Tua: Talks ongoing, expecting new deal with Fins

Marcel Louis-Jacques, ESPNFeb 2, 2024, 04:18 PM ET
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Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, coming off a career-best season in 2023, expects to sign a contract extension with the Miami Dolphins this offseason, he told reporters Friday.

Asked about his contract during the Pro Bowl Games in Orlando, Florida, where he was voted in as the AFC’s starter, Tagovailoa seemed confident in the likelihood of an extension getting done.

“There’s been communication,” he told ESPN. “I think the thing with that right now is I’m just letting the team talk to my agent and let them work that out.”

He also told Pro Football Network that he believes he will sign an extension this offseason as he enters the final year of his rookie contract.

Tagovailoa led the NFL in passing yards this season with 4,624 while also setting career highs with 29 touchdown passes and 17 games played — a goal he had dedicated his entire offseason toward accomplishing. This marked the first time he played a full season in his four-year NFL career.

Dolphins general manager Chris Grier and coach Mike McDaniel have long been publicly supportive of Tagovailoa as the team’s franchise quarterback and exercised his fifth-year option in 2023.

Grier hinted at the possibility of finalizing Tagovailoa’s extension when he spoke to the media after the Dolphins’ loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the wild-card round.

“The goal is to have him here long term playing at a high level,” Grier said. “That’s always the goal, and we’ll continue to communicate with him through the offseason here. Like we’ve always said in the past, you guys know me, we don’t really talk in the media through all that stuff, so we’ll just keep all those talks internal and with his reps.”

The Dolphins are roughly $51 million over the salary cap entering the 2024 offseason with critical decisions to make on free agents Christian Wilkins, Robert Hunt and Jerome Baker as well as expensive veterans Xavien Howard and Terron Armstead.

“We’re not really, right now, concerned about where we’ll be in March, salary cap-wise,” Grier said. “I think [senior VP of football and business administration] Brandon Shore and [director of football administration and strategy] Max Napolitano, we’ve had a lot of conversations. They’ve given us a lot of flexibility with multiple options of ways we can be creative, and so hats off to them just through their work and grind on things.

“Mike, Brandon and I will have a lot of discussions. We’ll talk with [Dolphins owner] Steve [Ross] as we get through here, and we’ll try and keep as many of the players here that we can.”