Training camp participation will no longer be an issue for Tua Tagovailoa. The Dolphins quarterback has agreed to a four-year, $212.4MM extension, as first reported by Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. 
Many of the league’s QB mega-deals have been five years in length, making this extension slightly unique. It is the most expensive four-year investment in league history with an average annual value of $53.1MM, third highest amongst signal-callers. Rapoport adds Tagovailoa will receive $167.1MM guaranteed.
Given the 26-year-old’s injury history, questions have been raised this offseason regarding how much of a long-term commitment the Dolphins would be willing to make. Full details are not yet known, but Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reports this deal is a three-year accord in terms of practical guarantees. As a result, Tagovailoa will be in place atop Miami’s QB depth chart through at least the 2027 campaign.
Team and player in this case expressed a desire in February for a deal to be worked out in relatively short order. Miami dealt with a number of other priorities in the months since, then, however, and talks continued through to this week. Tagovailoa was largely a non-participant in spring workouts, a departure from his normal offseason routine. The Alabama product made it clear he was acutely aware of the surging market value of quarterbacks on their second contracts, something which applies to him. Tagovailoa was already on the books for 2024 via his $23.17MM fifth-year option.
Using one or two franchise tags after this season would have been an option had the Dolphins taken a hardline stance at the negotiating table, but they have instead made a long-term commitment. Tagovailoa put up career highs in a number of categories in 2023, a campaign in which he crucially managed to remain healthy. He led the NFL in passing yards (4,624) and earned his first career Pro Bowl nod while helping the team to an 11-6 record and a postseason berth. Needless to say, expectations for a repeat of that success (and beyond) will be in place moving forward.
Miami inked receiver Jaylen Waddle to a $28.25MM-per-year deal this spring, and teammate Tyreek Hill is angling for a raise as well. Keeping that tandem in place while also retaining Tagovailoa in the fold has been an overarching goal for the organization during the offseason, one in which the likes of Christian Wilkins and Robert Hunt departed via free agency. It remains to be seen what happens with Hill, but now Waddle and Tagovailoa’s futures have received clarity.
The latter rejected at least one extension offer prior to today’s blockbuster accord being finalized (something which came as little surprise considering Miami’s initial unwillingness to offer a market-value pact). A report from earlier this week indicated Tagovailoa and the Dolphins were not as close to working out a deal as Jordan Love and the Packers were. Instead, Miami has managed to get negotiations across the finish line before Green Bay. This deal will serve as another blueprint for the Packers and Love to follow with seven quarterbacks now occupying the $50MM-per-year club.
Tagovailoa reported to training camp on time, but he barely participated during the first day of practice. That was followed by a total on-field absence yesterday, a sign that an extended period of uncertainty regarding his availability could extend for days or longer. The former No. 5 pick took every first-team rep in Friday’s practice, though, a development which certainly makes sense given the fact a monster deal has now been agreed to.
Head coach Mike McDaniel has been in place for the past two years, having been hired in large part to maximize Tagovailoa’s potential. The pair have worked well together so far, and 2023’s productive (albeit inconsistent) showings on offense offered a glimpse of what could be possible down the road. Now, the McDaniel-Tagovailoa partnership will remain in place for the foreseeable future.
Hahaahah holy over pay
You thought he was gonna get less?
That’s the going rate for an above average QB. Reminds me of the Jalen Hurts contract. The wrong guy got paid.
And Joe Burrow’s. He’s invisible without Chase and hurt 1/2 the time.
The injuries are valid but the chase take is straight up brain dead
2-7 without chase but yeah brain dead bud
Just like hill makes Tua. Diggs made Allen. Allen’s dead.
Let’s revisit your statement at the end of the year and see how wrong you are. Biggest difference between Tua and Allen is ability to throw the outside ball
Tua lives in between the hash marks bc of his height
Allen can throw any part of the field
Time will tell
Allen will finish statistically in a good place. His team will be watching the SB from home as always. Because you don’t win with a QB who turns the ball over just as often as he scores. But hey, gaudy rushing stats = success in today’s NFL.
@MyCommentIsBetter
Your claim might have more validity if you hadn’t completely made that statistic up. The team is 3-2 without Chase, and one of those losses came with Browning at the helm (so Burrow is really 3-1 without him).
If you’re going to call people out, at least have your facts straight
Burrow went 2-7 before Chase was drafted…. Like I was referring to….
But hey ‘gEt yOUr fActS StRAiGht’
That is very much a flawed argument for multiple reasons:
1) Burrow is not 2-7 without Chase. He is 5-8. But you chose to ignore the 2022 season for reasons convenient to your argument.
2) You’re comparing completely different teams. The 2020 Bengals are not the 2021-2023 iteration of the team. I guess we’ll just ignore improvements made to the defense and offensive line that made the franchise more successful (along with the Chase addition) over time. This also ignores the possibility that Burrow got better between his rookie and second seasons as he acclimated to the NFL. A more apt comparison would be to look at the same team in the same year: the 2022 Bengals went 3-1 without Chase, which is in line with their season-long win percentage.
I hate this argument, not solely because I disagree with it, but because it’s lazy and lacks nuance.
5-8 is still loser territory…
Burrow is always hurt. What lacks laziness about that? Every team is different every year that’s a dumb excuse.
It’s not an excuse. It’s the reason your argument sucks
Burrow wouldn’t of ever sniffed a SB if Tannehill wasn’t washed and threw 3 INTs. And STILL they almost lost the game. Burrow is a fraud. Simple as that.
Right
Thank you. I’m right.
Lol
Jalen earned his money tho. Dude went to the Super Bowl his second year as a starter and is way healthier than Tua on average.
Nah. It’s just the going rate for these C tier QBs is ridiculous. None of these guys should be topping $125M total let alone $200M
I’m glad he got his money. I was afraid he was going to starve to death there for awhile.
Yeah he was gonna get 50 mil that’s just the market whether we agree or not. I think this is a creative way to get it done. Four years instead of five perhaps gives the Dolphins a chance to evaluate more when Hill isn’t quite as super human. I find him very hard to evaluate when he gets to throw to Hill who’s got a three step gap between him and any DB
He plays a full season 1 time and they give him 53 a year. What are the odds he plays all this season????
Only 9 QBs started 17 games last season, and only 10 QBs made 17 starts in 2022. So with two seasons of data, Tua, and every other QB in the NFL, has around 29% chance of starting 17 games. There is a 61% chance that Tua, and every other QB, will miss some time.
That’s about right. It could pay off or go sideways in year one, but it makes sense in this market and with where the Dolphins are right now. I get being worried about his injury history, but I also think people on here give him too little credit for just how good he’s been. And getting the ball out faster than any QB in the league has allowed them to overcome an offensive line that’s been messy at best. (And Robert Hunt owes Tua a Ferrari for helping make him look good enough to get that contract.)
Honestly, I don’t think it’s a bad deal for Miami. Reading the comments, I’m clearly higher on Tua than most -and like you, I think people give him too little credit- but IF it goes south, Miami is only locked in for 3 years. The Dolphins are built to Tua’s strengths, however, so I expect it goes well enough.
Exactly. I’m not a big Tua fan at all but it’s taken close to 30 years to find a franchise QB since Marino retired and this is the going rate for QB1s. 3 guaranteed years is perfectly fine.
Most people think any QB who isn’t Tom Brady is terrible. Most people are wrong, but most people are most people. I’m not exactly in the mood to be conciliatory in this statement, so I won’t be. Obviously Tagovailoa is imperfect, and I don’t consider him an elite QB, but he does his job when healthy and can make plus plays on offense.
I have major concerns about his health, and those concerns were elevated when he showed up looking like he did this offseason. But when he plays, Tua does his job well in comparison to most quarterbacks. Fortunately or not, this what quarterbacks who can lead offenses cost. You just have to hope that health is not an issue for him, because it’s a legitimate concern.
He’s 1 bad concussion away from retirement.
Most QBs are a play a way from a career ender.
Alex Smith.
Joe Theismann, Steve Young, Troy Aikman
Anyone needing a QB next offseason is probably screwed. Bad QB draft and likely no decent QBs on the market.
I’d rather pay a rookie QB 10% of what I have to pay a ‘top 20’ QB over $50m/season.
The problem is you could only do that for 3 years before the guy would demand the big payday. If he’s been performing at an MVP level are you going to tell him to take a walk and reboot with another rookie?
To be fair, I had questions about the QBs this past year, but there more of them numbers-wise than in prior drafts. I don’t think that college offenses are producing as many sophisticated passers right now in the transfer/N.I.L. era; pro style, sophisticated passing offenses were already not as popular, and with players moving and less team committed, it’s just harder to install complex offenses. The NFL adding games and eliminating practices on its end doesn’t encourage these players to adapt to those complex styles by the start of the season.
I think that the overall effect is that, in a few years’ time especially, we’ll see a lot simpler offenses and more athletically based plays take precedence in the league. Maybe you can get away better with recycling rookies, as arty alluded to, in that type of environment, at least for a while. If this phenomenon occurs, the most pessimistic outcome would be that careers will be shorter for those who ascribe to it, either in coaching or as players, because, after all, simpler players and offenses are easier to figure out.
This is a simplistic outlook on its own, of course, and purely speculative. There will always be a place for the Andy Reids of the world who create complex or creative gameplans, and the Mahomes who can play in them. I’m being a but hyperbolic here, but I think that we’ll see more of the Anthony Richardson leaning players than before at the QB position: athletic players with little experience who have to learn on the job, and simpler offenses to help them ease into that.
Homie finally got paid
QB deals in the NFL are getting out of hand. This is an awful contract and sets a dangerous precedent for the rest of the NFL. And yes, I am not a fan of Joe Burrow’s deal either.
Fans of the other AFC East teams are ecstatic at this news! If this year’s cap-fixing cuts were tough, wait until 2025 (and beyond)
I feel like the AFCE has three teams that on paper should be division contenders, but could completely the other way. Between the Dolphins, Bills, and Jets, there really isn’t any obvious reason why any should be considered improbable to win the division outside of personal biases. Each has good quarterback play, for starters, and the Jets and Dolphins have added a lot of pieces to their teams (or re-upped, in the Dolphins’ case). The Bills are little more behind than the others, but one could make a good argument that Josh Allen is the best quarterback in the league, despite Mahomes’ titles, and they have the most stable staff. Any of these teams could do it, and one could make a case for any of them. We’ll just have to see them.
Personally, I think that the Jets should, on paper, have the best roster, but they have massive injury questions at virtually every offensive spot (i.e. tackle, wide receiver, and most of all, quarterback). It would be hard for me to see them get all of their playmakers through an entire season unscathed. If the Dolphins stay healthy, for their part, can they avoid another midseason collapse? Will their perennial defensive hiccups be fixed? Will the Bills be able to not force Allen to make too many big plays in the absence of having a host of proven receivers, and translate that stability and experience into success after losing key pieces on both sides of the ball? Any of these teams have a good argument, and yet, none seem certain.
Good luck winning a championship with noodle arm as soon as it gets past October with cold weather
How much frigid weather is being forecast for Miami? The championship game will be indoors in the Superdome so I doubt cold weather will be a problem there either.
I personally just leave FL when the stinging chills of winter hit. Dolphins already petitioning the league to move their home games to a new stadium just a few miles east of the sun so Tua won’t have to deal with the frigidity of Miami the second half of the next 4 seasons.
There was a rumor the Dolphins wanted to play their home games in Jamaica…until they discovered the country had an Olympic bobsled team 🙂
Sheesh. What is Love about to get?
Wow. I know Dak is better than Tua. Dak is definitely getting 55+ a year
Yeah, he’s been to so many Super Bowls, oh no he hasn’t. Well he’s been to so many playoff games, oh no he hasn’t. Well, he has led the league in TD’s, yardage, completion percentage. No, no and no. He’s a mediocre QB on a good team. He’s Trent Dilfer with a tan.
Tua got his money, respects to him for getting his pay day.
Time to do something this year MIA.
The team will not get better when Hill retires so take advantage of this window.
He’ll get concussed on the way to the bank…
Hill just got 4 more 304’s pregnant from this news…
Outrageous money for a mediocre QB.
The AFCE raises a glass!!!
If Tua is worth that much Mahomes and Burrow should be getting 75 million a piece. What a joke
It’s what the market will bear. If owners didn’t have it they wouldn’t be paying it out. Huge risk w/Tua n his concussion history, $167Million is alota money to eat if they have too. Cowboys were stoopid for not signing Dak sooner. Coulda set market w/em n already it would be bargain w/next in line QBs pushing mark. What is Love gonna get ?
$44 a year?
No, $55 a year. Inflation is a bish…
Somewhere Mahomes is shrugging his shoulders while counting his rings.
Other are/will get higher salaries but not only is he not underpaid but he has what they’ll probably never have … rings
It’s the equivalent of $60 million/yr if you consider state income tax savings.