The Miami Dolphins have seen enough of Tua Tagovailoa and are moving on from their $200 million-plus quarterback, at least for the rest of the year.
Mike McDaniel has been peppered with questions about Tagovailoa's status going forward this season. The Dolphins were eliminated from the playoffs on Monday night, and their quarterback wasn't exactly playing his best football. A common theme all year long.
Now, it will be the job of Quinn Ewers to try and lead the team to meaningless wins, potentially giving him an advantage heading into the 2026 offseason.
A major move in Miami: the Dolphins are benching QB Tua Tagovailoa and turning to Quinn Ewers as their new starting QB, per sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 17, 2025
Ewers’ first start comes Sunday vs. the Bengals. pic.twitter.com/lzs2J1EfjP
Miami Dolphins benching Tua Tagovailoa has been a long time coming
There will be two methods of thinking here. One, McDaniel is benching Tagovailoa because his play on the field has been erratic and inconsistent. The second is simply that the Dolphins are eliminated, and evaluations are important as the season comes to a rather boring end.
Giving Ewers playing time is the best the Dolphins could have done. They have to decide on the backup position heading into the offseason. You can't hand Ewers the job without having decent game tape to review. Zach Wilson will be a free agent, leaving the Dolphins to either believe in Ewers to handle the backup job or provide enough reasoning to sign a backup in free agency.
Ewers played poorly in his first preseason game, but bounced back in the next two. He was activated to the 53-man roster once earlier this season, and took over for Tagovailoa late in a miserable loss to the Browns.
In that game, Ewers threw eight passes and completed five for 53 yards. He was sacked twice.
Now that the Dolphins have decided to give Ewers a chance, they can't go back on it. Or at least they shouldn't. Ewers is going to take quite a few knocks over the next three weeks. He is going to have good moments, but more likely bad ones, but the evaluation is the key.
If the Dolphins stick with Ewers for all three remaining games, the week-to-week changes should be evident. This can give the Dolphins a better grasp of what to do for next year. As a seventh-round pick, he likely isn't the answer, but it's better to find out now than keep riding the Tua rollercoaster.