Dolphins Back Up Their Tua Words With Action
Guess the Miami Dolphins were sincere with their public backing of Tua Tagovailoa after all.
As the old saying goes, the Dolphins put their money where their mouth was when they informed their quarterback they would be picking up his fifth-year option for the 2024 season.
The Dolphins now have Tagovailoa under contract — and team control — for the next two seasons and given they've just guaranteed him a $23.2 million contract for 2024, this should end all speculation about the team pursuing a big-name quarterback this offseason.
That means no Lamar Jackson, no Aaron Rodgers, no Tom Brady.
Yes, that still was out there as a possibility being thrown around by various national media folks, even more so after the Dolphins went about the business of restructuring the contracts of Tyreek Hill, Terron Armstead and Bradley Chubb over the past two days to create more than $40 million of cap space.
THE DOLPHINS' CONSISTENT MESSAGE ABOUT TUA TAGOVAILOA
The Dolphins have been consistent all offseason about saying that Tagovailoa was their quarterback, but they had left the door open for speculation because GM Chris Grier simply wasn't quite as adamant about the likelihood of picking up Tua's fifth-year option as he was with Christian Wilkins in the same situation last year.
“Yeah, I think with us, we’re still having all those conversations because there’s a lot of factors that go into that," Grier said at the combine in Indianapolis last week. "And I think now that we’re finally finishing up the coaching staff, we’ll focus on some of these answers and coming together with Mike (McDaniel) and I, we’ll sit and talk about it as well as with Mr. (Stephen) Ross and Brandon Shore. So we’ll go through it and we’ll make our decision then. But all expectations, he’s our quarterback and he’s our quarterback here to be successful for a long time.”
That last line should have ended all conversations about another starting quarterback for 2023, except that circumstances change and the Dolphins wouldn't have been the first team in NFL history to kind of go against their word.
Bottom line: As strong as that statement sounded, it was nothing like actually doing it and indeed picking up that fifth-year option.
Grier acknowledged at the combine that Tua's injury history, specifically the concussions of 2022, were cause for concern moving forward and there absolutely is some risk involved in exercising the fifth-year option because the money is completely guaranteed.
The flip side is that if Tagovailoa delivers the kind of performance the Dolphins are hoping and maybe even expecting to see and finds a way to shut down the durability narrative, then $23.2 million is going to be awfully cheap for a high-level starting quarterback in 2024 and the Dolphins still will have the flexibility of using the franchise tag in 2025 if they're still not ready at that time to give Tua a long-term deal but still want to roll with him — though at that time they should have a clear idea of which direction to go.
Had the Dolphins decided not to exercise the fifth-year option and Tua had the kind of 2023 season everybody in the organization wants to see, then his contract would have been a lot higher in 2024 than $23.2 million, so there was risk in that sense.
TUA'S OPTION MUCH EARLIER THAN OTHER DOLPHINS FIRST-ROUND PICKS
In the end, the Dolphins decided to place their bet on Tua continuing his development after his breakout year of 2022 and being able to avoid a catastrophic injury that could put his future in doubt.
The Dolphins had kind of suggested all along they were banking on Tua. Now they've done more than suggest. They've backed up their words.
And what stands out above everything else maybe is that the final call on Tua's fifth-year option was made before the middle of March. As strong as Grier's words were about Wilkins last year, his fifth-year option wasn't picked up until April 28.
And if you look at the dates of the four other first-round picks whose fifth-year option the Dolphins picked up, you'll notice that all of them also were much later: DeVante Parker was April 24; Ja'Wuan James was May 1; Ryan Tannehill was April 29; Mike Pouncey was April 29.
Again, the word on Tua's fifth-year option came down March 10. That's a pretty powerful statement indeed.
