As quarterback Tua Tagovailoa heads into the final season of his rookie contract, it seems that the contract negotiations between him and the Miami Dolphins are not going according to plan.
According to NFL insider Jeff Darlington of ESPN, the contract negotiations are “complicated” between Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins as the team is not offering the quarterback a market-value contract comparable to Jared Goff and Trevor Lawrence.”
“This is complicated,” Darlington said during an appearance on NFL Live. “I’ve been long optimistic about Tua Tagovailoa getting this deal done. I’m not saying that it won’t get done, because these things generally happen. But right now, there’s five words that are looming over this contract negotiation. And they’re the words that came out of Tua’s mouth: ‘The market is the market.’ He said that after Jared Goff had signed his deal and before Trevor Lawrence signed his.”
So on @ESPNNFLLIVE @JeffDarlington seemed a little pessimistic that the Tua deal will get done at “market price.”
I’ve long said #Dolphins are dug into their position that they will not pay Tua a Goff-esque contract rate. pic.twitter.com/yo6bqCVmif
— Omar Kelly (@OmarKelly) June 25, 2024
“Right now, the Dolphins are not offering a contract that is the market value based on those other deals that were done. So if it gets there, it’s just going to require more negotiations,” Darlington continued. “And we’re not to panic point just yet, I just think that my optimism earlier has to be slightly scaled back at this point given all of those factors currently in play.”
While the contracts to Goff and Lawrence seemed to set a new market value for quarterbacks, the Dolphins have not been willing to offer Tagovailoa a contract comparable to what either of those players received, according to Darlington.
“Based on my conversations, they are not in the Jared Goff and Trevor Lawrence ballpark,” Darlington said. “And that to me speaks volumes about where the negotiations are right now.”
Needless to say, this is some pretty brutal news for Tagovailoa, and it led to a lot of reactions on social media.
The fact of the matter is
The real money is made post season
And until that’s no longer a relevant issue for Tua it’ll continually be brought up
“Went a little deeper into the playoffs”
As the segment tappers off https://t.co/ncpqjSG3rm— Brandon Aiyuk (@biggynotsmall) June 25, 2024
https://x.com/timarcher23/status/1805745975698637024
I think he hitting Free agency https://t.co/v2uBwGp7qe
— Marlon (@ItsRaineyDoe) June 26, 2024
The Chris Grier plan
2020: gives Tua the worst possible offense in NFL history
2021: gives Tua a laughably garbage oline with a defensive coach that hates him
2022: doesn’t fix the oline which leads to Tua suffering multiple concussions
2023: Tua finishes as a MVP… https://t.co/6J8zWy1Css
— Clown Football (@ClownFootball_) June 25, 2024
The Dolphins are gonna fumble this. And it’s going to break me https://t.co/zsYdmsS1xy
— Bad Brad (@BadJeffers) June 25, 2024
Don’t think there was one person in the Chargers org that objected to paying Justin Herbert. https://t.co/XivlbvpZTu
— Dean Thanos (@HailDeanThanos) June 25, 2024
If they don’t pay him I hope he sits out or request a trade after everything man has been put through by this organization to get to his level now and then watch guys not even as good as him get paid by their teams EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING https://t.co/WAmltHimOi
— JGCollects_Cards (@mexiphinsfan) June 25, 2024
We’ll have to see how this all shakes out.
