Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins reportedly are continuing to talk about a new contract for the quarterback, but the sides remain apart as the offseason continues to progress.
“So they’ve been talking,” said Jeremy Fowler of ESPN. “There has been, you know, essentially an offer exchanged but it’s not where it needs to be quite yet. Nothing is imminent as far as I have heard. So this could be a path of least resistance situation because the Dolphins wanted to see Tua prove he can be healthy and produce on the field. He did that…so it should shake out this summer. He is a priority. It just hasn’t gotten to the point where it’s imminent yet, so they’ll hash that out.”
The 26-year-old is about to enter the final season of his existing contract and reportedly has rejected at least one offer from the Dolphins regarding a possible extension. After sitting out earlier offseason activities, Tagovailoa did show up at recent organized team activities (OTAs), a possible indication that there isn’t any disruptive animosity in the negotiations as of yet.
For his part, Tagovailoa has been doing some offseason work somewhere as he reportedly is about 10-15 pounds lighter than he was last season in an attempt to become more agile. After two injury-plagued seasons that limited him to 13 appearances each, he was able to start all 17 regular season games in the 2023 campaign plus the Dolphins’ playoff loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
The No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Tagovailoa is entering the last year of his rookie deal after the Dolphins exercised that option well before last season. One anonymous NFL executive predicted the University of Alabama product could be a candidate for a contract worth at least $55 million per year.
That would vault him among the highest-paid quarterbacks in the game, alongside other first-round quarterbacks from the 2020 draft class who have already gotten lucrative new contracts with their teams: Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals (No. 1 overall pick) and Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers (No. 6 overall pick).
When able to take the field, Tagovailoa has earned credentials that may be worthy of such a deal. Last season, he led the NFL in passing yards and threw a career-high 29 touchdown passes, helping the Dolphins to a second consecutive playoff appearance, something they had not accomplished in more than 20 years.
However, given Tagovailoa’s injury history, those concerns do linger, and the ramifications of a huge contract on the Dolphins’ salary cap and the possible construction of the rest of the roster may have some impact on the talks going forward.
