Are the Miami Dolphins better off with or without Tua Tagovailoa?

Tua Tagovailoa has been with the Miami Dolphins for four seasons, and opinions about whether he can and should lead the franchise into the future are mixed. We’ll examine reasons why Miami might want to keep him, and why they might also be nervous about committing to him long-term. All statistics are sourced from Football Reference.

It can be said without too much dissention that Tagovailoa’s 2023 campaign was the best of his career. He led the league in passing yards with 4,624, serving as the point guard of a high powered Dolphins aerial attack. Tagovailoa also set a career high in touchdown passes in 2023, tossing 29 scores.

Tagovailoa was also under center for each and every one of Miami’s games in 2023. This was something that most of the NFL could not boast, as only nine quarterbacks in the NFL played every game in 2023, according to The Florida Times-Union.

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While this was a massive step in the right direction for Tagovailoa, many football fans won’t forget the tumultuous injury history he’s had prior to 2023. He missed four games in 2022 due to multiple concussions, and missed four games in 2021 due to a rib injury. This is on top of the much-discussed hip injury he suffered in college while playing for the University of Alabama.

On the plus side, it seems like the Dolphins signal caller has an excellent relationship with current head coach Mike McDaniel. Tagovailoa told The Palm Beach Post in November 2022 that he thinks McDaniel doesn’t get as much praise as he should.

McDaniel has also consistently praised Tagovailoa since the former got to Miami. In October 2023, the coach scoffed at questions about his quarterback’s importance to the offense, noting that he’s critical to the team’s success. The Fox Sports article chronicled McDaniel’s response to a question about who deserved credit for Miami’s offensive success.

When the Dolphins traded for speedy wide receiver Tyreek Hill ahead of the 2022 season, many questioned whether Tagovailoa had the arm strength to get the ball to him down the field. Those concerns appear to have been answered affirmatively, as Hill’s production has actually increased since joining Miami. Additionally, Tagovailoa was top 10 in the NFL in passes completed over 20 yards in 2023.

At the end of the day, a quarterback is generally judged on how well his team fares. In 51 career starts, the Dolphins are 32-19 with Tagovailoa under center. That’s a clip that most franchises would be happy with year in and year out.

While the career record is nothing to sneeze at, the Miami quarterback has made some head-scratching choices during critical moments in his career. Bleacher Report noted the backlash the team faced after a Week 18 loss to close out the 2023 season against the Buffalo Bills. Tagovailoa threw an interception to Taylor Rapp in the fourth quarter that ended the game.

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With the clock rapidly approaching the two-minute warning in the team’s 2023 Week 17 contest against the Baltimore Ravens, Tagovailoa tossed an interception that stymied Miami’s chances of a comeback. As A To Z Sports noted, the interception was a great catch made by Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith, but Tagovailoa didn’t need to squeeze the ball into that area in that situation.

Tagovailoa’s critics will also point to his lack of production in his one career postseason appearance, a road defeat at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs. The Dolphins offense got very little going, save for a Tagovailoa touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill.

The game was played at negative four degrees, with a wind chill of negative 27, according to USA Today. Tagovailoa defenders might say that most quarterbacks would have struggled in such bone-chilling conditions.

According to the NFL Analysis Network, Tagovailoa was 16-4 against non-playoff teams heading into last season. That statistic improved to 26-5 after the 2023 campaign. It’s positive that Tagovailoa and the Dolphins don’t often falter against teams they should beat, but their struggles against the best teams in the NFL has prevented them from advancing deep into the playoffs.

While it can be easy to nitpick the performance of any quarterback, it is much more difficult to come up with a suitable replacement. Even if the Dolphins decided that Tagovailoa was not going to be their long-term answer, they would be hard-pressed to bring in someone better.

If Tagovailoa is able to cut down on some of the crucial mistakes he made in big games, while maintaining his ability to stay on the field, it stands to reason that Miami is not far off AFC contention.

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As the going rate for starting quarterbacks continues to skyrocket, the Dolphins are going to have to determine whether or not to invest a boatload of money in Tagovailoa for the next few years. Let us know what you think they should do by leaving a comment!