The Miami Dolphins introduced their offensive coordinator for the 2026 season on Wednesday, and Bobby Slowik followed new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and new head coach Jeff Hafley in saying it was too soon to say if Tua Tagovailoa had a future as the NFL team’s quarterback.

But Slowik also said the former Alabama All-American “can absolutely bounce back” after losing his starting spot in the 2025 season.

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“I’d say, obviously, we’re way early in the process of this whole thing with the new staff,” Slowik said when asked if Tagovailoa fit in the Dolphins’ 2026 plans. “There’s new people everywhere. Being perfectly honest, we’re still going through the staffing on my end. That hasn’t quite been buttoned up yet, so we still got some things going on there. So, like, the player evaluation mode, we’re still in that. Also, there’s a lot of new coaches. I got to get to know the team. So even getting to the point where we’re able to talk about who’s going to be here, how are we going to do this, we haven’t even got anywhere remotely close to that with the exception of knowing that we’re going to try to push competition as often as we can at every single spot.”

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After joining Miami as the fifth pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Tagovailoa became the starting quarterback in the sixth game of his rookie season and stayed in the lineup, when healthy, until being benched with three games remaining in 2025.

“What I can say about Tua just from being with him last year,” Slowik said, “I know last year was a difficult year. It was a difficult year for him without a doubt for a lot of different reasons. And I think what jumped out to me was, like, the grace he handled that with, the way he went about his daily routine through that season, even at the end of the year, the kind of person he was to everybody and to his teammates. Really, I mean, you can’t say enough about how good of a person he was and how he handled that situation is all you could ask for.”

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After missing four games because of concussions in 2022, Tagovailoa earned Pro Bowl recognition in 2023, when he led the NFL in passing yards. In 2024, Tagovailoa led the NFL in completion percentage, but he missed six games – four with a concussion and two with a hip injury.

In 2025, Tagovailoa’s stats were down across the board – except for interceptions. With a career-high 15, Tagovailoa had the second-most in the NFL even though he didn’t play in the final three games. For the first time, the Dolphins had a losing record with Tagovailoa as their starting quarterback, going 6-8 in 2025 before he sat for the final three games.

“What I think is so great about sports,” Slowik said, “and really why, you know, a large reason people get into coaching is there’s stories like that all the time. You’re talking about people that are at the peak of their profession. They’re the best in the world at what they do, not just physically, but, like, mentally, they’re some of the strongest human beings there are. And some of the things that all athletes — every year you hear comeback stories — come back from are incredible. So absolutely I think Tua can, he can absolutely bounce back. I think that’s one of the great things about sports.”

If Tagovailoa is with the Dolphins two months from now, he’ll cost Miami $57 million. His contract includes a guarantee of $54 million for the 2026 season, and $3 million of his 2027 salary becomes guaranteed if Tagovailoa is on the team’s roster three days after the NFL’s 2026 fiscal year begins in March.

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If the Dolphins release Tagovailoa before then, he will count $99.2 million against their 2026 salary cap – about one-third of the team’s total to spend and $42.8 million more than if he is on the team. Some NFL bookkeeping regulations could reduce the hit to $67.4 million in 2026, with the other $31.8 million in dead money kicked down the road to the 2027 salary cap if he’s designated as a post-June 1 release.

If Miami could pinpoint what went wrong with Tagovailoa in the 2025 season, the Dolphins might be able to salvage their investment in the quarterback – a four-year, $212.4 million contract extension in 2024.

“Anytime somebody goes through a difficult year, it’s always never as simple as one thing,” Slowik said. “It never is. It’s always a lot of different things that can go into it, and could I pinpoint any specific area? No, not really. I just know it was a very difficult year for him, and I know that everything he could control and how he went through the year, he did a phenomenal job of controlling those things and, hopefully, he’s able to come out the better end for it.”

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The Dolphins fired coach Mike McDaniel after the 2025 season. While Frank Smith was Miami’s offensive coordinator, McDaniel called the plays.

Hafley took over from McDaniel after serving as the defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. Hafley kept Slowik on the Miami staff, moving him from senior passing-game coordinator to offensive coordinator.

“Obviously, we’re all from the same tree,” Slowik said when asked to compare the Dolphins’ 2025 and 2026 playbooks. “The way I like to frame it is very similar to, like, the bones are the same, the roots are the same. But all the trees grow different, and a lot of that has to do with the players you have on any given team, which changes year to year. I think a lot of people don’t realize how much even within a specific offense, your offense morphs and changes year to year, and that’s dependent on the people you have on that team at that time, and then where it evolves is always part of it as well.

“But I would say the starting points are the same. I believe in running the ball, believe strongly in running the ball. I think most of the successful teams in the NFL these days run the ball really well at a high clip. And really build it from there as far as got to win in the trenches. I like keeping the defense off-balance is probably my No. 1 thing as far as what I look for as a play-caller while making sure I marry it to who we have on the team.”

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