Tua Tagovailoa Joins High Price QB Market But Now There Are Other Goals For Dolphins | Armando Salguero

The market is the market, as Tua Tagovailoa noted weeks ago.

And on Friday, after a sometimes intense negotiation that spanned months, the Miami Dolphins and Tagovailoa finally agreed on what the correct market is for a face-of-the-franchise quarterback in South Florida.

MIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 24: Tua Tagovailoa #1 of the Miami Dolphins throws a pass while pressured by Micah Parsons #11 of the Dallas Cowboys during the first quarter at Hard Rock Stadium on December 24, 2023 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

Lucrative New Deal For Tagovailoa

Tagovailoa and the Dolphins have agreed to a four-year deal worth $212.4 million. The deal includes $167 million in guaranteed money.

That means Tagovailoa, 26, is the third-highest paid quarterback in the NFL, just ahead of Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff. Tagovailoa will average $53.1 million per season on an annual average, while Goff is averaging $53 million.

Tagovailoa's deal is the richest spanning four years in NFL history. 

So the debate Dolphins fans had among themselves about whether Tagovailoa was worth a huge contract is over. The sides negotiating the deal settled it amid the din of outside opinions.

But that debate's dissenting side, claiming Tagovailoa is not elite but rather a product of a quarterback-friendly offense with the tons of surrounding talent, still has to be silenced.

And Tagovailoa must do the shushing by changing the team's late-season results.

The Buffalo defense harassed Tua Tagovailoa in Week 4 of the 2023 season. (Al Diaz/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Dolphins Struggled Against Winners

The Dolphins last season had a 1-6 record against playoff caliber teams despite posting an 11-6 record that tied them for the second-best regular-season record in the AFC.

It was a thing, particularly late in the season, when Miami dropped consecutive games to Baltimore and Buffalo.

"…If you lose to two good teams down the stretch, you leave yourself vulnerable for people to say that you can’t beat good teams, which will be the case until you do," coach Mike McDaniel said after the regular season.

Yeah, and then his team went to Kansas City and lost in its only postseason game. 

The Dolphins currently own the NFL's longest drought between playoff wins. It stands at 24 years. The last time the Dolphins won a playoff game was in December of 2000.

So what, exactly, does this have to do with one player who wasn't around for all those years of postseason struggles? What does it have to do with Tagovailoa?

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa speaks with the media during mandatory minicamp at Baptist Health Training Complex in Hard Rock Stadium on June 4, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Florida. (David Santiago/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Highest Paid Must Produce For Dolphins

As the highest-paid player on the team, and one of the top five/three highest paid players in the NFL, the expectation is for him to lift the Dolphins from the struggles just outlined.

So this contract means Tagovailoa's story in Miami is about to turn the page – to part Tua.

(Couldn't resist).

Tagovailoa waited on this deal while insisting the Dolphins had to raise their offers to match the quarterback market as it climbed.

"I’ll tell you one thing; the market is the market," Tagovailoa told reporters the last time he spoke to them in the offseason. "If we didn’t have a market, then none of that would matter. It would just be an organizational thing. It didn’t matter if that guy got paid that because it’s up to the organization. So that’s what I would say – the market is the market. That’s it."

Well, now that Tagovailoa is helping to set the market, he must perform as if the investment is worthwhile.

That's the challenge going forward.

Big salary must match the expectations of big success as it must for all high-priced QBs.

MIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 15: Head Coach Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins speaks with Tua Tagovailoa #1 during the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Hard Rock Stadium on November 15, 2020 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)

Flores Didn't Trust Tua Tagovailoa

The first few chapters of the quarterback's career with the Dolphins wasn't about big success. It actually presented one struggle after another.

Tagovailoa started as a rookie but was benched in-game multiple times by then Dolphins coach Brian Flores. 

Flores even tried to get the Dolphins to trade for Deshaun Watson and the club considered the move seriously in 2021.

Tagovailoa struggled under Flores and the young coach's annual change of offensive coordinators – none of whom trusted Tagovailoa.

Tyreek Hill praises Mike McDaniel for his gusty fourth down call against the Patriots. (Photo by Peter Joneleit/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Mike McDaniel Rescued Tua

The page turned on that narrative when Mike McDaniel was hired as Miami's coach in 2022 and installed the Shanahan-like offense Mike Shanahan once ran during his coaching days and son Kyle Shanahan runs in San Francisco.

McDaniel worked under both Mike and Kyle for years. 

Tagovailoa has generally played well since the coaching change – throwing 54 TDs and 22 interceptions the past two seasons.

Last season, Tagovailoa overcame concerns about his durability and passed for over 4,000 yards for the first time in his NFL career. 

But none of this means Tagovailoa has arrived.

The new deal will put new expectations on him to raise the play of those around him to success-in-the-playoffs heights.

Chapter Tua begins in the regular season.