said publicly and privately they had to treat COVID-19 as an opponent. So the defending champs are 1-0.
Arians isn’t far off, either. Last year’s problems with the virus don’t go away. Look at baseball. Marlins manager Don Mattingly missed two weeks with COVID despite being vaccinated. The Boston Red Sox have lost 11 players in the last 10 days to the suspended list for testing positive.
For now, the Dolphins are without Jackson. An offensive line with questions might add a big one on Sunday: Who’s the left tackle?
Oh, right, lots of people note Tagavailoa is left-handed so the left tackle isn’t his blind side. The implication is the position doesn’t matter as much as with a right-handed quarterback.
Belichick will load up his defense to attack the weakest link in the line. Maybe that would be Jackson’s replacement, reserve Greg Little, if it comes to that. Although Little wasn’t seen at practice on Monday.
Or maybe Jesse Davis moves from right tackle to left. Maybe rookie Liam Eichenberg plays the left tackle position he did at Notre Dame — and hasn’t for the past eight months. See the issues?
“We talked about that as a staff,’’ Flores said. “We’ve got a few different options.”
This isn’t going away, not in sports, not in society. On Monday, as the Dolphins wrestled with their issues, retired Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson tweeted that a friend of his, Mike Forster, got the virus and had just passed away. He had the only logical message for everyone.
“Get vaccinated people!!!” he tweeted.
