MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is open to a “new beginning,” he told reporters Monday, after being benched for the team's final three games of the season.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel benched Tagovailoa for rookie Quinn Ewers after the team's loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 15, saying the seventh-round pick gave Miami the best chance to win.
Tagovailoa spent the remaining three games as the team's third inactive emergency quarterback. Speaking after McDaniel's decision on December 17, Tagovailoa said he was “disappointed” but that the decision was out of his control. He also declined to comment on whether he had played his last game with the Dolphins.
His tone changed during the team's locker room cleanup Monday, when asked if he would like a fresh start after the events of this season.
“That would be great,” he said. “It would be good for me.”
McDaniel said Monday there will be a quarterback competition in 2026 and didn't close the door on Ewers starting next season.
McDaniel declined to speculate on what led to Tagovailoa's decline this season, but said he will meet with the quarterback early Tuesday to discuss the season and how they would like to move forward.
“I think there's a lot on a franchise quarterback's plate and ultimately I think it's my job to try to improve his game all the time,” he said. “I don't want to throw out a starter who is shortsighted or reduces how many layers there are to performing at the quarterback position. What I do know is that, for the first time, I evaluated whether or not I should be the starting quarterback on the team. That was as a result of an inability to do some things.
“Does that mean it's a permanent thing for him in terms of being able to execute things that he's executed in the past? No, it's not like that. Having his game and ownership of his game when he's at his peak, that's something we'll discuss. He'll have a lot of ideas and he'll have to work to get back to where we're all used to seeing. And I'll do my best to support that and the rest we'll see.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212.1 million extension in July 2024, the richest contract in franchise history. But after missing a career-high six games in 2024 with hip and head injuries, he had a poor season in 2025 before losing his job to Ewers.
He threw for 2,660 yards and 20 touchdowns against a career-high 15 interceptions and recorded fewer than 200 passing yards eight times this season, after doing so just six times in his previous three seasons under McDaniel combined.
Leaving Tagovailoa will be costly for Miami. It represents a $56.4 million salary cap hit in 2026, and cutting it before June 1 would result in a dead cap hit of $99.2 million next season. Releasing him after June 1 would spread that dead cap hit over two seasons, with $67.2 million in 2026.
The Dolphins could also look to trade the NFL's passing yards leader in 2023, but would have to find a team willing to take on his salary.
If he did indeed play his last snap for the Dolphins, Tagovailoa will leave as the franchise's fourth-leading passer with 18,166 yards and 120 touchdowns. He would also finish his time in Miami as the Dolphins' career leader in completion percentage among qualified passers at 68%.
