The Miami Dolphins' 2025 season has been... disappointing, to say the least. At 2-7, the Dolphins don't have any hopes of contending for anything positive this year, and it's not unfathomable to think they tear everything down this offseason and start from scratch.
That could very well include parting ways with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. It's obviously a little easier to move on from Mike McDaniel than it is from Tua, as Tagovailoa signed a massive extension worth $212.4 million in the 2024 offseason. It was a questionable decision at the time, given Tagovailoa hadn't won many big games as the Dolphins' signal-caller, and that, paired with his injury history, made it a risky move.
That risky move has not paid off in the slightest, and now it'll be a challenge to get out of the contract. According to Adam Schefter's latest podcast, however, that won't stop Miami from searching for its next quarterback this offseason.
"The Miami Dolphins should be in total sell mode … with the New York Jets being in sell mode, the Jets are trading some of their best players… the Dolphins should go ahead right now, because they're going to be in the quarterback market too."
Dolphins will 'be in the quarterback market' according to Adam Schefter
Even though the Dolphins are on the hook with a $56 million cap hit from Tagovailoa's deal in 2026, it's not shocking to hear that the team will be looking for his successor. It hasn't worked out, and now, at 2-7, the Dolphins are at rock bottom and need to tear everything down and rebuild.
The good news is that, due to how bad they've been this season, the Dolphins will end up with a high pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. That makes finding their next quarterback a little easier, as they'll have a high draft pick to spend on a quarterback prospect.
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If the Dolphins go this route, what's next for Tua then? Does Miami kick him to the curb immediately, or what approach do the Dolphins take here?
According to Sumeet Jena of Yahoo! Sports, there are three main ways that Miami can get out of Tagovailoa's massive contract. The one that could help the most when it comes to adding a quarterback this offseason is to stick with Tagovailoa as their starter in 2026, which would make the amount of money they'd have to eat in dead money much smaller.
This could also work because then whoever they draft could sit behind Tagovailoa on the bench for a year. The downside here is that it could give Tua a chance to show he's worth sticking with if he puts together a respectable season.
If the Dolphins drafted his successor, though, it could maybe end up working out like the Chiefs' situation did with Alex Smith in the 2018 offseason, where they traded him to make way for Patrick Mahomes to take over. The Dolphins would have a new-and-improved Tua Tagovailoa that teams would be more interested in trading for than they would be this offseason after a bad year.
If what Schefter is saying is true, then the writing is on the wall for Tagovailoa, and it'll be time for Dolphins fans to embrace yet another quarterback.