The fine print of Tua Tagovailoa’s benching suggests the Dolphins’ QB move offers Miami more than just pursuit of a spark
As if “getting benched” wasn’t bad enough…
It’s hard to envision a day much worse as an NFL quarterback than the day you’re benched. Miami Dolphins signal caller Tua Tagovailoa lived that today — formally getting benched in favor of rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers with three games left to play this season. Head coach Mike McDaniel will tell you this decision is about who gives Miami the “conviction” he and the team need on offense. He’ll tell you it’s about who he believes offers Miami the best chance to win.
That all can be true in the eyes of Miami’s head coach. But the fine print of this decision runs deeper — because this wasn’t simply a quarterback change. The official details and team plan this week at quarterback highlight more than just a simple benching.
Tua Tagovailoa will serve as the third-string, emergency QB against the Bengals
“The decision is complicated but simple; the simple piece is I think Quinn (Ewers) gives this team the best chance to win,” said Mike McDaniel on Wednesday. “Our focus is obviously to win the next three games but in particular, like I tell the players, we are focused on beating the Bengals so that was the motivation. Zach (Wilson) will be backing him up, and Tua (Tagovailoa) will be the emergency third…I think (that order) was the best for all parties involved: Quinn, Zach and Tua.”
The emergency quarterback, of course, does not count as one of the active players on game day. It wasn’t all that long ago that teams didn’t have an “emergency” quarterback — you simply dressed whoever you wanted available to play and if you ran out of quarterbacks, too bad. But putting Tagovailoa as the emergency third quarterback on the depth chart this week signals that the team, in at least some capacity, really doesn’t want to see Tagovailoa on the field again this season.
Is this a matter of wanting to see both young backups in the midst of a lost season and a few final games? Is this a matter of ensuring Tagovailoa is properly detached from his former role to leave the impression the team is hoping for? Or is it an added assurance that Tagovailoa, who has over $5o million in fully guaranteed salary owed to him in 2026 but also an additional $20 million of 2027 compensation that is guaranteed against injury, doesn’t get put in a position that could make a difficult, complicated contract situation even worse?
As is true in most things in life (and football), multiple things can be true at once. There were almost certainly several layers to the decision to fully remove Tagovailoa from preparations as a starter or the primary backup for Week 16 and, presumably, the rest of this season. If protections against more financial blowback on a contract that the Dolphins clearly already regret wasn’t among them, it sure is a convenient coincidence.
Miami’s football operation is in flux right now. And the prospect of undertaking a general manager search and, potentially, a head coaching search with this in the foreground for Miami’s 2026 season will assuredly be a huge part of the discussions with candidates. It could be a deterrent for some. But if Tagovailoa were, hypothetically, to suffer a major injury that would invoke 2027 guarantees, too? That would be the ultimate example of making a bad situation worse in the face of three games with no playoff implications.
It seems as though we’ll avoid that, however. And if a new general manager and whoever is Miami’s head coach in 2026 deem they’d rather just bring Tagovailoa back for next season, it will be because they want to for the return on investment in cost — not because of a late-season injury that forced multiple years of cash commitments. The hope for Tagovailoa, personally, is that this decision redirects his career trajectory to help him recapture some of what made him a quality starter for the Dolphins in his first three seasons under McDaniel in the first place. He’ll have plenty of time to think about it. Both this offseason and over these last three weeks of 2025.
Tua Tagovailoa’s remaining cash schedule on contract
- 2026: $55,000,000 total owed, $54 million fully guaranteed
- 2027: $37,000,000 total owed, $3 million fully guarantees in March of 2026, additional $17 million fully guarantees in March of 2027 (injury guaranteed at signing)
- 2028: $49,400,000 total owed, no guaranteed money
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