Tua Tagovailoa
Getty
NFL insider Dan Graziano believes that the Dolphins have no choice but to release Tua Tagovailoa
The Miami Dolphins have made it clear to the rest of the NFL early this offseason that they are set to undergo a full-scale rebuild. That includes finding a new quarterback, with former first-round pick Tua Tagovailoa flaming out after appearing set for a star turn after the 2023 campaign. Just two years later, Tagovailoa has essentially gotten himself run out of town.
What makes moving on from Tagovailoa difficult for the Dolphins’ new regime is that he signed a massive four-year, $212.4 million contract extension back in 2024. As a result, in an effort to save some money, Miami has conveyed to teams across the league that it would like to trade Tagovailoa rather than release him, but according to NFL insider Dan Graziano of ESPN, it sounds unlikely that the Dolphins will be able to find a willing trade partner for him.
Dolphins Appear Likely to Release Tua Tagovailoa
The Dolphins almost certainly will designate Tua Tagovailoa as a post-June 1 release to help defray some of the $99.2 million in dead money it will cost to release him, per @DanGrazianoESPN. https://t.co/qDUVamfCHS
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 1, 2026
Miami selected Tagovailoa with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, and after a slow start to his career, the arrival of Mike McDaniel as his head coach seemed to unlock things for the Dolphins. Tagovailoa led the league with 4,624 passing yards in 2023, and he earned the first Pro Bowl selection of his career as a result.
Everything has fallen apart in record time, though. McDaniel’s offensive system was unable to support itself in 2024 and 2025, largely because Tagovailoa looked like a shell of himself under center. A slew of concussions likely hasn’t helped Tagovailoa’s confidence on the field, but he was fully healthy, for all intents and purposes, throughout the entire past season.
It’s not much of a surprise to see that the Dolphins intend on cutting bait with Tagovailoa, but doing so is going to be costly. If Miami could find a trade partner, it would have to eat a massive amount of Tagovailoa’s remaining contract, but it would still help the team save some money against the cap. Instead, Graziano believes that when all is said and done, the Dolphins will have to designate Tagovailoa as a post-June 1 release and eat a massive salary cap hit.
“The Dolphins continue to tell people that they’ve had trade talks with teams and haven’t given up on trying to trade Tagovailoa, even though that would mean picking up a significant portion of his $54 million in fully guaranteed 2026 salary,” Graziano wrote. “But based on my conversations with other teams, I’m skeptical, and I expect Miami to release Tagovailoa by the third day of the league year (when $3 million of his 2027 salary would become fully guaranteed).”
Should the Dolphins Release Tua Tagovailoa?
Tua Tagovailoa
GettyDolphins’ general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan confirmed that the team is looking to trade Tua Tagovailoa
Releasing Tagovailoa would incur a historic $99.2 million dead cap hit for the Dolphins, but designating him as a post-June 1 release would allow the front office to spread that hit out over the 2026 and 2027 campaigns. Miami still would lose over $11 million in cap space simply by releasing Tagovailoa, but going about his release in this manner would help the team avoid having to stomach that entire dead cap hit in 2026.
Trading Tagovailoa could lead to some cap savings, but the problem is that even if they do move him, they are going to have to pay a significant chunk of his remaining salary, which would likely negate the majority of those savings. The Dolphins are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and while they have announced their rebuild to the world, that doesn’t make this situation any less difficult to stomach.