NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe shared how Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa agreeing to a four-year, $212.4 million extension on Friday signified an end to an “awkward” stretch for the team.
Dolphins went all-in investing in their franchise QB Tua Tagovailoa yesterday 4-year, $212.4 million extension with $167 million in guarantees.
My @nflnetwork The Insiders report on why Miami made the big 💰commitment to Tua and what it means for the QB/team going forward: pic.twitter.com/bns9CKpuUo
— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) July 27, 2024
“A great day for the Miami Dolphins as well,” Wolfe said Friday in light of the news of Tagovailoa’s extension. “This is a deal that absolutely had to get done. They’ve been working on this since February, since the season ended. And look, it had been awkward the last few days and few weeks in training camp.
“I’ve been at practice. I was there this morning (Friday), and every day it’s, ‘Will Tua practice? What will he do?’ And today (Friday), I wanna set the scene for you because yesterday (Thursday), he didn’t practice. Today, he did all of 11-on-11 reps for the first time since last season.
“And his first throw of 11-on-11 was a 50-yard deep bomb in the air to Tyreek Hill for a touchdown, beatin’ the startin’ defense, beatin’ Jalen Ramsey. And it’s no coincidence that this is finally when the offense got on track after a couple of slow days with the backup quarterbacks there.
“I’ve seen Chris Grier, the Dolphins general manager, their vice president Brandon Shore, who handles a lot of their contracts, watching every day. They have seen this offense needs Tua. This team needs Tua. And now, they’re all in for a championship window for the next few years.”
Hill was among multiple Dolphins players who congratulated Tagovailoa on X (formerly known as Twitter) for agreeing to his lucrative contract extension to remain in Miami.
😁
— Ty Hill (@cheetah) July 26, 2024
Tagovailoa’s deal will make him one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL in terms of annual salary behind only Jordan Love, Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow. Love agreed to a four-year, $220 million extension with the Green Bay Packers on Friday after news of Tagovailoa’s deal broke.
The new Top 8 annually paid QBs in the NFL
Love: $55M
Lawrence: $55M
Burrow: $55M
Tua: $53.1M
Goff: $53M
Herbert: $52.5M
Lamar: $52M
Hurts: $51MCombined playoff record: 16-17
Combined Super Bowls: 3
Combined Super Bowl wins: 0
Paying and hoping.
— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) July 27, 2024
Tagovailoa will try to help the Dolphins take that next step as a team after an up-and-down 2023 campaign. For much of the regular season, Miami looked like a Super Bowl contender, as the team owned an 11-4 record at one point while boasting one of the league’s best offensive duos in Tagovailoa and Hill.
But Miami didn’t wrap up the 2023 regular season in the way the team hoped to. The Dolphins dropped each of the last two games of their 17-game slate.
First, the Dolphins suffered a blowout loss to the Baltimore Ravens — who ended up with the NFL’s best record at 13-4 — in Week 17. Miami lost by a final score of 56-19.
Then, Miami dropped its last regular-season game against a fellow AFC East team in the Buffalo Bills by seven points. That loss caused the Dolphins to lose the division title to the Bills and finish the regular season with an 11-6 record.
The Dolphins didn’t raise their quality of play from the latter stages of the regular season in the team’s playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs, unfortunately. Miami mustered a season-low seven points as a team, with all of those points coming in the second quarter.
The hope is that the upcoming season will have a different ending for the squad.
