Despite losing their past five games, the Miami Dolphins still have a chance to reach the postseason on the final Sunday of the NFL’s 2022 regular season. They are preparing for that opportunity without No. 1 quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

The former Alabama All-American entered the NFL concussion protocol last week and missed the Dolphins’ 23-21 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday.

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“With Tua, like I said, I haven’t even thought about playing status,” Miami coach Mike McDaniel said on Monday. “It is about him getting healthy each and every day, so I can’t really even factor him into any sort of equation until we’re ready to broach that. It’s just really a situation of at this point in the week, Monday and Tuesday in game prep, I’ll be preparing for both Skylar (Thompson) and Teddy (Bridgewater) and then proceed as the week progresses pretty much. …

“I haven’t had a discussion with Tua about when he’s playing, because again, once the picture was painted very clearly that anything but what we’re doing that day, making his recovery worse for him as a human being. That discussion, I don’t know where that comes from, but from his head coach to the player, no timeline has been discussed with intent. Again, no idea about any sort of when, if, why, how with regard to Tua. It’s a day-to-day process, really, that is most important that we adhere to, and that’s just getting him better each and every day and getting him healthy as a person. I don’t really have a timeline, unfortunately.”

Tagovailoa sustained the concussion during a 26-20 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Dec. 25, although he did not enter the concussion protocol until the next day.

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McDaniel said he couldn’t tell reporters at his press conference where Tagovailoa was on the five-step return-to-play process because he didn’t know.

“I’m really not even worried about where he’s at,” McDaniel said. “I feel like that falls into the trap of what people are already trying to forecast for him, which I don’t think helps anybody. And then all I know is saw him today, and he told me he felt good. So what does that mean relatively? And we’re working through that and letting medical professionals completely assess so there’s no breakdowns in communication or anything like that.”

McDaniel said he discourages Tagovailoa from looking past the current day of his recovery.

“I feel compelled every conversation to reiterate that ‘Remember, there’s no such thing as a timeline. This is about today,’” McDaniel said. “So I do feel compelled to do that early in the conversation, which if he’s thinking about going there, I kind of snuff that out before the process. So I just think it’s important that he has that concrete reminder because that’s a tough thing to do when you’re so forward-thinking like a professional athlete is, is to just say, ‘I’m just going to do this today and not think about tomorrow until tomorrow.’”

Miami’s losing streak has dropped the Dolphins to 8-8 for the 2022 season entering their regular-season finale against the New York Jets at noon CST Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

The Jets also have lost five in a row, with their 23-6 setback against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday dropping New York to 7-9 and eliminating it from playoff consideration.

The Dolphins will get the final wild-card seed in the AFC playoff field if they beat the Jets and the New England Patriots lose to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

On Oct. 9, New York defeated Miami 40-17 in the first of two games that Tagovailoa missed during his first pass through the NFL concussion protocol this season.

Bridgewater, the Dolphins’ backup QB, sustained a concussion on Miami’s first snap of that game, putting rookie Skylar Thompson on the field for two games.

Another injury to Bridgewater has Thompson on standby for the regular-season finale, too. Bridgewater hurt his hand in the loss to New England on Sunday.

“It’s a pinky injury,” McDaniel said. “It was dislocated. I don’t think it was broken. It’s something that we’ll see as the swelling goes down during the week, where he’s at.”

Thompson entered the game with 2:51 left in the third quarter and completed 12-of-21 passes for 104 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

“We have to have both of our existing quarterbacks in Skylar and Teddy,” McDaniel said. “Both those guys have to be ready to play regardless because we can’t just have one healthy quarterback. We’ve proven that that’s not a safe way to live, so we will be investigating that in the immediate. But right now we’re just trying to make sure Skylar is ready to go and that Teddy is getting as healthy as fast as possible.”

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After a season of streaks, the Dolphins are aiming to go 1-0 in Week 18 to earn their third postseason berth in 21 seasons.

“We’ve won three, lost three, won five, lost five,” McDaniel said. “If we got to the same spot in a different order, if we would have lost three, won three, lost five, won five, would we be feeling different? I think the bottom line is that exercise lends you to that however you get there, your choice in an NFL season is to have stuff work for you or against you. And we have one game against the Jets. I don’t really look at, ‘Well, we should have, could have,’ whatever.  This is our journey, and all my message is to, really, the team and everyone in general is: ‘So?’ We’re playing the Jets this weekend.

“Yeah, we’ve had key players make mistakes in crucial situations, specifically the last three weeks where we’ve had the lead late into the third quarter at least and lost them. What does that mean for this week? It means absolutely nothing unless you let it. There will never be a season that is void of emotional roller coasters. There’s too much investment, there’s too much parity, and the fact of the matter is it’s too scrutinized because it’s too successful of a sport, so you’re going to get knee-jerk reactions either way. Might as well get used to it. I think that running away from reality doesn’t do anybody service.

“It’s been a tough, tough five consecutive weeks, for sure. Unless that’s going to get us some asterisks points against the Jets, why even pay mind to it? Why even think about how hard it’s been? You have a week with your teammates to prepare to play in an NFL game on Sunday, and if you win that game, you can possibly be afforded an opportunity to play another game. But regardless, even with all those implications, our guys just need to find a way to come together and win a football game and not set ourselves up to win it and then have critical mistakes down the third and fourth quarter. So that’s what I’m really focused on. I think that’s what we’re very capable of doing. It’s a challenge that I truly believe that the locker room and the coaching staff is up for.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.