As the clock ticks toward the start of the new league year on March 11, the Dolphins will soon be making a decision about the future of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
If they haven’t already decided to keep him as the starter, chances are they’re only thinking about how they’re going to extricate themselves from his contract.
At a fan event on Thursday night, G.M. Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley were asked about the quarterback situation, Tua Tagovailoa’s status, and whether the Dolphins will be looking at other quarterbacks in the draft.
“Of course, we’ll be looking at other quarterbacks in this draft,” Sullivan said, to a round of applause. “And every draft hereafter. But, look, I’ve had — Tua was in my office the other day, if I’m being perfectly frank. We had a great conversation. Tua has been a very good player in this league. He’s done a lot of really good things for the Miami Dolphins. You guys should be proud to have him and having had him.
“I don’t know what the future holds right now, and I told Tua that. We’re working through some things. What I can tell you is that we’re gonna infuse competition into that room, whether Tua is part of the room, whether he’s not part of the room. We’re gonna infuse competition into that room, like we will do in every other position. Tua knows where we are. We’ve been very honest and upfront, and Tua also knows that he will be the first to know when we make a decision. So if Tua is the first to know, you guys can’t be the first to know, and I know that you respect and appreciate that.
“But we’re getting close to a decision. And when we do, we’ll let Tua know whether he’s gonna be part of this or not, and we’ll move forward. But you can rest assured that we will add competition to that room, one way or the other, to make it the best that we can.”
Said Hafley after Sullivan finished: “Yeah, I don’t think I need to add anything.”
Whatever they do, the Dolphins are stuck. They owe Tua $54 million for 2026, fully guaranteed. If they cut him, he’ll leave behind $99 million in cap charges that would most likely be divided over two seasons.
A trade is possible, but they’d have to pay a large amount of the guaranteed salary in order to make it happen. In the end, the Dolphins may have to do a Brock Osweiler-style deal, in which they give someone a draft pick or two in order to eat some of the cash and cap space.
Of course, the Dolphins also could just keep him. They have to pay him; they don’t have to play him. Given everything that has happened over the past six seasons, it would be awkward to do that — especially with a new regime trying to turn the page.
However it goes, it seems as if the Dolphins are dealing less with the question of whether he’ll return and more with the challenge of how to engineer his exit, thanks to a market-level contract former G.M. Chris Grier never should have paid.
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