Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had his first chance to publicly respond to the news that he’s been benched on Wednesday.
The Dolphins announced that they’ll be going with Quinn Ewers against the Bengals this Sunday and that Tagovailoa will be inactive as the third emergency quarterback for the game. Tagovailoa was asked during a media session at the team’s facility about his response to being told about the change.
“Disappointed. I’m not happy about it, but it’s something out of my control,” Tagovailoa said, via Cameron Wolfe of NFL Media.
Tagovailoa acknowledged that he has not “been performing up to the level” needed at the position and said he doesn’t know why that has been the case this season. He did say that injuries have not impacted his performance.
Tagovailoa has a guaranteed contract and a $56.4 million cap number for next season, but the benching calls into question whether the Dolphins might still move on from him in the offseason. Tagovailoa said that is also “out of my control” when asked if he thinks he still has a future with the team and that should be a major topic for all involved once the Dolphins close out their season in Week 18.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel discussed the decision to bench Tua Tagovailoa and go with rookie Quinn Ewers as the team’s starting quarterback at his Wednesday press conference.
McDaniel signaled that a change was coming on Tuesday by saying that Tagovailoa’s play was not good enough in their Week 15 loss to the Steelers and word of Ewers’ move up the depth chart came on Wednesday morning. McDaniel said that he believes Ewers gives the team the best chance to win at this point in the season.
“I need convicted quarterback play,” McDaniel said. “This team needs convicted quarterback play. I thought Quinn gave us the best chance to do that and that’s why I did it.”
McDaniel also revealed that Tagovailoa will be the emergency third quarterback against the Bengals with Zach Wilson serving as the No. 2 behind Ewers. McDaniel said he believes that is “best for all parties involved,” but there is a contractual angle to keeping Tagovailoa off the field. He has a chunk of his 2027 guaranteed if he’s on the roster into the 2026 league year and the Dolphins would not be able to release him if he cannot pass a physical.
Tagovailoa’s $56.4 million cap number will make that difficult under any circumstances, but any trade thoughts would also be complicated by an injury between now and the offseason.
With the Dolphins apparently moving on from quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, the next question becomes where his career will continue.
Plenty of teams will be looking for quarterbacks in the offseason. Tagovailoa has shown that he can operate an offense at a high level, when the play that’s called is there. When the play that’s called is stymied by the defense, things often go haywire.
Former Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard, who spent the early part of the season with the Colts before retiring, said after the Colts blew out the Dolphins in Week 1 that, if the first read is taken away, Tua slips into “panic mode.”
Whatever the label, he freezes. As the defender approaches, he doesn’t throw the ball away. He lacks the agility and speed to run away from the pressure and make something happen, like Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and/or Lamar Jackson. The play just disintegrates.
And while the Dolphins have tried, in vain, to coach him toward a solution for a play that goes sideways, another coach may think that he can do what neither Brian Flores nor Mike McDaniel have been able to accomplish in six NFL seasons.
It all comes down to the options available for the teams that will be looking for a veteran quarterback. Those teams currently include, in our assessment, the Jets (he’s 7-0 against them), Steelers, Browns, Raiders, Vikings, Falcons, and Cardinals.
If the Dolphins cut Tua, he can sign with another team for the veteran minimum, like the Steelers did last year with Wilson. It’ll be a low-risk, high-reward option for a team that believes it can get more out of Tua than the Dolphins did.
And if enough teams are interested, perhaps a trade becomes possible. Even if the Dolphins would have to pay a lot of the money Tua is owed next year.
It’s not a crazy thought, even if it won’t be easy to get him to bail on a bad play before the bad play becomes a sack or a fumble or an interception. Given the good things he has shown he can do — good enough to get a $53.1 million per year contract — some team will be willing to give Tua a try.
On Wednesday morning, the news broke that the Dolphins are benching quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill responded, with a GIF.
In it, a man flashes the peace sign and disappears. (Hill’s trademark mid-play celebration, which often gets him fined when he does is to flash the peace sign to the defenders who are chasing him.)
It’s not clear whether Hill is referring to himself or to Tua. Hill has a $36 million compensation package for 2026, with none of it guaranteed. Even without the serious knee injury he suffered in Week 4, Hill wouldn’t have been back in Miami under that cash and cap burden ($51.898 million) — without a major reduction to his pay.
It’s possible Hill’s message is that he won’t be agreeing to a revised contact. It’s also possible Hill is acknowledging that Tua is the disappearing man in the GIF.
When Hill was traded to the Dolphins, he spent plenty of time talking up Tua, calling him the most accurate passer in the NFL. Hill’s assessment has since softened; earlier this year, Hill omitted Tua from the list of Hill’s top five NFL quarterbacks. They’re not exactly joined at the hip.
Regardless, significant changes are coming to South Beach. It’s likely that neither Hill or Tua will be on the team in 2026. If/when Hill is healthy, it’s not clear where he’ll land.
And here’s the real question: If Hill has the chance to join forces with Tua in a new NFL town, will he?
With Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sending to the bench, presumably for the rest of the 2025 season, the question become what they’ll do about Tua for 2026.
He’s due to make $54 million next year, with every penny of it guaranteed. Another $3 million in injury guarantees for 2027 becomes fully guaranteed on the third day of the 2026 league year.
A trade will be very hard to accomplish, for multiple reasons. First, the Dolphins would have to pay the vast majority of his salary for 2026. Second, they’d have to find a team that wants him. Third, a trade before June 1 would trigger a cap charge of $65.2 million for 2026 — in addition to the portion of his $39 million base salary that the Dolphins would be paying.
Cutting Tua before June 1 would spark a cap charge of $99.2 million for 2026. By making the move a post-June 1 release, the Dolphins could split the cap consequences between two seasons, with $55.4 million hitting the cap in 2026 and $43.8 million being deferred to 2027.
They also could keep him on the team. If they’re going to be paying him, why not have him around as a backup?
Here’s a reason not to have him around. If the 2026 starter struggles, the portion of the fan base that remains loyal to Tua will clamor for him to play. If they’re intent on moving on from Tua, the only way to ensure that is to trade him or to cut him.
The best move could be to do what the Broncos did in 2024 with Russell Wilson. Rip off the Band-Aid, pay the money, take the cap charges, and move on.
The Broncos, after releasing Wilson, assumed a $53 million cap charge in 2024, with another $32 million hitting the cap in 2025. (And, by the way, they made it to the playoffs in 2024. In 2025, they’re closing in on a division title and a possible No. 1 seed.)
The decision to cut Wilson was easier for the Broncos, because keeping him into March 2024 would have triggered another $37 million in fully-guaranteed salary for 2025. The Dolphins are looking at only another $3 million in 2027 pay vesting if Tua isn’t cut by the middle of March.
Still, once they know he’s not going to be playing, the best move will be to move on. And to learn from the massive mistake they made by giving him a market-level deal in 2024, when he was entering his fifth-year option and they were bidding against (checks notes) no one.
