The Miami Dolphins fell to 1-6 last Sunday with a 31-6 loss to the Cleveland Browns. You cannot let Dillon Gabriel's Browns offense drop 31 points and consider yourself a serious team, and that's without even getting to the offense. And man, there really wasn't much offense to get to! Mike McDaniel was the hottest name in coaching a couple of years ago. Now, the Dolphins can barely move the football across midfield.
At the heart of Miami's woeful offense is quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, an ex-Pro Bowler who continues to hit rock bottom and then dig a little deeper the following week. He completed 52.2 percent of his passes in the Browns game for 100 yards, with zero touchdowns and three interceptions. He's up to 10 INTs through seven weeks. That is not a sustainable number, regardless of the context.
Is Tagovailoa the sole perpetrator of this Dolphins collapse? Of course not. McDaniel deserves his share of blame. Tyreek Hill and other locker room "leaders" are at fault. But at the end of the day, Tagovailoa is a bottom-tier quarterback in the NFL. You just can't win games with such rampant incompetence under center.
The Dolphins still plan to start Tagovailoa in Week 8. On the surface, it's a baffling decision. But dig a bit deeper, and it's clear why Miami continues to roll with the Alabama product. A) Zach Wilson and Quinn Ewers are the alternatives and B) Tagovailoa is signed to a four-year, $212.4 million contract with $161.2 million guaranteed.
Miami is stuck with Tagovailoa for now. But it needn't be that way forever. There is a path forward, out of this mess, but it will require guts from ownership and the front office. And perhaps a little inspiration from the Denver Broncos.
Dolphins need to invoke the Broncos-Russell Wilson playbook with Tua Tagovailoa
The Broncos (in)famously paid Russell Wilson an ungodly amount of money to run Sean Payton's offense in the Mile High City. It, uh, did not work out. Payton has spent the last couple of years popping champagne over Bo Nix and exploiting every opportunity to take jabs at Wilson in the media. They clearly did not get along, mainly because Wilson couldn't perform on par with his contract. That puts a strain on any player-coach relationship.
After a cup of bitter and lukewarm coffee in Pittsburgh, Russ is with the Giants now. He's the backup to rookie Jaxson Dart. And the Broncos are paying him $35 million in dead money this season.
That sounds awful, right? Why on earth would the Dolphins sign up for that? Well, the answer is twofold: it means Tagovailoa is no longer your quarterback, and it's also better than paying the rest of his salary in full while the team bleeds losses.
Cutting Tagovailoa right now is not a realistic option. The Dolphins must suffer through the rest of 2025, whether Tagovailoa is starting every week or wearing the headset while Quinn Ewers endures trial by fire. But once the season ends and June comes around, the NFL salary rules are written in such a way that a door will open for Miami. The question is, will the Dolphins walk through it?
Dolphins can't get off of Tua Tagovailoa's money entirely, but it's worth it
Ted Nguyen and Daniel Popper of The Athletic laid it all out in a recent column. If the Dolphins cut Tagovailoa tomorrow, they would incur $99.2 million in dead money next season, which takes up roughly 35 percent of their cap sheet. Not remotely smart or feasible. But, if the Dolphins wait until the summer and cut Tagovailoa with a post-June 1 designation, the $99.2 million cash black hole becomes a bit more palatable.
"The Dolphins would have to use this mechanism to even think about getting out of Tagovailoa’s contract after this season," Nguyen and Popper write. "The $99.2 million would still hit the cap. But the Dolphins would incur a $67.4 million dead money charge in 2026 and a $31.8 million dead money charge in 2027."
In short, waiting until June allows the Dolphins to spread out the dead money, rather than taking it all on the chin in 2026. It's still a lot of dead money to work around, but it's better than paying Tagovailoa his full salary and becoming completely devoid of flexibility or options to move. Miami doesn't want to shell out Tagovailoa's $53.4 million cap hit for next season just to sit him behind a rookie or some other replacement. They need him out of the building.
Miami is going to clean house this summer anyway. We don't need to beat around the bush. McDaniel is coaching his final weeks in South Beach. Tyreek Hill is gone. Even GM Chris Grier is on the hot seat. This organization needs fresh leadership across the board, from the front office, down through the coaching staff and the players in the locker room. Even if it means funding Tagovailoa's plane ticket out of there.
After cutting Russ, the Broncos immediately found their new franchise quarterback in the draft and made the playoffs. Miami can hope to follow a similar arc post-Tagovailoa, with several intriguing quarterback prospects near the top of draft boards, where Miami will almost certainly be picking.