Tua

Tagovailoa

Miami is among the teams expected to pursue Willis, a former third-round draft pick, this offseason. Willis showed great improvement over two seasons in Green Bay, spot starting in place of Jordan love a few times and appearing in 11 games as the Packers quarterback. Willis has connections to new Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley and new GM Jon-Eric Sullivan from their time with the Packers. “Let’s envision a scheme built around motion/movement, with play-action elements woven in; that would set up Willis well as a thrower, and the QB run game would generate conflict for opposing defenses,” Bowen said. “Willis’ development in Green Bay creates upside for the Dolphins.” Willis’ mobility and arm strength would certainly bring more upside to the Miami offense than departing starter Tua Tagovailoa.

This report comes on the heels of the Dolphins making several cost-cutting moves to their roster on Presidents’ Day. As Schultz notes, the team would prefer to trade Tagovailoa, but “a cut is possible in the end” if they are unable to find a suitor. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported last week that the Dolphins are willing to take on a portion of Tagovailoa’s contract to trade him to another team, but given the $54 million he’s guaranteed to earn this season, the team may be forced to release him and designate him as a post-June 1 cut. Tagovailoa threw for 2,660-20-15 in 14 games last season, struggling to adjust to life without Tyreek Hill (knee) who was injured in Week 4. While he could still be a serviceable starter in the right system, he’ll need to turn in a strong performance next season if he hopes to prove he can be a franchise QB elsewhere.

Not surprising given the tenor of the news, but as Schefter notes, the Dolphins would be hard-pressed to get anything for him. Schefter says the Dolphins are willing to pay down a portion of the contract to make a trade happen, but the most likely exit point for this remains a post-June 1 cut that would spread his dead cap hit over a couple of years ala Russell Wilson’s departure from the Broncos. Tagovailoa has a real chance to be starting elsewhere in 2026 just based on how many chairs there are to fill, but he’ll undoubtedly be an uninspiring fantasy starter.

“So yes, we will find our guy, but we’re going to make sure that we’re building the infrastructure along the way so when we do find our trigger man -- whoever that may be, whether it’s Tua, Quinn [Ewers] or somebody that’s not in the building -- we have a team that he can go play and win with,” Sullivan continued. It sounds like the Dolphins new management feels like the current quarterback room is at ground zero, and Sullivan further added “we will draft quarterbacks every year, if not every other year, because I think you have to.” Neither Tua Tagovailoa nor Quinn Ewers appear to be on firm ground with the new regime. Tagovailoa is a likely post-June 1 release, while Ewers could be traded if another team was willing to part with enough for him.

“That would be dope. I would be good with it,” Tagovailoa continued, and even confirmed to reporters that he understood that meant a fresh start with a different team. Tagovailoa’s contract appears all but unmovable, and the best-case scenario for him to escape would probably be a post-June 1 release ala Russell Wilson’s exit with the Broncos. This probably isn’t something that will resolve in a hurry, but you rarely hear quarterbacks so eager to leave their current organization.

As expected, Rapoport notes Tua Tagovailoa is not expected to return in 2026. The Dolphins will either have to eat over $90 million in dead cap to cut Tua or find a trade partner. They would still be on the hook for many millions of dollars if that happens. McDaniel has seemingly gotten the most out of Tagovailoa during their time in Miami. Opposing defenses have simply figured out every adjustment McDaniel made to his offense. Now the experiment is at an end. Quinn Ewers will draw the start this week. Per Rapoport, McDaniel believes Ewers “is what this offense needs to run properly.” We’re skeptical of that, but a strong showing from the rookie would go a long way in keeping McDaniel on the good side of ownership as he looks to keep his job into 2026.

Pelissero says that part of the reason behind benching Tagovailoa was making sure he made it to 2026 healthy to “complicat[e] whatever long-shot trade scenarios you have.” The NFL Network’s reporter said that the “most likely scenario” for the Dolphins is making Tagovailoa a post-June 1 release, which would leave Tagovailoa with major cap hits in 2026 and 2027 ala Russell Wilson with the Broncos. Tagovailoa should find some sort of market as a rehab project — Justin Fields just did it without anywhere near the same amount of career success — but it’s hard to imagine him being fantasy-interesting in 2026 without an absolutely ideal landing spot.

The move comes after the Dolphins’ crushing defeat against the Steelers on Monday night. Tagovailoa’s struggles have persisted for the better part of two seasons, and this year he ranks 27th out of 33 qualifying quarterbacks in adjusted yards per attempt, 14th in drop back success rate, and 26th in EPA per drop back. Since losing Tyreek Hill to a season-ending leg injury in September, Tua is one of the least efficient QBs in the league. His contract with Miami doesn’t have a potential out until 2027, meaning the team might have no choice but to pay him $56.4 million in 2026 even if he’s not the starter. There won’t be many teams inquiring about Tua’s services after he was thoroughly exposed in the absence of the game-breaking Hill.

Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel meant it when he said everything was on the table after Miami’s humiliating Monday night loss to the Steelers. Tua Tagovailoa will take a seat in Week 16 — and perhaps beyond — after his dismal play throughout 2025. Tagovailoa ranks 27th out of 33 qualifying quarterbacks in adjusted yards per attempt, 14th in drop back success rate, and 26th in EPA per drop back through Week 15. He has just three TD passes over his past four games in the run-heavy Miami offense. Ewers in the preseason completed 23 of 43 attempts for 273 yards and two touchdowns. He was sacked on nearly half of his pressures. Ewers should be considered a fringe superflex option for Week 16 against a miserable Bengals defense allowing two passing scores per game.

Those aren’t words that are typically just said without a quarterback change — most of the quarterback switches we’ve seen this year have been handled a little bit more delicately, with the idea that they’re evaluating a change. This is a head coach outright saying his starting quarterback isn’t playing well enough. Welp! Zach Wilson and Quinn Ewers have batted the No. 2 role back and forth this year, so we can’t even say for sure who would take over. McDaniel said he would elaborate more tomorrow. Superflex managers should consider pre-emptive pickups of Wilson and Ewers.