Throughout the last month of NFL football, the Miami Dolphins have seen many of their players linked to and rumored as potential trade targets. So far, Tua Tagovailoa hasn't been one of them, until now.
The thought of the Dolphins trading Tagovailoa is shocking, given the salary-cap implications, the offensive system built specifically for him, and his history of injuries.
In a recent piece about potential trade deadline moves, ESPN's Seth Walder made a case for the Las Vegas Raiders trading for Tagovailoa in a deal that would absolutely rock the NFL.
Latest Dolphins trade prediction would send Tua Tagovailoa to Raiders
Walder sees this as a huge trade, because it would be. He believes that Las Vegas, with its current and future cap space, could easily absorb Tagovailoa's salary.
"Hear me out. This is the Brock Osweiler trade on steroids," writes Walder. "What I would propose here is the Dolphins send a 2026 second-round pick and 2027 second-round pick along with Tagovailoa in exchange for a 2027 fifth-round pick."
He is proposing that the win for the Raiders isn't Tagovailoa, as much as it is the two second-round draft picks the Dolphins would give them to unload his salary. Yes, it's a lot of money to absorb, but shipping a starting QB out of your city along with valuable draft capital is more than costly. It borders on insane.
Walder would also go on to say that while it would get the Dolphins out of their tight cap situation, the benefit for the Raiders is that it's a "more efficient use of resources," even if Tagovailoa ever played for them.
This is one of the wildest speculative trade ideas this year. Many Dolphins fans are not fans of Tagovailoa specifically, but the Dolphins can get out of his contract with a post-June 1 release designation after the 2026 season. They will still eat a chunk of the contract, but at least they will still have both of their draft picks they are going to need to rebuild the franchise.