At least this isn't a Jalen Ramsey blog?
Trying to find silver linings has been one of the major tasks of the offseason for Dolphins fans, and it, uh, hasn't gone super well. The team's at a weird place in the Mike McDaniel era, and from the sound of all the soundbites coming out of the team's veteran minicamp this week, it feels like everyone's extremely aware of that.
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One more underwhelming year in Miami probably means wholesale changes next offseason, which becomes all the more interesting when you take a look at Tua Tagovailoa – and, maybe more importantly, Tua Tagovailoa's contract. The injury concerns will always be there, but Tagovailoa's up-and-down play has fans in a weird place about his future with the Dolphins. ESPN touched on that topic a bit in their 32 QB Questions list that dropped on Thursday morning, squashing any sort of speculation that this could be his last year in Miami.
ESPN doesn't actually think the Dolphins have much of a Tua Tagovailoa dilemma
"Is this a make-or-break year for Tua Tagovailoa? Not really, since he has $54 million in guaranteed money coming in 2026. But the Miami offense took a step back last season, and the Dolphins missed the playoffs for the first time in three years under coach Mike McDaniel. Tagovailoa's 60.3 QBR ranked 15th. How and whether Tagovailoa and McDaniel recover from a down year will go a long way toward determining how pointed next offseason's questions will be about Tagovailoa."
There's something funny about how nuanced and granular QB debates have gotten, only for them to be wholly shut down by a single number on a cap sheet. Sometimes money really does talk. And you can do much worse than Tagovailoa, so it's not like the Dolphins are stuck in some new Russell Wilson -Broncos situation or anything, but still – $54 million per year for the 15th-best QBR and missing the playoffs is getting harder and harder to defend.
But it sounds like we won't have to defend it until at least next offseason, so that's nice at least. Thanks, ESPN!