If Tua Tagovailoa is going to be traded, it might just take a miracle. There has been a lot of speculation regarding the QB's future.
WQAM host and former Dolphins player Joe Rose tackled the growing sentiment about Tagovailoa's future a day after Ian Rapoport said there might actually be a market for the Dolphins. Needless to say, he isn't exactly wrong, Rose, that is.
Is Tua tradeable? Joe doesn’t think so pic.twitter.com/FX0u0VAdkF
— 104.3 WQAM (@1043wqam) February 5, 2026
Joe Rose does not see another NFL team wanting to take on the headache of Tua Tagovailoa
Rose wasn't always against the Dolphins quarterback, but like the rest of the Dolphins fandom, he too grew tired of what he was watching on Sundays. It's hard not view the quarterback's regression as anything but impossible to flip.
"There is no one in their right freaking mind out there that will go, 'We want to trade for Tua.'"Joe Rose
Rose is convicted in his opinion, but he is also wrong about the salary implications. The Dolphins will be the team that eats most of the contract should a trade be facilitated. Miami will try, there is no doubt, but the compensation will be contingent on just how much money the Dolphins are willing to eat.
Over the course of the last two months, fans have heard that the number could be anywhere between $54 million and $99 million, depending on how they shed the contract. The consensus remains that Tagovailoa will not be back with the Dolphins next season.
It's difficult to see any avenue that would bring him back. Most in the media are not talking about the possibility of him staying. That is an option, since no matter what they do, they will have to pay him a large sum under a contract that should never have been given.
Reports out of Miami have indicated that Mike McDaniel pushed for the extension. In 2024, Tagovailoa was holding a quasi-holdout by not participating in team drills. Chris Grier acquiesced, and despite Brandon Shore telling them it was a bad deal, he did what he was told. Now they are paying for it.
There are a lot of fans who believe that Tagovaila's regression had a lot to do with the contract. In 2023, he gave everything he had, physically. That was not on display after the contract was given. His style of play changed, his hesitations became more apparent, and it was clear that something was off in the way he was playing.
No amount of changes to the offense or the personnel was enough to get Tagovailoa back on track. Inevitably, McDaniel had no choice but to bench him for the final three weeks. Make no mistake, the QB's sitting wasn't part of a plan to evaluate Quinn Ewers; Tagovailoa wasn't playing well enough to win.