“The great thing about IR is there are no timelines for a month,” McDaniel told ESPN before Week 3. “I always say that, but I’m not sure people fully understand it. If you create a timeline based on the information you have today, how much of whatever happens fulfills the prophecy of that timeline? And Is that the right thing?” ? Especially with competitors and so on, sometimes you can do more harm than good.

“The fact that he doesn’t have to worry about anything when it comes to timelines gives him a lot of strength as a human being to recover from injury, and that’s the only motivating factor you have when you’re dealing with players and their career and their injuries.”

With that in mind, it doesn’t appear the Dolphins will provide a concrete update on Tagovailoa’s potential return anytime soon. So while he is eligible to return for Week 8, it seems more likely the team will evaluate him on a week-to-week basis.