Tua Tagovailoa acknowledged this spring that he is growing irritated with his contract negotiations with the Miami Dolphins. One reason for the delay in a prospective long-term agreement is that the Dolphins have yet to offer the Pro Bowl quarterback a contract comparable to those recently inked by the Detroit Lions’ Jared Goff and the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence, according to ESPN.
“This is complicated,” said Jeff Darlington on “NFL Live” this week. “I’m not saying it won’t get done… but right now there are five words looming over this contract negotiation, and they’re the words Tua said: ‘The market is the market.’…” The Dolphins are not currently offering the contract that is market value, based on the other deals that were
Goff signed a four-year, $212 million agreement with the Lions in May, with an average annual salary of $53 million. Lawrence then signed a five-year, $275 million contract (averaging $55 million per year) with the Jaguars earlier this month. Only the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow earns as much or more per season, causing NFL owners to hold confidential discussions regarding the likelihood of a future quarterback salary ceiling.
Tagovailoa, who led the NFL in passing yards in 2023, is due $23 million in 2024, the final season of his rookie contract. He was in and out of Miami’s voluntary offseason programming before reporting for mandatory minicamp, though he wouldn’t confirm earliert his month if his absences were contract-related. Tagovailoa did speak clearly about his desire to “get something done” on the contract front, however.
“I’m not blind to the people that are in my position that are getting paid,” Tagovailoa told reporters at minicamp. “Am I concerned about it? I’m not concerned about it. But there’s a lot of discussion that we’ve had that we are just trying to move that thing into the right direction where we can both be happy. … I think there’s been a lot of progress at this point, from where we started. Now, you can ask the other question: Why aren’t we seeing an agreement? … I’ll tell you one thing: The market is the market.”
