On one hand, you want Miami Dolphins quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa and Quinn Ewers, the latter entering the fray as a seventh-round rookie, to have a good relationship. There's a lot the young newcomer can learn about the transition to the NFL, and that mutual respect is a sign of a good culture in the Dolphins locker room. At the same time, however, it's hard not to think that Tua might come to regret hyping up his new teammate, Ewers, because the Texas product is showing signs that he could potentially be Tagovailoa's eventual replacement.
After Wednesday's training camp practice, Tagovailoa spoke to the media and, though he didn't elaborate, he made it clear that Ewers has been impressive through the first week or so of Dolphins camp and that the rookie is already making noticeable strides.
"I think Quinn's been balling," Tua said, via Joe Schad of The Palm Beach Post. "I think he's been buying into what he's been told in the quarterback room."
Tagovailoa's "balling" assertion only furthers what we've been hearing out of Miami's training camp. While there was a learning curve for Ewers early on, boots on the ground with the Dolphins have said that he's improved virtually every single day and has consistently provided one of the plays or throws of each day.
And with the pressure Tua and the Dolphins are facing in the 2025 season, you have to start thinking about what that could mean for the future.
Tua Tagovailoa's contract creates a lane for Quinn Ewers to take over
The Dolphins enter the upcoming season with what feels like a playoff-or-bust mentality, perhaps with a sprinkling of needing make a run in the postseason as well. The Mike McDaniel era has been exciting, but whether because of injuries to Tagovailoa, the inability to succeed in cold weather, or just questionable roster-building, the fruits of this regime's labor haven't been all that sweet in the end.
That brings Tagovailoa into the forefront. He signed a four-year, $212.4 million contract last offseason with $167 million guaranteed. Given his struggles with head injuries and the underperformance of the Dolphins as a whole, that deal was met with some skepticism. But it's obviously an indication that Miami is trying to make one last-ditch effort with Tua leading the way to turn this into playoff success.
However, the clock might already be ticking. While there is a substantial amount of guaranteed money in Tagovailoa's contract, there is an out for the Dolphins after the 2026 season. Rather than taking on cap hits of $53.4 million and $65.8 million in 2027 and 2028, respectively, releasing Tua before the 2027 season would drop the dead cap hits to only $31.8 and $18.4 million, which would give Miami much more flexibility.
That's where Ewers comes into the picture as well. As a seventh-round pick, the Dolphins only owe the current rookie a total of $4.33 million over the next four seasons, with the highest cap hit coming in the final year of his rookie contract at $1,267,894.
If the Dolphins continue to crash and burn in December and January under Tagovailoa and Ewers continues to impress, that opens the door for Miami to potentially make a change at QB1. Not only would it potentially breathe some new life into the franchise and the offense, but it would help alleviate one of the issues that the Dolphins have been facing over the past few years.
Dolphins could have Quinn Ewers blueprint with Brock Purdy's 49ers
While Tua's dead cap hits should he be cut after the 2026 season would be prohibitive, it would still provide the Dolphins ample salary cap flexibility to build around a substantially cheaper quarterback option in Ewers. Think about what the 49ers were able to do with former Mr. Irrelevant Brock Purdy while he was on his rookie deal. They were able to spend big both to retain players and to bring in someone like Christian McCaffrey to build a viable Super Bowl contender.
The contrast of that has been Miami in recent years. Whether it's been Christian Wilkins, Andrew Van Ginkel, Jevon Holland, Jalen Ramsey or a long list of others, the impending Tagovailoa contract and other expensive deals to the likes of Tyreek Hill have hamstrung the Dolphins in retaining high-end talent. Moving on from Tua and handing the keys to Ewers would open that space back up for the final two years of the current rookie's contract and give the Dolphins another window to aggressively pursue building a contending roster.
Of course, all of this is contingent upon Ewers continuing to impress and live up to his former 5-star recruit billing, not his draft position. If that happens, though, and we continue to see the Dolphins struggle to get over the hump in the 2025 season with Tua at the helm, Miami is going to have to consider making some drastic changes. And at the end of the day, Tagovailoa could be looking back on praise like this to Ewers and realize he was helping to prop up his eventual replacement.