When the Miami Dolphins chose to extend quarterback Tua Tagovailoa last summer, everyone knew that both he and the team would be criticized for that decision. That didn’t stop the ‘Fins from inking their former first-round pick in the 2020 draft to a four-year deal worth over $212 million.
The Dolphins opted to do this despite Tagovailoa’s injury history and never leading his team to a division title or a playoff win. It’s not that it was a bad decision, considering that when Tagovailoa is healthy, he’s a decent quarterback, but obviously, choosing to extend him on that kind of a deal is going to bring out harsh criticisms from people.
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Several unnamed NFL executives recently spoke to The Athletic’s Jeff Howe about the contracts quarterbacks are receiving in the NFL. To say that they don’t think Tagovailoa and others like Trevor Lawrence or Jordan Love are worthy of those kinds of deals is an understatement.
“And frankly, teams are skeptical of the contracts handed out to QBs like Lawrence, Tagovailoa, and Love — QBs who have yet to prove themselves in pivotal moments.
“Now, we’re paying guys just to pay guys,” an executive said.”
While the comment probably doesn’t make Tagovailoa feel too good about himself or his performance, the executive wasn’t wrong with these comments. Teams have been paying quarterbacks despite them not winning any big games.
If every team’s goal is to win the Super Bowl each year, then every team other than the Buccaneers, Chiefs, Eagles, and Rams have failed at doing that in the last five years.
It’s hard to win a Super Bowl, and the Dolphins have been striving to do so for over 40 years now. They clearly think Tagovailoa is the right guy for the job, but others have the right to disagree, and they won’t be shy about doing so.
While it’d be great to see Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins prove the haters wrong this year, the AFC is only continuing to get tougher with Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Josh Allen all in the same conference as the ‘Fins.
To make matters worse, Allen is in the same division as Miami, increasing the difficulty of even getting into the playoffs.
A good starting point for Tagovailoa to show that he was worth this massive chunk of change is to start winning games against teams with winning records, something he and the team have struggled to do. Heck, even beating the Bills would be a nice start.
Until Tagovailoa can prove that he can win those big games, these sorts of comments are going to continue to be fired in his direction.