ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler has reported that the Miami Dolphins desire to ink Tua Tagovailoa — who is in the fifth year of his rookie contract — to a new deal that will keep the signal-caller in Miami for the long haul.
“The Dolphins are committed to doing a long-term deal, they’ve made that clear both publicly and privately,” Fowler said. “Not a ton of progress yet but I believe that they’re at least in the ballpark and this could perk up this summer. They’ve got six weeks before training camp. This is a player that led the league in passing, played in 17 games last year, showed he could be durable, so he’s got some leverage. They want to pay him.”
Additionally, Tagovailoa’s star teammate in wide receiver Tyreek Hill said that the Dolphins should have already paid the former.
Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill on Tua Tagovailoa’s contract negotiations with the team:
“Tua should’ve been paid — I’ve been saying this the whole time. I know we’ve got a great front office … they’re going to take care of him.”
— Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) June 4, 2024
However, it’s worth noting that Fowler alleged back in May that Tagovailoa has rejected at least one contract offer from Miami.
“He has missed some OTA time, I’ve confirmed, and really it could depend on how negotiations go with his contract as to whether he starts to show up or is there full time,” Fowler said. “They have had contract talks, preliminary talks. I’m told that the Dolphins have made at least one contract offer, but we know how these things go; the offer apparently hasn’t been good enough or he’d probably be there full time. So, the market is pretty set. We saw Jared Goff, $50-plus million a year, that’s going to apply to Tua and Trevor Lawrence.”
Perhaps the contract extension that Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence recently signed is a good place to start for fans of the team wondering what the framework of a Tagovailoa extension could look like.
He signed a five-year, $275 million extension to stay in Jacksonville and will be paid $55 million annually.
Lawrence received one of the largest contracts of any quarterback in league history, yet there’s an argument to be made that Tagovailoa outplayed him during the 2023 regular season.
Tagovailoa played one more game than Lawrence did during the regular season (17 compared to 16), but he also threw for eight more receiving touchdowns and over 600 more yards while finishing with the same number of interceptions as Lawrence with 14.
But looking past the individual statistics, Tagovailoa helped the Dolphins achieve more collective success during the regular season than Lawrence’s Jaguars. The Dolphins won 11 of their 17 regular-season games, which put them in a draw for the AFC East division’s top record. The Jaguars, meanwhile, finished just above the .500 mark at 9-8 and were just 4-5 at home.
Neither team accomplished anything of note during the playoffs, though, as Jacksonville didn’t even qualify and Miami was eliminated by the Kansas City Chiefs after losing a Jan. 13 matchup by 19 points.
Considering all the money that the Jaguars handed Lawrence despite the notion that he arguably has a worse resume than Tagovailoa does, Dolphins fans should anticipate Tagovailoa receiving a historically lucrative deal from the Dolphins if the two sides can come to an agreement.
