Miami Dolphins could be latest team to botch contract talks with their QB
The Miami Dolphins seem to be trying to lock up their QB for the long-term, but this latest update does not bode well for either party. Here is what Omar Kelly and Jeff Darlington have said about this situation between the Dolphins and Tua Tagovailoa:
"Omar Kelly of the Miami Herald followed up a report by ESPN's Jeff Darlington on Tuesday's episode of NFL Live by stating that the Dolphins "are dug into their position that they will not pay" Tagovailoa "a Goff-esque contract rate." The Lions signed Goff to a four-year, $212 million extension with an average annual value of $53 million.
- Kelly, Darlington, Doric Sam
Darlington explained in his report that Tagovailoa made it clear that "the market is the market," but he said that after Goff's deal and before Lawrence was signed to a whopping five-year, $275 million extension that tied him with Cincinnati Bengals star Joe Burrow for the highest annual salary in the league at $55 million. While Miami had some flexibility in negotiations in the wake of Goff's deal, Lawrence's deal created a new benchmark that Tagovailoa will be eyeing.
Darlington noted, "Right now, the Dolphins are not offering the contract that is the market value based on those other deals that were done." He added that neither side has reached a panic point as of yet, but there's a clear divide in negotiations because Miami's offer is "not in the Jared Goff and Trevor Lawrence ballpark.""
So, this is interesting. The final point made in this report is that the Dolphins are not offering a deal in the Jared Goff or Trevor Lawrence ballpark. Goff signed for $53 million per year, and Trevor Lawrence got $55 million per year. That would personally tell me that the Dolphins might still be under $50 million per year on their current offer to Tagovailoa, who has had a winning record in each year of his NFL career.
He's a prolific passer and someone that the Dolphins could have signed for a bit cheaper had they gotten a deal done earlier this offseason, but with Goff and T-Law both easily getting over $50 million, the Dolphins may be forced to pay an amount close to $60 million per year for their QB. This could be yet another example of an NFL team botching the contract situation with their QB.
Even though the QB market has exploded, some teams just have not been able to figure out their own situations.