Maybe this was how it was going to play out with Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins all along.
General Manager Chris Grier warned early in the offseason that negotiations for a contract extension for the 2020 No. 1 pick would be complicated while indicating that the franchise wanted to continue with Tagovailoa as its starting quarterback.
That was why the expectation all along was that a deal would be worked out, though all parties probably wish it had happened a bit sooner than the third day of training camp practices and after Tagovailoa’s now-famous “the market is the market” comment during minicamp.
Neither Tua nor the team revealed the exact structure of the contract as of early Saturday morning, so it’s impossible to exactly break down where the contract puts Tua in real money. The headline is the $53.1 million, which put him third among NFL quarterbacks for a little while Friday until Jordan Love topped it with his extension with the Green Bay Packers.
Tua’s annual average would place him a hair ahead of the reported figures of Jared Goff’s extension with the Detroit Lions, which came in at exactly $53 million. Goff had a slight edge in guaranteed money at $170 million.
Ultimately, the two trailed the money the Jacksonville Jaguars gave Trevor Lawrence, who got a $55 million annual average with $200 guaranteed.
This is where the debate can start about who deserved more because Tua has accomplished much more statistically so far than Lawrence, dominating him in most categories. Yes, Lawrence does have one playoff victory, but the one fact shouldn’t be the end-all, be-all difference-maker because Tua has played only one playoff game, and playing at Kansas City is a whole different ballgame than facing the Chargers at home.
Even if he didn’t wind up at the top of the QB salary hierarchy, Tua did land a contract that pretty much filled his “market is the market” mantra.
From a team standpoint, the Dolphins most definitely put their money where their mouth was.
They essentially committed to Tagovailoa being their starting quarterback for at least the next three years, fully confident he’ll take the next steps in his evolution and help deliver playoff wins and, hopefully, a Super Bowl.
While there are questions about Tagovailoa’s NFL ceiling and whether he can carry the team to a Super Bowl, the facts are that the Dolphins are a playoff team with him running the offense, and there’s reason to be optimistic.
It’s a sharp contrast from where the Dolphins were almost a decade ago when they decided to extend Ryan Tannehill’s contract when his ceiling was in question. He also had been without Tua’s statistical success to that point.
The decision to extend Tannehill was highly dubious from the start, and that’s not the case here.
The Dolphins have put themselves in position the past two seasons to accomplish great things after starting 8-3 and 10-3, and it may be that they needed a couple of tries to finish what they started.
And the Dolphins think they’ll be doing just that, and Tua will be front and center in getting it done.
It’s a long way from where things stood two or three years ago when the Dolphins clearly had their doubts about Tagovailoa. This led to the much-too-public pursuits of Deshaun Watson and later Tom Brady, the one that helped cost the Dolphins two premium draft picks after they were found guilty of tampering.
We all remember Tua’s famous comment, “I don’t feel wanted,” during all the Watson chatter in 2021.
Tua can now replace that comment with, “I feel wanted.”
Now, it’s up to Tua to build on his 2022 and 2023 performances, take the next step, and justify the Dolphins’ faith in him by helping the team reach its ultimate goals.