{"id":85874,"date":"2025-12-16T22:07:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/85874\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T22:07:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:07:06","slug":"tuas-era-is-done-who-picks-miami-dolphins-next-qb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/85874\/","title":{"rendered":"Tua’s era is done; who picks Miami Dolphins’ next QB?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yet another brief and unsatisfying Miami Dolphins era ended Tuesday, not on the failed playing field of the night before but in a meeting room where coach Mike McDaniel said quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is likely benched for the final three games of the season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is on the table,\u201d McDaniel said.<\/p>\n

The immediate question looks like whether veteran Zach Wilson or seventh-round rookie Quinn Ewers starts against the Cincinnati Bengals this Sunday. The larger, looming question is who follows Tua out the door this season now that it\u2019s been opened to him.<\/p>\n

McDaniel?<\/p>\n

Interim general manager Champ Kelly?<\/p>\n

Or do they stay as is? Because Tuesday wasn\u2019t just a decision involving the quarterback. It\u2019s bigger than that. It\u2019s not even clear this was McDaniel\u2019s decision alone, considering the implications of the position and Tua\u2019s massive contract.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a decision Tua returns from here<\/a>, though. No sir. The Dolphins can\u2019t bench their failing, franchise quarterback and make plans to keep him for next year unless they\u2019re more lost than they appeared in Monday night\u2019s 28-15 loss at the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To summarize Tagovailoa\u2019s six Dolphins seasons: Former coach Brian Flores wasn\u2019t exactly right in fiercely doubting him at the start, but he was more right than McDaniel for pounding the table to get him a franchise-harming contract.<\/p>\n

The problem, and it\u2019s been the problem all along, is that such big decisions in any franchise that isn\u2019t defective or toxically malfunctioning aren\u2019t left to first-time head coaches to make. That\u2019s what happened here too much with Flores and McDaniel.<\/p>\n

There needed to be a seasoned, front-office professional who has some larger vision in mind. That vision, of course, would start with not taking a small, slow, weak-armed and health hazard quarterback like Tagovailoa with the fifth pick in 2020 over the bigger, stronger, more durable Justin Herbert.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s old news by now, just as it is former general manager Chris Grier didn\u2019t have the vision or ability to lead a franchise. That\u2019s who failed in the quarterback decision more than Flores or McDaniel. McDaniel was asked to show everyone who Tua was when he arrived.<\/p>\n

He did that. Is it McDaniel\u2019s fault Grier, team owner Steve Ross and others granted the coach\u2019s wish to give Tua a massive contract? Shouldn\u2019t one of them have tuned out a newbie head coach and protected the franchise?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what this next moment is about, even as everyone argues over Wilson or Ewers for Sunday: Who\u2019s in charge now?<\/p>\n

Ross has to decide what\u2019s next. He hasn\u2019t been good with football decisions. He now has to find someone to lift this franchise out of a quarter-century of mental pollution and break the repetitive dreariness of this moment.<\/p>\n

Dolphins Deep Dive: Should Tua be a starting QB in 2026? | VIDEO<\/a><\/p>\n

Is Kelly capable of that?<\/p>\n

Has McDaniel learned enough over four seasons to keep him?<\/p>\n

Or does Ross decide to go out and hire the best personnel mind he can find? It\u2019s easier to find such a person now that the quarterback is going out the door.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not Tua\u2019s fault he couldn\u2019t grow into the big hopes for him. His limitations were on display again Monday, from a lack of arm and judgment on his first-quarter interception to his sliding short on a third-and-2 run to his having just 60 yards passing in the opening three quarters that decided the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy expectation was we\u2019d have a better performance,\u201d McDaniel said.<\/p>\n

You could cut and paste that quote across most Sundays this season. Asked if he expected a new quarterback to be on the shopping list for next season, McDaniel said, \u201cIt would be insulting to the 2025 Dolphins to have my mind wander\u201d to that subject.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right. So is the idea a new quarterback is the prime need again. The Dolphins will be looking up at Buffalo with Josh Allen and New England with Drake Maye unless they find one close to their levels.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s 60% of a general manager\u2019s job in today\u2019s NFL. The job is compounded for the Dolphins right now by Tua\u2019s contract staying even as he heads to the exit. Tagovailoa is a $53 million salary-cap hit, regardless of whether he\u2019s on the team.<\/p>\n

If cut before June 1, he\u2019s $99 million of dead money on the cap. If designated as a post-June 1 cut, it\u2019s a $67 million hit in 2026 and $32 million hit in 2027 (via overthecap.com).<\/p>\n

The road map out of this was provided by Denver coach Sean Payton. He cut veteran Russell Wilson at a cost of $39 million two years ago and another dead-cap hit of $33 million this season.<\/p>\n

Denver isn\u2019t 12-2 this season and the No. 1 seed in the AFC just because of the Wilson move. That\u2019s because Payton drafted quarterback Bo Nix in 2024 and build a winning team around him. It\u2019s not easy, as the Dolphins keep showing. But that\u2019s how it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n

As it is, this is the official end of the Tank-for-Tua Era. It went nowhere starting from that 2020 draft. Every other quarterback taken that draft has provided hope and good-to-great quarterback play for their team.<\/p>\n

No. 1 pick Joe Burrow took Cincinnati to a Super Bowl. Herbert is the leader of a Chargers team that regularly makes the playoffs. No. 26 pick Jordan Love has Green Bay on a winning trajectory. Second-round pick Jalen Hurts won the Super Bowl last season.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the Dolphins. Another era ended Tuesday. Who leads the next one is this offseason\u2019s first question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yet another brief and unsatisfying Miami Dolphins era ended Tuesday, not on the failed playing field of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,1763,125,124,3003,10572,13232,10573],"class_list":{"0":"post-85874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-miami","9":"tag-miami-dolphins","10":"tag-miami-headlines","11":"tag-miami-news","12":"tag-mike-mcdaniel","13":"tag-quinn-ewers","14":"tag-stephen-ross","15":"tag-zach-wilson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}