Tua Tagovailoa's Looming Contract Extension Is About To Limit Dolphins' Ability To Chase Great Talent

INDIANAPOLIS – The Miami Dolphins are all in on quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. How far?

It will eventually be clear before the start of the 2024 season when the quarterback's agents and the club agree on the contract extension they're currently negotiating. 

General manager Chris Grier said Wednesday he's been talking to Tagovailoa's agents since the offseason began and will meet with them in person during the combine to continue discussions on a deal.

A league source said the complex deal is nowhere near completion, but when it gets done, it will "easily" put Tagovailoa in the $50-million-plus per year club that only four other NFL players, all quarterbacks, currently belong.

Tagovailoa Huge Payday Coming

So the Dolphins will put Tagovailoa in the same tax bracket as Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts -- two Super Bowl quarterbacks, a two-time MVP, and a guy in Herbert who has thrown for 4,585 more career yards and 33 more TDs.

"We're strong believers in him," Grier said of Tagovailoa. "Just in the two years of what he's done, he's grown in areas. He led the league in passing and did great things this year. And we all feel there's still another level where he can take it.

"I think the way he's attacked this and wants to be great, and the combination of [coach] Mike [McDaniel] and working with that, and that trust and belief in each other, we think there's still another level he can go."

Once they get Tagovailoa under the new contract and its salary cap structure, the Dolphins are going to need the quarterback to take his game to another level. Because the talent the team can put around him might not always be as high as it has been.

Splash Trades Will Stop 

And the splash moves the Dolphins have made almost habitually in recent years in getting to get into the postseason two consecutive years might have to slow to a slow drip.

Because teams with quarterbacks on rookie deals can be aggressive elsewhere on the roster. But teams with quarterbacks making rarefied salaries have to become budget conscious.

They simply cannot afford the eye-popping trades and free agent signings. 

"You get those guys on a rookie deal it allows you to do things we've done the last few years – to go get guys," Grier said. "Whether it's Tyreek [Hill], Bradley [Chubb], etc. And also for us, moving forward, we have a lot of good young players coming up, too. Jaylen Waddle, [Jaelan] Phillips. We have probably five or six guys, too, that we're talking to that will be candidates for possible extensions."

And what does that do?

It puts a team that has been cracking the whip on team building with big trades and free agent signings to have to pull back on the reins.

Jalen Ramsey made his Dolphins debut following a knee injury. He was traded to the team in 2023. (Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

Rams Couldn't Afford Jalen Ramsey

You're seeing it already with the Dolphins being over cap (right now), and needing to restructure some contracts and even cut some players, such as Xavien Howard to get under the cap. That's without even adding the expense of signing Tagovailoa and others.

The tangible price to pay for managing a cap with a big-salaried quarterback is seen in the person of cornerback Jalen Ramsey. The Rams, paying big for Matthew Stafford and others, traded Ramsey because they couldn't afford him anymore.

The Dolphins, with Tagovailoa on his rookie contract, grabbed him.

That is about to change.

"So, yes, every year you can't make those moves," Grier admitted. "You know, the ones people get excited for. You've seen it around the league, it's not sustainable. At some point you have to reel it back a little bit and add some youth and cherry-pick here and there where you go."

Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, general manager Chris Grier and club owner Stephen Ross are obviously sold on quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for the foreseeable future. (David Santiago/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Dolphins Will Try To Build Other Ways

This may come as a sobering reality to Dolphins fans. Their starting quarterback had a $9.6 million salary cap number in 2023.

In the next few years, after the Tagovailoa extension fully kicks in, that cap number will swell into the mid-40s and then the 50s.

It's going to force the team that perpetually added stars to be more thoughtful about how it builds its roster. Kind of like most of the rest of the league.

"We've been looking," Grier said, "at all different ways of building this and keep our roster competitive."