Cris Carter says Tua lost the team when he snitched on the locker room

Cris Carter says if the Miami Dolphins are committing to moving on from Tua Tagovailoa, now is the time to do it.

The Dolphins recently announced the benching of Tagovailoa, a former Pro Bowl quarterback who led the league in completion percentage last season and passing yards during the 2023 season. Miami will sit him for the remainder of the season in favor of rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers. Ewers made the first start of his career in a 45-21 loss against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 16.

Head coach Mike McDaniel made the decision after a turnover-filled season for Tagovailoa. The 27-year-old quarterback leads the NFL in interceptions (15) and threw a bad interception against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which Monday Night Football analyst Troy Aikman deemed a “head scratcher.”

“You have to raise your hand and say, ‘Hey, I made a mistake,'” said Carter in a one-on-one interview. “It goes back to what Brian Flores was saying. Brian Flores actually told us what we’re seeing right now, and everyone vilified him when he said who Tua was — this is exactly who Tua is. Now that they’ve vilified him, especially for Quinn Ewers, Quinn Ewers is no replacement for him.”

Moving on from Tagovailoa will cost the Dolphins a ton of money. If they release him before June 1, it’ll cost Miami $99.2 million. If they designate him a post-June 1 cut, it’ll cost them $67.4 million in 2026 and $31.8 million in 2027. Trading him would deal the Dolphins a $45.2 million dead-cap hit.

Carter mentioned how the Denver Broncos faced a similar conundrum with Russell Wilson not too long ago. After eating the largest dead cap hit in NFL history at $53 million last year and $32 million this season, the Broncos now hold the NFL’s best record at 12-2 and have clinched back-to-back playoff appearances.

“If you decide, just like what Sean Payton did in Denver when he took over Denver, ‘Listen, Russ, I think you’re a good player, but you’re not gonna play here,'” said Carter. “And they ate the money. Now if you look at that several years later, look at where Denver is. If that’s what you want to do, now is the right time to do it.”

The Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver points to a large reason for the Dolphins’ recent win streak was due to their run game and not the play of Tagovailoa. During the team’s four-game win streak, Miami averaged a robust 192.3 rushing yards per game. By comparison, the Dolphins averaged 142 passing yards per game.

“Just because you’re paying a guy money doesn’t mean you should keep him on the roster if you don’t believe he’s your franchise quarterback,” said Carter of Tagovailoa. “Now he stayed healthy, but in these last four games, they were on a four-game winning streak, they were running the football. How much credit am I gonna give a quarterback that I’m paying $50 million. But we’re running the football, not because of you, because people are fronting the running backs that we have.”

Carter says the Dolphins clearly want to commit to a more run-style approach, something that can be done with a much cheaper quarterback.

“When they look at what they have, they want to be more of a running play-action team,” said Carter. “I believe he feels like he can get another quarterback. They’ll do it and do it for less money.”

When mentioned about the huge dead cap charge and if moving on from Tagovailoa this offseason is possible, Carter says the Dolphins have to be “consistent” in their message.

“You have to be consistent in your message,” said Carter. “If you look at how much their roster changed since last year, I think they had several other team captains not with the team any longer, and Tua next year could be that. But if they’re looking to rebuild and change, now’s the time to do it.”

Carter, who played 16 years in the NFL, said Tagovailoa made a major mistake when he admitted to the media teammates weren’t showing up to meetings that he was hosting.

“Tua is one of several very, very tough decisions that they’re going to have to make,” said Carter. “Even though they’re benching Tua now, to me, Tua was done when he said that he was having meetings with players, and the players weren’t showing up. Once he announced that, because I’ve been in locker rooms for 16 years, I know he’s not a leader. And guess what the guys in the locker room told him? They said, ‘F-U. I know you’re making the most money on the team. We don’t care. We don’t have to listen to you.’ He had no recourse but to do the thing that we always know not to do — he told the media.

“Tua done lost this locker room and his relationships have been fragmented, just listen to Tyreek Hill. The last couple years he’s been warning, we got plenty of warnings about Tua. No one listened, he told us that several years ago, Tyreek told us and now the organization decides to bench him.”