Josh Moser | Miami Dolphins Reporter

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There's a lot to listen to, so get started and download the free Odyssey app today. Josh Moser is joining us, and he is Finn's reporter, so Dolphins reporter for WSVN, their main sports anchor, with the team on the road in Cincinnati. Josh, what is the latest for Tua, since obviously that's the biggest story to come out of tonight?

The best news of the night. Tua was able to come back to the stadium after being released from the hospital. I saw him and spoke to him. He was wearing scrubs and a neck brace. He was choking.

He was his jovial self, so it looks like he appeared to be very, very normal. Luckily, his parents were here at the game to watch him live, so they were able to get to the hospital, be there with him. And Tua was able to fly back with the team on the team plane, was able to kiss his mom and his dad goodbye before he got onto that flight.

So it appears as of now, Tua is okay from a normal person perspective. Now it's just a question of when will he pass protocols and be ready to play football again. You get a little bit of a mini bi-week here for the Dolphins.

They've got the jets coming up in week five at their place. Does he remember what happened? Did he say anything about getting sacked? He did not. It was very brief, just kind of, hey, just make sure you're good. And that was it. There was no official media.

They were kind of just telling everyone to stay away, was able to sneak in for a quick hello, and that was it. Amazing that he was joking and smiling and able to walk around under his own power, considering he was down on the field for almost 10 minutes. Well, the big question, of course, is about whether he should have been playing now that we know he's okay. What did the Dolphins, specifically Mike McDaniel, say after the game?

Well, Mike was asked directly point blank if he would have done anything differently about Tua following the hit he took last week against the Bills by linebacker Matt Milano. It looked really bad on TV. He was taken down. It looked like his head hit the turf. He got up, was very woozy, appeared dazed, and the Dolphins came out and said that it was a back injury. Tua said it was a back injury, and there was nothing involved with the head. Well, then the NFLPA came out and said, hey, we want to start an investigation and look into this. But Mike McDaniel was asked about this following tonight's game, and he says absolutely not. He wouldn't do anything differently last week knowing what happened tonight. He says the players' health is of the utmost importance, and we followed the protocols and wouldn't have changed anything.

But it's just hard as a fan when you see Tua's fingers on TV cringe the way that they did after taking that hit, and then just seeing visually the hit that he took last week. It's just a terrible coincidence that luckily he was able to get released from the hospital and fly back with the team. Knowing what you know of Coach McDaniel, and I know it's only been a few months, do you believe him?

I do. He hasn't given us a reason not to, and he basically says that there's a third party that follows all of the medical tests, and he says he listens to the advice of the medical people. So I guess if there were to be something sinister going on, it would come from the medical side, but that would be a huge accusation. So I think we're going to have to wait and see what the NFLPA finds out in their investigation to see if there was actual proper protocol. But that relates to the Bills game. It just looks bad because of the bang-bang effect with this, but I don't think he would have any reason to lie.

You hope a person in that position would not lie, but yes, in my opinion, I would say that yes, it was credible. Josh Moser is with us from the stadium in Cincinnati following Thursday Night Football, and a scary moment with two at Tango Veloa, though he spoke to him after the game and he was able to fly home with the team on their plane. Josh is with WSVN out of Miami, and it's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Obviously lots of ties on the Dolphins team to two even prior to him getting into the NFL. What did his teammates have to say about those few minutes when he was lying on the field? Jalen Waddle was really shaken up, and he's very serious about this. They go back to the Alabama days, and talking to him and a lot of these other players on the team, they haven't been on the field when a player's been structured off when you're dealing with a head-and-neck situation.

So then it's dealing with that of just what happened. This play happened with roughly six minutes remaining in the second quarter. He was able to sneak down to the locker room in the halftime, and you could see the players' faces. Their helmets were off, they were taking their hands and just rubbing it through their hair. The eyes were really big, like, what just happened?

What do we do now? And the coaching staff was looking around like, what do we do? And they basically said, hey, the show must go on as terrible as that quote is. The game had to continue, and you could tell that the players were really feeling bad for two, especially his offensive line.

I spoke to Connor Williams, his starting center, and you could just see it in his face. You can't let a quarterback get hit like that. And then if you go back on the replay, yes, he could have gotten rid of the ball a little bit quickly, could have thrown the ball away.

But the sack was the sack, and you never want to see your quarterback go down like that. And I think now in the days of social media and especially Twitter and the reaction from all of the other players and everyone, it's tough. And the players got back to the locker room, and they saw all of that.

And I think it really hit them. They said that the game was secondary, if not tertiary, to Tua's health and his wellbeing with his family. He just got married. So there's other people in play now as it relates to Tua and his normal life outside of football. That was really the message from the locker room. And then they found out that he was going to be able to fly home on the plane. So I think the plane ride at least is a great sign where he can interact with his teammates and be around them.

And hopefully from here, we will find out what the next steps are. That's what struck me, Josh, is that regardless of whether or not the Dolphins are telling the truth and actually did go through the proper channels and the concussion protocols, and Tua was cleared independently last week against the Bills, the tide on social media from former players, from people who work in the business and from fans, it's overwhelming, already assuming the Dolphins did this to Tua and didn't take care of his health and didn't pay attention to the signs and allowed him to play, even though he clearly wasn't right. It seems like, and I know this is social media, but it seems like it's a battle they can't win. They've already been branded as a team that threw him out there without any regard for his wellbeing.

I think that's exactly it. And when you look at the video specifically and the timing of this where it happens in back to back weeks, and we're not even talking a full week, we're talking just a few days ago, this happened on Sunday. So it's really, really quick turnaround here. So we're talking not even a week and the wobbliness and the woosiness that you could see Tua after the Bills play to now this play with his hands. It's a lot for people to see. They haven't seen something like that before. You know, Ryan Chazier comes to mind and he was tweeting stuff out.

And luckily you've got the University of Cincinnati Medical Center here at the Trauma One Center, it's the highest level, it's the best care he could get in the city. So you're thankful for that aspect of it. But yeah, in this day and age and social media, you're guilty until you're proven innocent, basically.

And it's tough. I don't know from a PR perspective, you know, what the move is here. You say the doctor, you know, they went through the protocol. That's all you can say. But will we ever know? You know, hopefully, you know, the NFLPA will find something out. But Tua passed the initial concussion test from what the team said last week against the Bills. Tonight, we haven't been given the results of what took place. We just know that he was taken to the hospital. I can say that they cut everything off of Tua.

He said that's the one thing that I didn't mention. They just cut the whole jersey off everything. So he was in scrubs and the neck breaks tonight, but was walking and was jovial and it looks like it could have been a lot worse. He seemed OK. That's a relief there. Josh Moser is with us from Cincinnati. He's the main sports anchor for WSVN in Miami.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. What was it like when Tua was down on the field and they were bringing a stretcher out? Ominous. It's really the only word that comes to mind. You think worst case scenario, you're thinking, oh, my God, this guy could never walk again.

You're thinking that he's not going to have a normal life. It was awful. This is the largest crowd ever at a Cincinnati Bengals game. And this place was rocking. And you could hear a pin drop. Mouth open.

No one was saying anything. It was just like, please show some sign of movement. And his legs were not moving.

And then luckily we found out the hospital. He was moving his extremities. And then you could just see the players emotion on their faces when you have a couple of the guys that are really close to him. And they're watching their body language.

They're thinking the same thing like, oh, my God, this is it. And then for them, they got to put the switch and somehow go play football. The game had to continue. And that was one of the harder things that was discussed in the locker room after the game.

How do you do that? And Teddy Bridgewater is the backup for this team. He's from South Florida. The dolphins paid him six and a half million dollars to come be the backup for two.

He's the second highest paid backup in the league behind Jimmy Garoppolo, who's now starting in San Francisco. So, you know, they believe that the pieces are there. They're still in first place in the division, which is crazy to say. We're talking about winning football games. You know, it's an injury is the other side of how you can look at it. So there's the human side and there's the football side. There's the business side. And it kind of is all colliding.

And now it has its own voice on social media. And welcome to the NFL in primetime in 2022. Obviously, the football was secondary on this night, and I don't really want to talk much about the game because it's hard to separate the dolphins from to his injury and how they played after the fact.

But they are a month into their season, Josh. So before I let you go, how would you evaluate this first month? What stands out to you? A lot of things stand out. Top of mind is just how much the players. Have come together under new head coach Mike McDaniel.

People had no idea in the outside world who he was. And if this guy was it, you know, then the fourth come out that, you know, Sean Payton was being tampered with to come take over this team. And he has really brought this team together. He's very loose, very quirky, great football mind. And they really like playing for him. A true players coach.

I think he really fits the mold and he's his true authentic self. And the players are buying it. I think at the beginning of the season, when you look at the gauntlet of what the first four weeks were for this team, a three and one record, people had him two and two at best. So with tonight's loss, it's a pretty good thing that they're still three and one. They're still in first place in the division. You beat the bills who you haven't beaten. You beat Lamar Jackson, who's in MVP form again, and you beat Bill Belichick. I mean, people said no way that would have happened.

So I think those are probably the biggest takeaways. And this team could get better. They've got their corner Byron Jones, who's coming back off the public. They've got to get Davey and Howard healthy. They need to get their left tackle. Toronto arm set healthy. He was in a boot after the game. He couldn't even put his shoe on.

He's been dealing with a toe injury. So it's a long season, but the first quarter to go three and one, you know, I think they'll take it. But, you know, this team wants to make the playoffs and not only they want to make the playoffs, they want to win a playoff game. And that hasn't happened with Dolphins franchise in more than 20 years. What else could happen this week?

Really? The hurricane going through Florida. I know Miami missed a lot of it, but still the Dolphins being on the road while someone else is using their practice facility, a Thursday night game on a quick turnaround, the questions about two anyway, then his injury, having to play a game. I mean, the Dolphins have had a pretty busy and crazy last four days.

Yeah, it's hard to put in perspective and the heat. The NBA team had their training camp in the Bahamas. They almost had to cancel it because of Hurricane Ian. So they're dealing with it. You've got the Panthers, the hockey team starting up.

They've got their they have their preseason home opener tonight. So Miami's quietly becoming a pretty good little sports town, even though not a lot of people are from there or, you know, they have other interests other than sports. But a lot is happening. And yeah, certainly wishing everyone to stay safe in Florida. It's wild. It puts things in perspective when you're able to step back a little bit.

Definitely does. Josh Moser from WSVN in South Florida there in Cincinnati. You can find him on Twitter at TheMoseNose. It's really good to talk to you. Thank you so much for a couple of minutes. I know it's been a really busy and emotional evening, but we appreciate it and safe travels. Of course. Thank you very much.

Appreciate you. So get started and download the free Odyssey app today. The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app, your trusted local radio stations, coverage of your favorite teams, live news from your hometown and millions of podcasts on demand. Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about, like leagues and teams, pause or rewind your local sports and news and add shows to your queue to catch up later.

There's a lot to listen to. So get started and download the free Odyssey app today. The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app, your trusted local radio stations, coverage of your favorite teams, live news from your hometown and millions of podcasts on demand. Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about, like leagues and teams, pause or rewind your local sports and news and add shows to your queue to catch up later. There's a lot to listen to. So get started and download the free Odyssey app today.