The Miami Dolphins and Tua Tagovailoa are in the midst of contract negotiations as he heads into the final year of his rookie contract, but no deal has been done yet, setting up a pretty significant decision for Tagovailoa heading into training camp.
As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk points out, Tua Tagovailoa has suggested that he wants a market deal that’s competitive with the other quarterbacks. If the Dolphins don’t give him that deal, he’ll have to decide whether or not he’ll accept less money, or bet on himself and try to hit the market in 2025.
“At some point before Miami opens training camp, the Dolphins presumably will make a firm and final offer. He’ll then have to decide whether to take something that gives him plenty of security and cash (but not market value) or whether to play for $23.1 million in 2024 and see what happens in 2025,” Florio wrote.
He has one other decision to make, as well – whether or not he’ll attend training camp if he does not get the deal he wants in the next few weeks.
“There’s one way for Tua to try to get what he wants. He can refuse to show up for training camp,” Florio points out.
“As a player in his fifth-year option. he’d be subject to daily fines of $40,000 — plus a regular-season game check for each preseason game missed ($1.28 million). But those fines can be waived, since he’s still operating under his rookie deal. Still, the amount of the fines likely will be peanuts in comparison to the difference between what he wants and what he can get/what he has.”
Needless to say, it sounds like Tagovailoa has a few pretty important decisions to make this offseason.
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