{"id":456543,"date":"2026-02-08T15:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T15:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/456543\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T15:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T15:01:07","slug":"dolphins-cardinals-face-challenges-in-tua-tagovailoa-kyler-murray-trades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/456543\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins, Cardinals face challenges in Tua Tagovailoa, Kyler Murray trades"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Miami Dolphins<\/a> and Arizona Cardinals<\/a> navigate the future with new head coaches, both teams would like to find trade partners for their starting quarterbacks.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins would like to explore trading Tua Tagovailoa<\/a>; ditto for the Cardinals and Kyler Murray<\/a>. But it remains unclear whether a deal for either quarterback is feasible given the financial hurdles for an acquiring team.<\/p>\n

There certainly are expected to be a handful of teams in the market for new quarterbacks. In addition to the Dolphins and Cardinals, the list could include the New York Jets<\/a>, Atlanta Falcons<\/a>, Cleveland Browns<\/a>, Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> and Minnesota Vikings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

2 Related<\/p>\n

Miami is expected to be willing to pay down a portion of Tagovailoa’s contract to help facilitate a trade, sources told ESPN, though the money still makes it challenging.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins signed Tagovailoa to a four-year, $212.1 million extension in July 2024. They already owe him $54 million guaranteed in 2026, and another $3 million of Tagovailoa’s 2027 salary becomes guaranteed on the fifth day of the new league year March 15.<\/p>\n

Cutting Tagovailoa would leave a $99 million dead money salary cap charge — the largest in NFL history — while designating him as a post-June 1 cut would spread out the money over two years.<\/p>\n

Murray already is guaranteed $36.8 million in 2026. On March 15, another $19.5 million of his 2027 base salary becomes guaranteed if Murray is still on Arizona’s roster.<\/p>\n

If the Cardinals release Murray before June 1, they would take on a $54.7 million dead cap hit. Designating Murray as a post-June 1 cut would spread out the money over two years.<\/p>\n

Trading Murray would create $34.7 million in cap savings for the Cardinals while leaving behind $17.9 million in dead money, which would seem to be a more attractive alternative if Arizona can find a trade partner.<\/p>\n

Tagovailoa was benched with three games remaining this past season, signaling that his six-year run in Miami could be coming to an end. The league’s leader in passing yards in 2023 threw a career-high 15 interceptions and failed to eclipse 200 passing yards in eight of the 14 games he played this season.<\/p>\n

Tagovailoa, who turns 28 next month, suggested after the season that he was open to a fresh start<\/a> with a new team. New general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan was noncommittal when asked last month about Tagovailoa’s future with the organization, saying the Dolphins were undecided at the quarterback position.<\/p>\n

Murray, 28, played in just five games last season because of a foot injury, throwing for 962 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions. The former Heisman Trophy winner has played seven seasons with Arizona since being drafted with the No. 1 pick in 2019 but has been to the playoffs just once.<\/p>\n

New Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur said on Tuesday that he spoke recently with Murray but did not discuss the quarterback’s future<\/a> with the franchise.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Miami Dolphins and Arizona Cardinals navigate the future with new head coaches, both teams would like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-456543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}