Dolphins Finally Make Their Toughest Contract Decision

Is Tua Tagovailoa a franchise quarterback?

No matter what his critics think, he's going to be paid like one.

On Friday, Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins agreed to a four-year, $212.4 million contract extension, according to the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo. The deal gives Tagovailoa $167 million in guaranteed money.

The extension also makes Tagovailoa the NFL's third highest-paid QB at $53.1 million per year behind the $55 million annual average salaries of Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence. He's ahead of Jared Goff ($53 million) and Justin Herbert ($52.5 million). Lamar Jackson is sixth at $52 million.

Whether Tagovailoa warranted further investment was the question looming over the Dolphins this offseason. Really, they had no choice but to continue with the 2020 No. 5 overall pick as their franchise QB in Mike McDaniel's supercharged offense. The amount of the extension will raise eyebrows, but that's the price of doing business in today's QB market.

The Dolphins are banking on McDaniel's QB whispering (well-chronicled by HBO's "Hard Knocks" series last year) to finally elevate Tagovailoa to the playoff achievements of his highest-paid brethren. He's had to battle injuries in his four NFL seasons, most notably two concussions in 2022 with the second one keeping him out of the Dolphins' wild-card loss to Buffalo. However, only one QB in the NFL has at least 50 passing touchdowns, 8,000 passing yards and a 100 passer rating since 2022, and it's Tagovailoa.

The next QB in line to be showered with millions is Jordan Love. Like Tagovailoa, Love is represented by Athletes First. It won't take long for Love to get his record-setting deal done with the Green Bay Packers now that the latest domino has fallen in the wild QB contract extension market.