With Dolphins fans on hand for training-camp practice on Sunday, Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa took the mic to hype up the crowd.
“Show me the money,” Tagovailoa shouted, and the fans responded with a roar.
That’s what the Dolphins did for the former Alabama All-American, who signed a four-year, $212.4 million contract extension on Sunday morning.
“That was somebody told me that I wouldn’t say it,” Tagovailoa said of his training-camp shoutout. “So that’s why I said it.It wasn’t like I quoted that from a movie. Somebody told me, ‘You won’t say it.’ I was like, ‘OK,’ so I said it.”
Tagovailoa was scheduled to play the 2024 season on the fifth-year option of his rookie contract, which Miami picked up last offseason. That would have paid Tagovailoa $23.171 million. But after an offseason of work, the Miami front office and the quarterback’s representatives reached an agreement that could have Tagovailoa with the team through the 2028 season (or allow the Dolphins to release him after the 2026 season owing the QB only $3 million).
Tagovailoa’s contract included a $42 million signing bonus and also guaranteed his $1.125 million 2024 salary, $25.046 million 2025 salary and $25 million 2025 roster bonus in 2025. His $54 million salary for 2026 guarantees in March 2025. It’s already guaranteed against injury.
“It’s life-changing,” Tagovailoa said. “I know anyone in this room would say the same thing. Words couldn’t describe to me how that feels. It’s unbelievable. But it’s still like I’m not, like, going to go and just, ‘Hey, yeah, I got this much money. Now let me just go start — let’s go buy a private jet, (coach) Mike (McDaniel), and let’s go fly to Vegas and just go use all that money.’
“I grew up like each and every one of you in the seats working as hard as I possibly can to be in the position that I wanted to be. I’m sure that’s what you guys are doing. And that’s how I grew up. I grew up in a middle-class family. My dad was the only one that worked, and my mom took care of the kids. And so my dad did whatever it took to take care of our family, and I’m just very, very blessed and very fortunate that I’ve been able to use football as my career path to help my family generationally with the kind of money that I’ve been given. …
“To be able to do the things that we need to survive, we don’t need that much money. But to have that much money to be able to take care of my family and then my kids’ kids and their kids’ kids, having that is very, very cool and it’s very, very special. I think anyone here that would be in this position would say the same, exact thing and would be extremely grateful.”
Since selecting Tagovailoa from the Crimson Tide at No. 5 in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Dolphins haven’t always appeared to be fully behind him as their franchise quarterback.
But Miami has reached the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2000 and 2001 as Tagovailoa led the NFL in passing-efficiency rating in 2022 and passing yards in 2023.
During his Sunday press conference, Tagovailoa expressed that he knew the franchise had made a commitment to him with an expectation that goes beyond individual excellence.
“Now that all of this is done, this is behind us, we know heavy is the crown,” Tagovailoa said, “so whoever’s wearing that. Like right now, I’m the highest-paid employee in this office. I’ve got to get my whatever together. I’ve got to get that right and get our guys moving in the direction that we need to go, to be able to do those things. …
“We haven’t won the games that we’ve wanted to win deep into the playoffs, get deep into the playoffs. Win the games that matter, that’s what I would say. All of that is cool, but I could’ve been the worst, had the worst passer rating, I could’ve threw for a thousand yards, but if we were in the those games and we were winning those big-time games and we got to go and win the championship, I’d trade all of that. I’d trade all of that for that.”
McDaniel said Tagovailoa understands what comes with one of the NFL’s biggest contracts.
“It’s a pretty hot place to be a quarterback in the National Football League, and so you get a lot of reps at seeing how people respond to things,” McDaniel said on Sunday. “I think that is absolutely the nature that you should expect, and something that I know Tua’s very, very aware of, and I think that’s one of the cool things about sports is that Tua can know that, his teammates know that and they already have pressure and expectations for themselves. I think as long as you acknowledge that, which quite frankly Tua has shown me that throughout the entire offseason that he knows what time it is and, fortunately, him and all his teammates can go out and determine whatever the narrative is built upon by the way they play.
“So we focus on the way we play, understanding that we will always hear about the results regardless of what they are. So why don’t we try to move the needle on what those results are and focus on that and nothing else, because that’s what our jobs are?”
Tagovailoa’s participation in Miami’s offseason program was spotty, and on Thursday at training camp, he only watched as his backups went through drills and ran the offense. The quarterback said the off-and-on “hold-in” process was not something he enjoyed.
“That’s tough for me,” Tagovailoa said. “I don’t know how the other quarterbacks, like, around the league do it, but for me, I’m a rep guy. Like, I need to do it in order for me to kind of see what I need to do better or see what feels right, what doesn’t feel right. And then the other thing, the communication in the huddle, right? Those guys are hearing other guys in the huddle. That’s not who they’re going to be hearing. The cadence is just a little different with the way I say the cadence than the way the other guys say the cadence. So that was a little tough for me to kind of stay out, and so a lot of the decisions to being out there and whatnot, I made those knowing, like, whatever’s going on outside, like, dude, this is the reps that I need, and that’s why I was out there.”
The Dolphins open their three-game preseason schedule on Aug. 9 against the Atlanta Falcons and kick off their regular-season schedule on Sept. 8 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
