What to Make of Marino's Tua Comments

The Miami Dolphins Hall of Famer addressed the quarterback competition during Super Bowl week

Miami Dolphins former quarterback Dan Marino looks on prior to the 2025 NFL Madrid Game between the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Commanders at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in 2025. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino doesn't do a lot of interviews these days, though he usually surfaces during Super Bowl week and this year was no different.

And his appearance with Adam Schein on Mad Dog Sports Radio this week was well timed given what's going on with the Dolphins and their quarterback situation, highlighted by Tua Tagovailoa's cloudy outlook heading into the offseason.

Marino was asked how the Dolphins should handle the quarterback position after the idea of adding impending Green Bay Packers free agent Malik Willis was brought up.

"I think you always just have to, any team, the Dolphins, or whatever, the Bills, the Jets, whatever it is, you have to have competition," Marino said. "You know that position, and I think that's probably where the Dolphins have to go in that direction. You just have competition there and see what that is. I'm not sure. I don't know. I'm not in that position to say it's going to be free agency, or it's going to be the guys that we have, or whatever that may be. But I do know when you have competition at that position, it's going to continue to make it better and better, and that's probably the direction that the Dolphins need to do."

Marino then was asked to assess Tagovailoa's time in Miami, which as everybody knows included some impressive statistical seasons but clear downturn in 2025.

"I think he was excellent," Marino said. "He really was excellent, excellent guy, human being. And he's still on the roster, so you just don't know. Right now, I think the new staff's coming in. They've got to evaluate everything all at one time. And as time goes on, this will all play itself out, but right now Tua is with us. He's one of our quarterbacks and that's the way it's going to be."

UNPACKING WHAT MARINO SAID

As we have to do every time Marino does media interviews, we must point out that he's a bit limited in what he can say as a member of the Dolphins organization as he continues in his role as a special advisor to the vice chairman/president/CEO, Tom Garfinkel.

That means Marino isn't able to divulge state (or in this case team) secrets in terms of their plans at quarterback, not that anybody associated with the Dolphins legally could discuss the idea of adding Willis while he remains under contract with Green Bay.

It was telling, however, that Marino would talk about the need for quarterback competition because that's not something we see very often around Dolphins headquarters.

Think about it, the last time there was a legitimate QB competition for the starting job was in 2019 after the Dolphins traded two draft picks to land 2018 first-round pick Josh Rosen from the Arizona Cardinals after they had signed veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick, though that became a runaway for Fitzpatrick after it quickly became apparent that Rosen wasn't the answer.

Before that, it was 2012 when Ryan Tannehill came in as the eighth overall pick in the draft that year and was joined on the roster by veteran free agent David Garrard and veteran holdover Matt Moore.

Garrard looked like the clear front-runner for the job until he sustained a freaky knee injury in a backyard incident and Tannehill took over and never was challenged until he left during the 2019 offseason in a trade with the Tennessee Titans.

Once Tagovailoa replaced Fitzpatrick during the bye after the sixth game of the 2020 season, it's been his job no questions asked since then.

It brings up to this year and the idea that the Dolphins very well might move on from Tua and will have a QB competition, as new GM Jon-Eric Sullivan and new head coach Jeff Hadley already have indicated.

While Tagovailoa remains with the Dolphins, there's no way Marino — or anybody else in the organization — will say negative things about him because they just might wind up keeping him and also because they never would want to diminish whatever trade value he might have by suggesting he's a diminishing asset.