When the rosters for the 2023 Pro Bowl Games were released on Wednesday night there seemed to be a glaring omission, as Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s name was nowhere to be found.
The former Crimson Tide signal caller led the NFL in fan voting, receiving 306,861 nominations from fans around the league. However, it was Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow who were selected to appear in this year’s new edition of the event.
While many in the Dolphins facility are probably bummed that Tagovailoa won’t be going to the Pro Bowl unless it’s as a replacement, the front office can’t be too upset about it.
Teams who selected a player in the first round of a draft can place a fifth-year option to keep them under contract for another year. The normal fifth-year option for a player selected in the 2020 draft would be $19.85 million. That number can continue to go up based on incentives for snaps and Pro Bowl appearances.
Tagovailoa has hit the playtime incentive, meaning his option would cost $22.67 million. However, if he had been named to the Pro Bowl, that number would’ve jumped up to $28.05 million.
Miami will have to make a decision on the fifth-year option for Tagovailoa this offseason. If they believe that he’s the future at the quarterback position in South Florida, the Dolphins may pick up the option and work on an extension.
Even if they don’t believe in him as a long-term solution, picking him up could guarantee another year under contract, and they could always trade him if they found a better option and a willing trade partner.