The Miami Dolphins have been hard at work ahead of the start of free agency, as they have kicked off their rebuild by releasing several of their veteran players. However, with the start of the legal tampering period just hours away, all eyes were on quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who has been the subject of a slew of rumors over the past few weeks.
While the Dolphins made it clear that they would like to trade Tagovailoa in order to save some salary cap space, they admitted they would release him if they were unable to find a trade partner for him. Sure enough, with nobody showing interest in trading for Tagovailoa, Miami was forced into making a difficult decision on Monday morning.
Dolphins Officially Release Tua Tagovailoa
Miami is on the hook for $54M fully guaranteed with offsets, meaning Tagovailoa will play for the minimum next season for someone else.
The No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Tagovailoa appeared to have enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2023 when he led the league with 4,624 passing yards. Over the past two seasons, though, Tagovailoa has completely unraveled, and after he got benched in favor of seventh-round rookie Quinn Ewers late in the 2025 campaign, it became clear that his time with Miami had come to an end.
What made moving on from Tagovailoa so difficult was his contract. In July 2024, Tagovailoa put pen to paper on a four-year, $212.4 million contract that featured $167.17 million in guaranteed money. Trading Tagovailoa would help reduce the salary cap hit that would come from moving on from him, but there was really no way to get around the fact that the team was going to have to take a massive loss on this deal.
Even if the Dolphins were able to find a willing trade partner for Tagovailoa, they would have had to eat a massive chunk of his contract in order to make the deal happen. With Miami indicating it would simply release him, though, nobody showed any interest in trading him. As a result, with free agency right around the corner, the team decided to bite the bullet and officially release Tagovailoa on Monday morning.
“The Dolphins have informed QB Tua Tagovailoa that they are releasing him, saying goodbye to their starting QB since 2020,” Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported in a post on X. “Miami is on the hook for $54M fully guaranteed with offsets, meaning Tagovailoa will play for the minimum next season for someone else.”
Dolphins Set to Begin Search for Tua Tagovailoa’s Replacement
GettyMiami Dolphins QB, Tua Tagovailoa.
By releasing Tagovailoa, the Dolphins are taking on an NFL record dead cap hit of $99.2 million, which will be spread out over the course of the next two seasons (as the team designated him a post-June 1 release). Even when accounting for that decision, though, releasing Tagovailoa is actually costing Miami over $11 million on its 2026 salary cap.
With all the other moves the Dolphins have made, they now have the cap space to stomach this move, but there’s no doubt that it is going to be a tough pill for the team to swallow over the next two years. Now, Miami will begin looking for Tagovailoa’s replacement, with the hope being that things don’t go as poorly as they just went with the former Alabama Crimson Tide star.
Dolphins Make Final Tua Tagovailoa Decision Before Free Agency