When the Miami Dolphins extended quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in 2024, it was part of a much larger trend of QBs getting paid that offseason. With the rapidly rising price, teams were incentivized to get a deal done before the next domino fell somewhere else and raised the price again. The Dolphins secured Tua for the long term with a four-year, $212 million contract but as with all NFL deals, the devil is in the details.
Tagovailoa’s contract wasn’t as strong at signing as the rest of the deals that summer. Only $93.17 million was fully guaranteed at signing and that was his 2024 and 2025 compensation. Two years fully guaranteed is on the low end of the scale for a franchise player.
But in March of 2025, $54 million more became fully guaranteed for the 2026 season. That’s because the Dolphins used a rolling guarantee structure, which guarantees a future year, that essentially keeps turning the deal into a two-year commitment each offseason. As we sit here in September 2025, Miami is on the hook for a combined $106 million over the course of the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
In March 2026, the Dolphins will have another decision to make on Tagovailoa’s contract, but it’s a lower price point — just $3 million of his 2027 salary fully guarantees. Peanuts.
How can the Dolphins get out of the Tua Tagovailoa contract?
The only way the Miami Dolphins can get out of Tua Tagovailoa’s contract is by trading him. Otherwise they’re going to pay the whole sum in 2025 and 2026. So they need to convince another team to pay $55 million in 2026 cash to a guy the Dolphins don’t want on their team anymore. Seems unlikely.
If they release Tagovailoa, they will still owe him $55 million for 2026 minus whatever another team pays him.
Russell Wilson is the test case for Tua Tagovailoa — sort of
When the Denver Broncos traded for Russell Wilson in 2022, they gave him a massive contract extension. His 2022, 2023, and 2024 salaries were all fully guaranteed, but his 2025 compensation would become fully guaranteed in March of 2024.
In order to avoid that, the Broncos released him in March 2024 despite having to pay him $39 million for the 2024 season. That kept his 2025 salary of $37 million off Denver’s books.
The Dolphins could have done that early in the 2025 offseason, releasing Tagovailoa before the 2025 salary came due. But they didn’t, and now they are on the hook in a way the Broncos were not.
Kirk Cousins is the more accurate test case for Tua Tagovailoa
When the Atlanta Falcons signed Kirk Cousins in 2024, they gave him two years guaranteed on his four-year contract. Then they drafted Michael Penix, who they inserted into the lineup during the 2024 season. They didn’t need Cousins and his bloated salary anymore in 2025, but his salary was already fully guaranteed. They’d need to find a trade partner to make offloading him worth it.
At $27.5 million in salary plus a $10 million guaranteed bonus in 2026, no team pulled the trigger on a Cousins trade during the 2025 offseason. Now he’s the most expensive backup QB in NFL history. They were going to have to pay him anyway, so no use in releasing him.
Tagovailoa’s $55 million is nearly $20 million higher than the combined $37.5 million Cousins had coming. The Dolphins will only add $3 million in future guaranteed money for Tagovailoa if the keep him into the 2026 season. Like Cousins, there won’t be much of a financial benefit to moving on from Tua next year, so even if the Dolphins don’t want him as their 2026 starter, he could stay on the team the same way Cousins has in Atlanta.