Tua Tagovailoa may have thrown his last pass in Miami. According to NFL Network, coach Mike McDaniel will make rookie Quinn Ewers the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins at the end of Tagovailoa’s nightmare season.
Tagovailoa, who leads the NFL with 15 interceptions, has seen a sharp decline in production since the 2023 season, in which he started all 17 games, led the league in passing yards and made the Pro Bowl. Fired general manager Chris Grier could have been cautious with Tagovailoa and let him exercise his fifth-year option in 2024, but instead decided to give him a four-year, $212 million contract extension that would ultimately determine his fate and possibly McDaniel’s.
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Tagovailoa missed six games in 2024, four of them due to his fourth recorded concussion, but he stayed healthy throughout 2025. So much for the positives. Tagovailoa’s mobility, arm strength and decision-making have severely deteriorated.
Tagovailoa’s inability to run the offense downfield and pass the ball accurately resulted in a 2-7 start for the Dolphins. McDaniel then reoriented the offense around De’Von Akan and the running game, and under pressure from Tagovailoa, Miami entered the game on a four-game winning streak. monday night football against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
But on a cold night in Pittsburgh, Tagovailoa gave up just when his team needed him again, throwing an interception and showing off a confusing pocket presence. He salvaged his stat line in garbage time, but McDaniel saw through it, telling reporters on Tuesday that Miami’s quarterback play “wasn’t good enough.”
So where will the dolphins go from here? It’s complex and expensive.
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Miami’s potential exit plan
To cut Tagovailoa, Miami would face a whopping $99.2 million cap hit, according to Spotrac. If he was designated for layoff after June 1, that number would be spread between 2026 ($67.4 million) and 2027 ($31.8 million).
The $99.2 million dead cap hit would be a new NFL record, but it’s not without precedent. The Denver Broncos absorbed $85 million in dead money after cutting Russell Wilson after the 2023 season, paying $35.4 million in 2024 and $49.6 million in 2025. This is certainly a success for the Broncos, as they now have a franchise quarterback in Bo Nix and are the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
Still, the Dolphins’ best hope — albeit a slim one considering Tagovailoa likely doesn’t have many suitors — is to trade their quarterback. If they were able to trade Tagovailoa, he would be worth just $45.2 million, saving $11.2 million in cap space.
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The Arizona Cardinals are dealing with their own high-priced quarterback controversy, so Kyler Murray for Tagovailoa could be a possibility.
This article originally appeared in To Win: Will Tua Tagovailoa be cut by the Dolphins? 》Contract, dead limit number