ClutchPoints
A quarterback benching always feels dramatic, but Miami’s decision to sit Tua Tagovailoa for rookie Quinn Ewers is even louder because it immediately drags the Dolphins into the uncomfortable part of the conversation: what comes next, and what it would actually cost to move on.
Adam Schefter laid out the numbers in a blunt “numbers game” update. Tagovailoa already has $54 million guaranteed in 2026. Then, on March 15, $3 million of his 2027 salary becomes guaranteed.
If the Dolphins straight-up cut him, it would leave $99 million in dead money. Even a post-June 1 cut would still be massive, $67.4 million in dead money in 2026 and $31.8 million in 2027. That’s the real trap here: benching Tua might be easy, but escaping the contract is not.
That’s why this Ewers move is going to be viewed around the league as more than a one-week shakeup. McDaniel had already hinted he was considering a change after Monday’s ugly loss to the Steelers, and now Pelissero reports the Dolphins will start Ewers against the Bengals.
The optics are simple. Miami wants to see what the rookie looks like in real game reps, and it’s doing it while the season is already drifting away.
But the financial reality makes the next steps messy. Even if the Dolphins decide the relationship needs a reset, the dead-money math essentially forces them to think in terms of delay, restructure, or living with the contract longer than fans want. “Cut him” is the easy take. The cap sheet is the hard part.
Meanwhile, the week got even rougher with Minkah Fitzpatrick turning up on the injury report. McDaniel said Fitzpatrick’s calf injury doesn’t look season-ending but is week-to-week with three games left, per David Furones.
With Miami already eliminated, that’s the kind of injury timing that quietly pushes the team further into evaluation mode.
So yes, Ewers is starting. But the bigger story is that the Dolphins can’t just bench their way out of the Tua era, not with $99 million staring back at them.
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