Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had another tough night, as the Miami Dolphins lost their third game of the season. Tagovailoa threw for just 149 yards and closed his performance with a horrid interception that ended the game for the Dolphins.
Although a loss to the Buffalo Bills was expected, Dolphins fans were extremely mad about the way the game ended. Tua’s interception was bizarre: the quarterback telegraphed his pass, which made it easier for Terrel Bernard to read the throw and force the turnover, which all but ended the game for the visitors.
After the veteran quarterback threw the interception, a number of Miami fans took to Twitter to express their frustrations about the loss. With Quinn Ewers as his official backup, Dolphins fans are asking the franchise to change course and go with a different passer:
“Start Ewers the rest of the year”, asked one fan.
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“Bench Tua, start Ewers and see how it goes from there. F*** it, it’s bad as it is already,” wrote a second disappointed fan.
“Tua is a horrific quarterback. He brings almost nothing to the table. Start Quinn Ewers if you’re the Dolphins”, a third fan opined.
Tua Tagovailoa’s salary makes it harder for Miami to let him go
Even if the Dolphins decide to go in a different direction, letting go of the quarterback is almost impossible. He holds a major dead cap in his contract that makes it extremely difficult for Miami to release him or trade his services to another team.
His dead cap for the 2025 season is $137,8 million, and this number will be lowered to $99,2 million in 2026. No team would ever accept incurring such dead money in their salary cap, and Miami can’t release him for the same reason.
His dead cap will go down to $31,8 million in 2027, a far more plausible number. Even if it still eats a big portion of the cap, this is an acceptable number.
A better option for Miami in the future would be to select a quarterback in the 2026 draft and develop him while they’re still tied to Tagovailoa. Nevertheless, the likelihood is that he’ll remain with the team until, at least, the 2027 season.Henrique Bulio is an NFL and College Football journalist at Sportskeeda and the Editor-in-Chief of Pro Football Brasil. He has a total 13 years of experience working in American Football, and playing quarterback at an amateur level in Brazil has given him a unique perspective of the game.