Mike McDaniel is far from assured of a fifth season as Dolphins HC, but he has reestablished some momentum since a rough start. However, the Dolphins taking a one-sided loss in Pittsburgh all but crushed any hopes of a playoff berth.
The McDaniel storyline moves back to center stage, and the player he is most closely tied to once again did not play well in cold weather. Tua Tagovailoa‘s dud in Pittsburgh has left the Dolphins 6-8, and both his and McDaniel’s futures are up in the air. For now, McDaniel did not guarantee Tagovailoa would keep his job to close the season.
McDaniel called the team’s quarterback play “not good enough” (via NFL.com’s Cameron Wolfe) Monday night. The fourth-year HC said everything was on the table regarding a QB move, with a decision coming Wednesday. The Dolphins’ staff is believed to have considered such a move previously, per veteran insider Jordan Schultz.
Tagovailoa and McDaniel have been joined at the hip since the HC’s 2022 hire. The former 49ers OC revitalized the ex-Alabama star, with Tua leading the NFL in key passing categories each year from 2022-24 after a sluggish start to his career. The southpaw passer’s resurgence led to the Dolphins giving him a four-year, $212.4MM extension in July 2024. That contract complicates the futures of both Tagovailoa and McDaniel, as it will be quite difficult for the Dolphins to move that deal in a 2026 trade due to the guarantees remaining on it.
Tagovailoa is owed $54MM guaranteed for 2026 and does not carry the best reputation around the league. Both these factors limit his trade value, and an inconsistent 2025 obviously brings concern about Miami’s ability to compete for a Super Bowl with Tua at the controls. For McDaniel to make his consideration of Tua public potentially points to the current Dolphins leader having enough support in the building — regarding a fifth year in charge — though he did not answer a question pertaining to this potential demotion impacting his 2026 status, per the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson.
Miami does not have good options behind Tagovailoa, having already toggled between Zach Wilson and Quinn Ewers on its depth chart behind the longtime starter. Wilson is tied to a one-year, $6MM deal; Ewers arrived as a seventh-round pick, though the Texans product was expected to go off the board much earlier. Ewers leapfrogged Wilson on the Dolphins’ depth chart earlier this year, only to fall back to the QB3 level soon after.
The NFL’s leader in yards per attempt in 2022, passing yards in 2023 and completion percentage last year, Tagovailoa has made 76 career starts. His extension — one the Dolphins probably now regret — runs through the 2028 season. The first realistic out in the deal comes in 2027, when a $31.8MM dead cap hit — a figure that could be split over two years via a post-June 1 designation — would come in the event of a release.
The Dolphins benching Tagovailoa now only to regroup around he and McDaniel in 2026 would obviously not inspire confidence, but McDaniel is still believed to have ownership support. The close to this season will test that support, as a new GM would need to accept working with a potential lame-duck HC — in the event Stephen Ross follows through on rumors he will stay the course — and HC-GM misalignment has been a strategy teams are beginning to avoid in the grand scheme. With Tagovailoa potentially being benched, Miami’s HC situation will be an area to closely monitor before Black Monday.