Dolphins Expected To Release Tua Tagovailoa By Third Day Of League Year

ESPN’s Dan Graziano reports that the Dolphins continue to tell people that they’ve had talks with interested teams about QB Tua Tagovailoa, but they haven’t given up on trying to trade him, even if that would require them to take on a staggering $54 million in fully guaranteed salary this season.

Even so, Graziano says that other teams around the league remain skeptical. Graziano expects the Dolphins to end up releasing Tagovailoa by the third day of the 2026 league year when $3 million of his 2027 salary will become fully guaranteed 

Miami would likely designate Tagovailoa as a post-June 1 release to split the $99.2 million in dead money over the next two seasons. 

This fits with a report from CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones, who mentioned that “nearly everyone in the league anticipates” a post-June 1st release being the outcome between the two sides.

Miami could split a record $99.1 million cap charge by giving Tagovailoa a post-June 1 designation, which would equate to a $55.4 million cap hit in 2026 and another $43.8 million in 2027.

The Dolphins have been willing to eat some of Tagovailoa’s $54 million guaranteed salary to make a trade work but any money they eat is added onto the dead money bill. If another team only wants to pay Tagovailoa $10 million — and it’s questionable how much appetite there is even for that — that still leaves the Dolphins with a huge dead money hit. 

The Dolphins have said one way or another they plan to add competition to the quarterback room this offseason. The idea of sticking with 2025 seventh-round QB Quinn Ewers as the starter in 2026 has also started to gain some steam. 

Tagovailoa, 27, was selected with the No. 5 overall pick out of Alabama in 2020 by the Dolphins. He signed a four-year, $30,275,438 rookie contract with a $19,578,501 signing bonus. He earned a base salary of $1,010,000 in the final year of his deal.

The Dolphins picked up Tagovailoa’s fifth-year option worth $23,171,000 for the 2024 season. 

From there, the team re-signed him to a four-year deal worth up to $212 million that included $167 million guaranteed. 

In 2025, Tagovailoa appeared in 14 games for the Dolphins and completed 67.7 percent of his passes for 2,660 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions.

We’ll have more on Tagovailoa and the Dolphins as the news is available.