Dolphins Make Tua Fifth-Year Option Official

The Dolphins had until May 2 to exercise the fifth-year option on Tua Tagovailoa's rookie contract, but decided to do it six weeks early

The Miami Dolphins' backing of Tua Tagovailoa reached yet another level Monday.

Six weeks before they had to make anything official regarding the quarterback's fifth-year option, the Dolphins decided they didn't want to wait and officially made the move.

We have exercised QB Tua Tagovailoa's fifth-year option.

Let's go, @Tua! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/SEFJSomQdK

— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) March 20, 2023

Reports already had surfaced that the Dolphins had told Tagovailoa they were picking up his fifth-year option, which will guarantee him a 2024 contract of just over $23 million, but they also had until the May 2 deadline to actually do it.

The Dolphins now have Tagovailoa under contract — and team control — for the next two seasons and the move Monday was yet another powerful message that the team is riding with Tua, which certainly makes sense given his breakout 2022 season if they're comfortable with the medical reports they've gotten as it relates to his future health prospects in light of his concussion issues.

THE DOLPHINS' CONSISTENT MESSAGE ABOUT TUA TAGOVAILOA

The Dolphins have been consistent all offseason about saying that Tagovailoa was their quarterback, but they had left the door open for speculation because GM Chris Grier simply wasn't quite as adamant about the likelihood of picking up Tua's fifth-year option as he was with Christian Wilkins in the same situation last year.

“Yeah, I think with us, we’re still having all those conversations because there’s a lot of factors that go into that," Grier said at the combine in Indianapolis last week. "And I think now that we’re finally finishing up the coaching staff, we’ll focus on some of these answers and coming together with Mike (McDaniel) and I, we’ll sit and talk about it as well as with Mr. (Stephen) Ross and Brandon Shore. So we’ll go through it and we’ll make our decision then. But all expectations, he’s our quarterback and he’s our quarterback here to be successful for a long time.”

That last line should have ended all conversations about another starting quarterback for 2023, except that circumstances change and the Dolphins wouldn't have been the first team in NFL history to kind of go against their word.

Bottom line: As strong as that statement sounded, it was nothing like actually doing it and indeed picking up that fifth-year option.

Grier acknowledged at the combine that Tua's injury history, specifically the concussions of 2022, were cause for concern moving forward and there absolutely is some risk involved in exercising the fifth-year option because the money is completely guaranteed.

The flip side is that if Tagovailoa delivers the kind of performance the Dolphins are hoping and maybe even expecting to see and finds a way to shut down the durability narrative, then $23.2 million is going to be awfully cheap for a high-level starting quarterback in 2024 and the Dolphins still will have the flexibility of using the franchise tag in 2025 if they're still not ready at that time to give Tua a long-term deal but still want to roll with him — though at that time they should have a clear idea of which direction to go.

Had the Dolphins decided not to exercise the fifth-year option and Tua had the kind of 2023 season everybody in the organization wants to see, then his contract would have been a lot higher in 2024 than $23.2 million, so there was risk in that sense.

TUA'S OPTION MUCH EARLIER THAN OTHER DOLPHINS FIRST-ROUND PICKS

In the end, the Dolphins decided to place their bet on Tua continuing his development after his breakout year of 2022 and being able to avoid a catastrophic injury that could put his future in doubt.

The Dolphins had kind of suggested all along they were banking on Tua. Now they've done more than suggest. They've backed up their words.

And what stands out above everything else maybe is that the final call on Tua's fifth-year option was made as early as it was. As strong as Grier's words were about Wilkins last year, his fifth-year option wasn't picked up until April 28.

And if you look at the dates of the four other first-round picks whose fifth-year option the Dolphins picked up, you'll notice that all of them also were much later: DeVante Parker was April 24; Ja'Wuan James was May 1; Ryan Tannehill was April 29; Mike Pouncey was April 29.

Even league-wide, the move with Tua was almost unprecedented. According to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald, there have been 176 fifth-year options picked up since they were written into the CBA and Tua became only the fourth player to have his picked up before the end of March.

Again, there was no concrete need for the Dolphins to do anything with Tua's option until May 2. That they did was yet another strong statement about their belief in Tua.