Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa Fifth-Year Option Decision Sends Two Important Messages

Tua Tagovailoa won’t just be the Miami Dolphins’ QB1 in 2023. He’s on track to be their quarterback in 2024 as well.

The Dolphins have decided to pick up Tagovailoa’s fifth-year option, NFL Media first reported and since confirmed by PFN — a massive show of confidence in their polarizing franchise quarterback.

Miami Dolphins Pick Up Tua Tagovailoa’s Contract Option

Tagovailoa is now guaranteed to earn $23.3 million in base salary in 2024 — whether he’s on the Dolphins’ roster or not. The decision to exercise that team option came just days after the Dolphins said they planned to take their time to make a decision.

The deadline to activate fifth-year options for the draft class of 2020 isn’t until May. But by doing it now, the Dolphins accomplished two goals:

1. They made clear that they are in no way going to be involved in this year’s quarterback carousel — removing any possibility that they will acquire Aaron Rodgers or Lamar Jackson or lure Tom Brady out of retirement.
2. Prove to skeptics that they mean what they say that Tua is their guy — and not just this year.

“I think with us, we’re still having all those conversations because there’s a lot of factors that go into that,” Grier said last week at the NFL Scouting Combine.

“And I think now that we’re finally finishing up the coaching staff, we’ll focus on some of these answers and coming together with Mike (McDaniel) and I, we’ll sit and talk about it as well as with Mr. (Stephen) Ross and Brandon Shore. So we’ll go through it, and we’ll make our decision then. But all expectations, he’s our quarterback, and he’s our quarterback here to be successful for a long time.”

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Now, they’ve got deeds to match those words. With this move and several others made this week, Miami is signaling that they believe this current core is good enough to compete for championships.

By committing to Tagovailoa with a fully guaranteed fifth year and restructuring the contracts of Tyreek Hill, Terron Armstead, and Bradley Chubb, the Dolphins are totally committed to this group of stars.

The move, of course, is not without risk. Tagovailoa had a career year in 2022, and the Dolphins are betting that it’s not an anomaly. But with Mike McDaniel as his coach and Hill and Jaylen Waddle as his targets, it’s a fair bet that Tua will continue to produce — when healthy.

He’s missed games due to injury in each of his three NFL seasons and suffered two diagnosed concussions in 2022.