This offseason has been full of major changes for the Miami Dolphins. There's a new head coach in Jeff Halfley, a new general manager in Jon-Eric Sullivan, and plenty of new players, with others no longer on the roster.
Most notable was the Dolphins' quarterback exchange, with Miami cutting Tua Tagovailoa and signing Malik Willis. This swap is a big deal, and while it's a fun move in theory, not everyone is on board.
According to Mike Sando of The Athletic, one anonymous NFL executive criticized the Dolphins' signing of Willis for a Tagovailoa reason. But, not in the sense he wished Taogvailoa stayed, but the fear of Miami repeating the same mistake from 2019 and 2020.
NFL exec warns of repeat of 2019-2020 Dolphins QB issue
"To me, this is 2019 all over again," this NFL executive said. "They should not have signed Malik Willis. They should have taken the full Tua cap charge in one season. They should have gone with Quinn Ewers and just played out the season."
This is an interesting perspective for an NFL executive to have, but it does make a bit of sense.
Instead of spreading Tagovailoa's hit over two years and signing Willis, this exec wished the Dolphins had taken on all $99.2 million dead cap in 2026 and didn't sign Willis.
This would've meant that Quinn Ewers, who started a few games at the end of 2025 and was a seventh-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, would be the starter in 2026.
The reason why this NFL exec thinks this way is their fear about Miami repeating the same Ryan Fitzpatrick-Tagovailoa issue from the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
More: Dolphins have 36.7% chance for Malik Willis signing to work out
The Dolphins signed Fitzpatrick as the starter in 2019, and when Tagovailoa was the fifth overall pick, the coaches wanted to go with Fitzpatrick, but the ownership came in and installed Tagovailoa instead.
Half a decade later, and the Dolphins might be making the same mistake. If Willis plays well and wins over the coaching staff, but Miami tries to find a rookie QB next year in the draft, then this QB debacle could repeat itself with Willis and a rookie.
It's a reasonable concern, but hopefully for the Dolphins, Willis either looks good enough to stick with as the full-time starter, or there's enough uncertainty to easily pick a QB early next year and move on from Willis.
This will be something worth coming back to in a few years, as this issue is the only one that can have a conclusion a few years down the road. But it's an interesting issue, and one that Miami cannot ignore as they plan for the future.
More Dolphins news: