DECEMBER 21: While the Dolphins are planning to keep McDaniel, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Tagovailoa is on his way out of Miami. A trade, even if it involves eating some of Tagovailoa’s 2026 salary, would be the team’s “preferred option,” per Rapoport, but an outright release is still on the table despite the financial consequences. Keeping the 27-year-old quarterback as the league’s most expensive backup – as the Falcons did with Kirk Cousins – does not appear to be an option at the moment.
DECEMBER 19: The Dolphins demoted Tua Tagovailoa to the third-string spot on their depth chart this week, potentially signaling an end to the inconsistent passer’s six-year Miami tenure. As for the coach that pulled the trigger on this move, no change is expected.
Although the Dolphins lost to the Steelers and are now eliminated from the playoffs, Mike McDaniel being allowed to make the Tagovailoa-for-Quinn Ewers switch may be telling. The belief in Miami is that McDaniel will stay for a fifth season, CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones notes.
Prospective HC and GM candidates informed Jones their expectation is McDaniel will be retained and have a chance to spark a turnaround. One source told Jones a belief in the building is McDaniel was given a “tough hand” this year, and unlike the since-ousted Chris Grier, the sideline leader will be given a chance to bounce back in 2026. This is not the first time we have heard McDaniel was likely to be kept, but this coming after the Tua news certainly carries more weight.
It may be tough to see McDaniel’s job being easier next year, assuming he stays. If the team follows through with a Tagovailoa release, it would bring a staggering $99.2MM dead money hit. That dead cap number would be split between 2026 and ’27, continuing a line of pricey Dolphins post-June 1 moves, but will significantly hinder Miami’s roster-building capabilities regardless of where the 2026 salary cap settles.
Only the Broncos have incurred a dead money hit north of $60MM, via their $84.6MM Russell Wilson release. The Dolphins have cut Byron Jones and Xavien Howard using the post-June 1 transaction (2023, 2024), and they needed to wait until after June 1 this year to trade Jalen Ramsey. Even in doing that, Ramsey set a defender record by accounting for $35.86MM in dead cap (spread between 2025 and ’26).
With Ramsey dead money at nearly $21MM next year, having Tagovailoa’s seismic sum hit the cap will make for a difficult task as McDaniel and a to-be-determined GM attempt to recover. Tagovailoa played the lead on-field role in the Dolphins securing back-to-back playoff berths for the first time since its 1997-2001 run of postseason appearances, but McDaniel appears set to outlast the QB in South Beach.
As we look set to see plenty of defense-based coaches generate HC interest on the upcoming carousel, keeping McDaniel makes sense due to his offensive acumen. McDaniel played the lead role in turning Tagovailoa around, with Tyreek Hill being a rather notable part of that effort, and did memorably test the Bills — in a three-point wild-card loss — with third-stringer Skylar Thompson at the helm. It appears McDaniel will be given a chance to see if he can develop another quarterback. It remains a mystery, barring a surprising Ewers stretch-run effort that convinces the Dolphins to stand down at the position, who that player will be if Tua is indeed jettisoned.
No team will be willing to pay the full Tagovailoa freight in a trade, per Jones. If Miami is to move on, it will need to eat a sizable portion of the QB’s $54MM 2026 guarantee in a trade. If Tagovailoa is on the Dolphins’ roster by March 13, a $3MM 2027 guarantee vests as well. Any action on the contract should naturally be expected before that date.
The prospect of McDaniel being paired with a new GM injects risk regarding timelines. Teams have begun to steer their operations toward HC-GM alignment in recent years, though the Bears are having success despite Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson arriving at different points. The Jaguars and Raiders fired their GMs (Trent Baalke, Tom Telesco) for alignment purposes. It will be interesting to see how the Dolphins’ GM search unfolds with the to-be-determined exec being tied to McDaniel.
It will be considered likely the Dolphins hire an outside GM, but Jones adds interim boss Champ Kelly will receive an interview. Kelly was close to earning the Raiders’ GM job in 2024, only to be kept in the assistant GM role once Telesco was hired, and is respected around the league. Kelly interviewed for the Jags’ job this past offseason and met about the Panthers’ vacancy in 2024. He has been the Dolphins’ interim leader since Grier’s Halloween exit. Kelly oversaw the trade of Jaelan Phillips for a third-round pick; the veteran exec also kept Jaylen Waddle at the deadline, hiking up the Bills’ price due to their AFC East status.
The Dolphins are also considering splitting up their GM role in a sense. They have given SVP of football and business administration Brandon Shore more responsibility post-Grier, SI.com’s Albert Breer notes. Both Breer and Jones point to a potential setup in which McDaniel, Shore and a GM report to Stephen Ross, with Breer going as far as to say there is a “good chance” this setup will be in place in Miami come 2026.
Serving as the Dolphins’ cap chief, Shore has been with the franchise for 16 years. He has been in his current role since 2021. Being a key part of the Tagovailoa extension (four years, $212.4MM) the team now appears interested in escaping, Shore making a move up the ladder after that development certainly shows his sturdy organizational standing. Shore’s presence could well be a factor in the Dolphins’ GM pursuit as well, should the Dolphins truly be interested in an arrangement in which two or three staffers report directly to ownership.
I realize passer rating doesn’t mean everything but I find it funny that Tua’s passer rating is 0.3 points less than Caleb Williams’ and Tua has been benched and the team is contemplating eating $99 million in dead money to get rid of him. And people are acting like Caleb Williams is the comeback player of the year. And Tua has a better passer rating than Trevor Lawrence and Bryce Young, two more QB’s people are claiming have turned things around.
The Bears’ success has been in spite of some lukewarm play from Williams. Caleb is much younger though, so I understand the optimism. Tua is trending in the wrong direction and is running out of time to become a “complete quarterback.”
I think a lot of these teams don’t realize that the trend in the modern game is for quarterbacks to develop until they’re around 27-28. That’s why we’re seeing so many QBs have more success with their second/third team than the one that drafted them.
Caleb Williams also comes with a rookies salary…Tua is eating up cap while killing the offense. Meanwhile, their GM couldn’t figure out how to pay for a serviceable defense.
Because they erred in giving him that contract. Everyone’s tune changed on him after he got paid, from the HC to Hill to ownership, to his teammates at large. When you get those mega buck contracts, people are going to start looking at you sideways if you don’t produce.
Also, Trevor Lawrence was getting hammered up until about a month ago. When they blew that Texan game and then barely beat the Cardinals, everyone was on him. He’s played great since then, elite even. It’s the best stretch of his career since that second half of 2022 when they made the playoffs. Heck, it’s the only good stretches of his career he’s had. Bryce Young has put together the two biggest upsets of the season. When you do that as the primary trigger man where you also put up numbers and weren’t just along for the ride, you’re also going to get people off your back. However, his eggs against the Saints are why there are still questions.
Passer rating is a super outdated and borderline useless stat. Modern metrics I promise show a wide gap.
Sure, why not tank another year so they clear off some of that Tua money from the cap?
Sherminator, that would fit right in to Ross’s plan. Brian Flores was right after all.
May as well just keep Kelly for a year or two if you’re going to keep McDaniel. What GM worth his salt is going to take the job if he’s forced to keep the coach AND has $3.50 to spend in terms of salary cap space? Kelly better hire some great new scouts who can evaluate talent. Grier and his team couldn’t for his reign of error. The Dolphins need every, single one of their draft picks to make the team the next two years and the ones who don’t will be replaced by undrafted free agents. Ah, good times……..
I’d say this is an extremely attractive position for a GM. The owner knows it’s going to be a full teardown, so the GM hired will get the leash to choose what assets he keeps or moves on from, pick his QB this offseason or next, and then pick his own head coach in a season or two after firing McDaniel.
It’s a full teardown, you want you want your GM and coach in lockstep from Day One. The Dolphins have spent decades doing half-measures and cart before the horse nonsense. I also think that will be apparent to anyone they approach about the job. This is a horribly run organization and has been for years. Miami hasn’t won a Super Bowl since Nixon was President, but it’s really been since Jacksonville beat Miami 62-7 in that playoff game in 2000 that essentially destroyed or fractured the organization and they simply have not been able to recover. They have pretty much been a bottom feeder, completely dysfunctional and mostly non-competitive since that game. Strange, but true……
Miami won the AFC East in 2008. Made the playoffs in 2016, 2022, and 2023. Got to win-and-need-help in Week 18 of last season. Such a “fractured organization”!
Also, the Dolphins haven’t been to a Super Bowl since Ronald Reagan was in the White House.
expensive… That’s what I was thinking. A really well qualified GM is gonna want to pick his own coach.
About mid season next year when the Dolphins are again under achieving the same scenario will play itself out in Miami. The problem for McDaniel is he won’t have a QB to throw under the bus to save his job on that occasion.
If Miami keeps Tua next year and releases him following the season, what would the dead money hit be then? Would it be financially worth it to essentially play next season with a 51 man roster (keeping Tua but only playing him in an extreme emergency)? Not likely they’ll be much of a force to be reckoned with next season anyway…
He’s not a leader, he’s not well liked and who needs him sulking around for a year poisoning the well? If you have no intention of playing him, just cut him. I can’t help but think that if they were going to keep him, they would not have benched him now………..or, if they were benching him, there would have been an orchestrated mantra that they’re benching him for physical reasons and they expect him to come back next year healthy and ready to go.
They’re going to have to recycle a former GM from somewhere to take over this situation. Imagine meeting the owner & hearing, “the plan is to cut Tua, absorb that $99 million dead cap hit over the next two years, & then hire a new GM who believes in Mike McDaniels vision.”
Sacrificed Tua to keep his job.
Tua for Baby Legs who says no?
Oh really? How about now that the 4-10 Bungholes are in the process of hanging a 50 burger 🍔 on the Dolphins?
Seriously? Why keep McDaniel after today’s performance against the worst D in the league. The bengals beat Miami badly. It’s clear after a couple of years that the Dolphins aren’t getting better. They’re getting worse.