Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino weighed in on what the team should do with Tua Tagovailoa and the current quarterback situation.
There are many wondering what the Miami Dolphins plan to do with Tua Tagovailoa. He was benched, and the assumption would be that they could designate him a post-June 1 cut designation to spread his huge dead cap money.
Then again, the Dolphins may keep him on the roster. There are many avenues to explore, and Dan Marino has weighed in on the situation, stating the team needs competition.
Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley spoke about competition at every position, but indicated that would be the case for the quarterback position. The same was shared by offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik.
The issue is that the Dolphins need to figure out what to do with Tagovailoa sooner rather than later. He may remain on the roster in 2026 as a backup to lessen the cap hit in 2027.
General manager Jon-Eric Sullivan might also find a way to trade him, if even possible, or simply decide that what is best is to cut him and move on.
Either way, there will be competition at the quarterback position, whether or not that includes Tagovailoa. Marino spoke about just that on Mad Dog Sports Radio.
"I think you always just have to, any team, the Dolphins, or whatever, the Bills, the Jets, whatever it is, you have to have competition," Marino said. "You know that position, and I think that's probably where the Dolphins have to go in that direction. You just have competition there and see what that is. I'm not sure. I don't know. I'm not in that position to say it's going to be free agency, or it's going to be the guys that we have, or whatever that may be. But I do know when you have competition at that position, it's going to continue to make it better and better, and that's probably the direction that the Dolphins need to do," Marino said.
Marino is saying what everyone is saying. Competition needs to happen. Whether or not that includes Tagovailoa, the Dolphins need to evaluate what they have in the building.
That includes rookie Quinn Ewers, and if the team can somehow bring in Malik Willis. If that did occur, allow Tagovailoa, Ewers, and Willis to all compete for the starting position. This is assuming Tagovailoa remains on the roster.
Despite the need for competition, Marino did praise Tagovailoa.
"I think he was excellent," Marino said. "He really was excellent, excellent guy, human being. And he's still on the roster, so you just don't know. Right now, I think the new staff's coming in. They've got to evaluate everything all at one time. And as time goes on, this will all play itself out, but right now Tua is with us. He's one of our quarterbacks and that's the way it's going to be."
Marino did offer some self-awareness on the situation, which is that Tagovailoa remains on the roster. As such, he would presumably be allowed to compete.
With the Dolphins engaging in a reset, they need to evaluate the roster from top to bottom. Hafley and Sullivan will need to band together to decide roster decisions ahead of the looming free agency, and that includes coming to a solid decision on Tagovailoa.