I have no doubts that Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier appreciate starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa as a person. He certainly seems like a genuinely friendly and good person. Unfortunately, while having players with those qualities is tremendous and even preferred, it’s not what he or any player in the NFL is being paid for. As much as I know, some of you are hoping this is another one of those “Do you think Tua is the guy?” posts where we ask you, the fan, to weigh in on what you think about him and his long-term future as a starter for the Dolphins. It’s not. It’s more of a what does the team think kinda post.
This is more about what you think the front office might be thinking about Tua’s long-term future as the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. I see a lot of articles written about our Phins by various fan blogs/sites and even some of the most respected media outlets, who make just downright silly/stupid posts about the team. Some of these make you wonder if they have ever watched the team play over the last couple of seasons or know anything about the team’s players and how good or bad they actually are before putting their idiocy into an article and sending it out over the internet for the entire world to ridicule.
Then, I read a couple of different articles over the weekend, which made me wonder why I had not thought of that yet. And to be fair, several writers do a solid job and try to be informed about the subject they cover. The gist of the articles was that the author believed there was a clear sign that the Dolphins’ front office may not be as sold on Tua as their long-term answer despite what they repeatedly claim in public. Maybe they actually think he’s the answer, and this is just him (or perhaps some of us as well) looking for something that is not there, but again, I had not thought of it until I saw someone else say it.
Some believe that the team signed Zach Wilson due to his possible untapped talent that he was assumed to have when he was drafted back in 2021 as the second overall pick. I don’t know about that, and while it’s possible, I think the idea is that they just believed that he was the best option to be a backup at a somewhat reasonable price is more likely. There’s also the rumor that the team is considering drafting Oregon Ducks quarterback Dillion Gabriel on day three of the draft. Gabriel is a player whose skills are often compared to Tagovailoa’s. Some have even speculated that they will target Gabriel to prepare him to take over after a couple of seasons and send Tua down the road.
The article’s main point was that while the Dolphins closed in on free agency and began restructuring various players’ contracts, they decided not to do so with the biggest deal on the books, Tua’s colossal deal that he signed just last offseason. Why would they pass on reworking the deal that would have easily given them the most additional money to spend in free agency? Why would they not kick some of that money down the road if they planned on him being in Miami for a long time? Maybe they were not planning on him being their long-term starter, or perhaps they were again in a wait-and-see position.
There is the possibility that they felt like they had to give him a deal to keep him happy while also giving themselves the ability to wait to see if he could stay healthy for at least a couple of seasons straight. Given how the deal is structured, it also keeps the possibility of being able to walk away from him after the 2026 season in their back pocket. Tua didn’t even manage to stay healthy for the first two games of the 2024 season, sending him to IR for over a month. I don’t care what the front office’s stance was on Tua, how good they think he is, or how much they love him as a person or player. There’s no chance that the incident did not make them wonder if they had made the correct decision by handing him the big deal in the preceding off-season. I’m reasonably sure that most of us thought it the second it happened.
If nothing is altered, Tua’s cap hit this coming season is $39,181,294. The only way the team could shed him before this impending season without incurring a giant dead cap hit that would cost much more than keeping him would be to trade him post-June 1st. The same applies to the following season. If the team were going to move on him at some point and could not trade him, it would be best to do so post Junee 1st in 2027, where his dead money would only be 8.4 million versus the 45 million they would save against the cap. If they had reworked his contract, it would have pushed more money into the 2027 season.
So tonight’s Phinsider Question Of The Day is: Do you think the team is positioning themselves to move on from Tua as soon as financially viable? If not, do you think they should be planning to move on ASAP? If so, do you think they should not be looking to move on from him, as he’s the long-term answer we have been looking for all this time?
Please share your thoughts and answers in the comments section below-
