When the Miami Dolphins opted to release Tua Tagovailoa earlier this offseason, the reaction was mixed. There was little debate as to whether his play warranted another year; it was the vexing financials that made it a true conundrum. Alas, Jon-Eric Sullivan and Jeff Hafley sat down and watched some film and decided the signal-caller had blown past the point of no return.
They braved a $99 million dead cap hit (split over the next two years) to send Tagovailoa away. This was due to the structure of the four-year, $212.4 million ($53.1 million average) contract that Chris Grier — since fired — handed the QB less than two calendar years ago. This means that, in 2026, there is a $55.4 million cap charge for Tagovailoa despite his presence on the Atlanta Falcons roster.
The Kansas City Chiefs' decision to give their superstar quarterback a refreshed, record-crushing seven-year, $448 million ($64 million average) deal makes the decision Miami made all the more of a slam dunk. Does anyone think Tagovailoa's play on the field is worth roughly $11 million less than a two-time NFL MVP, three-time Super Bowl MVP, and six-time Pro Bowler?
The Miami Dolphins will reap the understated benefits of having a cost-controlled QB over the next three years
The Tagovailoa contract aged worse than milk in the South Florida heat. Instead of dragging their feet — as the Cleveland Browns have done with their own dead-weight QB Deshaun Watson — they opted to move forward. With Malik Willis, the Dolphins are betting on a small sample size, to be sure, but relative to the top of the quarterback market, it's a bargain.
Over the next three years, Willis is slated to earn $67.5 million, slightly more than Patrick Mahomes will make for just one season. And while it's an admittedly enormous if — should Malik Willis be able to sustain his performance over a longer sample size, the Dolphins could be heading into 2027 with a massive advantage.
The dead cap facing Miami will shrink by about $122.5 million next year. That money can go directly to adding free agents if the current outfit proves worthy of building around. The future is truly bright, and Dolphins fans have every reason to be excited about it. There's also another way that Mahomes' mega-deal helps the Dolphins.
AFC East foes could be nervous for upcoming negotiations after Mahomes' contract
The Dolphins compete in a division with two franchise QBs, one of which has begrudgingly earned the right to be considered among the league's best in Josh Allen, and another in Drake Maye, whose perception seems wildly premature after he had a great year playing one of the weakest schedules in NFL history. In either case, the NFL is a zero-sum game. Every dollar that goes to one player necessarily is taken from another.
While the Patriots will enjoy another relatively cheap year from Maye in 2026 due to his rookie contract, he becomes eligible for an extension at season's end. If he has a year anything like he did in 2025 against the league's weakest defenses, he will surely be asking for a big-money extension. Dolphins fans hope it's in the realm of $65 million per season or more, a development that will siphon resources from the Patriots' true strength — their defense.
As for Allen, the benefit for Miami is slightly more clouded. Allen is only one year into the extension he signed in 2025, but it's not out of the question for the trademark ego of NFL players to rear its head again. Watching Mahomes and perhaps Maye leapfrog him by more than $10 million per year could conceivably push Allen to ask Buffalo ownership for an adjustment.
Allen has taken that franchise to relevance after a dormant stretch from the late '90s through the late 2010s. What's more, the owner's baffling press conference where he infantilized his franchise QB proves the hold Allen has over the franchise. If he wants a pay raise, he'll get one. While dealing with Allen is a challenge in itself, the hamstrung and mediocre 2025 Dolphins were able to pull out a two-score victory over Buffalo, probably due to the fact that Allen's team isn't at his level.
For rival teams, when they nail the franchise quarterback part, it stings. Dolphins fans can ease that pain a bit when those same QBs sign their super deals. That development almost always precedes the downfall of the roster around them. The shockingly fast cratering of Miami's roster after paying Tua Tagovailoa makes Dolphins fans experts on the subject. You're on borrowed time, Buffalo and New England.
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