What QB Move Means for McDaniel And Other Tua Thoughts

The Miami Dolphins are making a drastic change at quarterback

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) on the sidelines with head coach Mike McDaniel in the second quarter game against the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium in 2024. | Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

Mike McDaniel was hired as Miami Dolphins head coach back in 2022 in large part because of how he could get the best out of Tua Tagovailoa, he accomplished that goal in his first two seasons, but now he's benching his quarterback.

It's a stunning turn of events in the big picture, though not necessarily under the microscope of the 2025 season, the past month and a half in particular.

While there will be a lot of discussion and debate as to whether it's the right move for the Dolphins and what rookie seventh-round pick Quinn Ewers can or can't do for the offense, maybe the biggest issue is what the change might say about McDaniel and his job status.

Reports from the national insiders have been consistent about how much owner Stephen Ross respects and values McDaniel, making it sound as though it almost was a slam dunk he would be back as head coach in 2026 — and that would make sense when you consider that's when the first year of the three-year contract extension he signed in 2024 kicks in.

It could be that not even the humbling, embarrassing Monday night loss against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium would make Ross reconsider his position.

Of course, we don't know for sure what Ross is thinking because he stopped talking to the media about the Dolphins, outside of prepared statements or introductory press conferences, some 4-5 years ago.

For his part, McDaniel has been consistent about not sharing specifics about conversations he's had with Ross, so there would be no way of knowing if a commitment already has been made for 2026.

So we're left to looking for clues, and what happened Wednesday — not just with the QB change but also with the release of veteran linebacker Matthew Judon — certainly would suggest a head coach planning ahead as opposed to focusing strictly on winning each of the final three games.

There's no question that Tagovailoa has been struggling and the Dolphins need to start thinking about a future with a different starting quarterback, but does Quinn Ewers really give the Dolphins the best chance to win any or all of the final three games this season — against the Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots.

This is what McDaniel said Tuesday was behind his thinking about a quarterback change, but we'll just say here that it this was a case of a coach saying what he's supposed to say as opposed to the unfiltered truth.

Besides, had McDaniel said something to the effect of it being for the good of the organization to find out what Ewers can do, then that would have opened the door for questions about his job status for 2026. And it's a road he has made clear before he doesn't want to go down.

From this vantage point, it sure does look like a move made by someone who has been told or knows he'll be back as head coach in 2026.

If it's not, it's an amazingly dramatic turn after McDaniel has been behind Tua since that famous phone call from the plane in 2022.

OTHER TUA THOUGHTS

-- Not that they're in the same category of quarterbacks, but Tua will join Josh Rosen as the only two former first-round picks benched by the Dolphins. In Rosen's case, though, it was a bad move by then-coach Brian Flores meant to not lose the locker room, though staying with Rosen might have helped the Dophins wind up with the worst record in that 2019 season and that would have landed them Joe Burrow.

-- Tua has taken a lot of flak on social media over the past two days as the results of two clips showing him laughing, once near the end of the game in a conversation on the sideline with Aaron Brewer and a couple of other teammates, the other while chatting with former teammate Jalen Ramsey after the game. From this end, it's not a good look to be laughing toward the end of a loss knocking your team out of playoff contention or even after the game while talking to a former teammate. We're not saying Tua should be down in the dumps, but there also probably shouldn't be as much laughing as we saw in his postgame chat with Ramsey.

Remember that time in the 90’s when the Dolphins were eliminated from the playoffs and Marino was just having a grand ol’ time, laughing it up on the sidelines?

The only thing missing is Tua grabbing a microphone and yelling “Show me the money”. pic.twitter.com/lOkwpPCdG9

— Jonathan Zaslow (@ZaslowShow) December 16, 2025

-- It's actually kind of shocking how Tua's game has deteriorated since the start of the season. Even while the Dolphins started off 1-4, Tagovailoa has solid performances pretty much every week through Week 6 other than the opener at Indy, with the main issue being the inability to finish. The Chargers loss was ugly in some ways, but he did lead two drives that gave Miami the lead. But the Cleveland game starting a nasty downturn that has shown no signs of ending.