Dolphins' Words, Not Actions, Tell Tua Tale
The Miami Dolphins keep saying it because apparently they need to keep saying it.
The Dolphins are committed to Tua Tagovailoa as their starting quarterback, point blank, period, end of story.
Frankly, we've lost track of how many times GM Chris Grier or head coach Mike McDaniel have endorsed the former Alabama star and thrown their full support behind him this offseason.
It happened not once but twice Monday at the owners meetings in Phoenix, Arizona, when McDaniel did it during his breakfast media session and later in a conversation with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Palm Beach Post.
“Absolutely,” McDaniel told reporters from the two South Florida newspapers. "That’s why you pick up a fifth-year option. That’s why you pick the option up as soon as you know you’re going to. As opposed to speaking, having action speak to really squash any of that unnecessary direction or chatter.”
At the AFC coaches breakfast, McDaniel offered an even longer answer as to why the Dolphins picked up Tagovailoa's fifth-year option some six weeks ago before the deadline to do so.
“That’s something that like everything else that we do, we’re assessing all the pros and cons for really the organization and once we determined really the bottom line," McDaniel said. "The bottom line procedure was like, ‘All right, well, the scenario of picking up the fifth-year option gives Tua the best chance to be his best and is the best thing for the organization.’ That’s what we’re really chasing. We’re chasing that – where both parties maximized an opportunity. So once we knew that – I hadn’t really paid attention to the fifth-year option timeline.
"It was more like, ‘All right, well, you know what, especially the media members that are in South Florida, they need to know this. We need to tell them this fifth your option is…’ I mean, once we knew we knew, so that way I didn’t have to play unnecessary poker face for no reason. We knew once we did our due diligence in our process, it made a ton of sense to us, so we wanted to communicate and get that done and move forward with our lives.”
DOLPHINS PICKING UP TUA'S FIFTH-YEAR OPTION SYMBOLIC MORE THAN ANYTHING
While picking up the fifth-year option might have been symbolic in a way because of the $23 million commitment the Dolphins made to Tagovailoa, the reality is that it's the words of Grier and McDaniel that should convince fans they're fully behind their quarterback — more so than the action.
That's because if the Dolphins were willing to entertain the idea of trading Tagovailoa, any team interested in his services would like the fact he's under contract for the next two seasons at a very cheap price for a starting quarterback — $9.6 million in 2023 (including $4.9 million of his prorated signing bonus) and the $23 million in 2024.
Also understand that when the Dolphins sent Laremy Tunsil to the Houston Texans in that mega trade in September 2019, that came 4 1/2 months after the Dolphins had exercised his fifth-year option for 2020.
So technically, exercising the fifth-year option does not mean the Dolphins won't trade Tua.
The words of Grier and McDaniel have told us the Dolphins are not going to trade Tua.
And it's entirely possible that speculation about the Dolphins' quarterback position in 2023 didn't end with McDaniel's comments from Arizona or the team picking up the fifth-year option.
To wit, as of early Tuesday afternoon, the Dolphins were tied with the fifth as most likely destination for Lamar Jackson if he plays for a team other than the Baltimore Ravens in 2023, according to BetOnline (www.betonline.ag).
Having said that, McDaniel has been vocal about his belief in Tagovailoa since he took over as Dolphins head coach and he's been consistent as well.
That, more than anything, should end the conversation.
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