Dolphins Face $99.2M Dead Cap Charge After Cutting Tua Tagovailoa
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The Miami Dolphins are moving on from Tua Tagovailoa, but his contract will still be an albatross on the team for two more seasons. The Dolphins announced their plans Monday to cut Tua Tagovailoa — less than two years after he signed a $212 million extension with the club — in a move that will leave a record $99.2 million of dead money on Miami's salary cap.
The charge for Tagovailoa can be split over the 2026 and ‘27 seasons if the Dolphins designate him to be cut after June 1 but nevertheless it will have to hit the team’s salary cap, topping the $85 million charge Denver took when cutting Russell Wilson two years ago.
NFL teams have been more willing in recent years to take on hefty dead money charges as the salary cap keeps rising at a high rate, making the move less punitive than it used to be.
The Dolphins got very little production out of Tagovailoa after the hefty contract extension they handed him in the 2024 offseason. Tagovailoa had been under contract on the fifth-year option of his rookie deal for $23.2 million in 2024 and the team could have used a franchise tag of about $38 million for 2025 instead of giving him an extension.
