Exploring Dolphins’ options with Tagovailoa. And who advocates a holdout if no new deal

A six-pack of Dolphins notes on a Wednesday:

▪ As the Dolphins consider whether to give Tua Tagovailoa a contract more in line with the deals awarded recently to Jared Goff and Trevor Lawrence, here’s something to keep in mind:

Miami actually has four options next offseason if the sides cannot agree on an extension that both parties want:

1). Give Tagovailoa a multiyear deal next spring.

2). Slap the exclusive franchise tag on Tagovailoa, which would pay him an estimated $55 million in 2025. This tag completely binds the player to his team. His agent is not permitted to seek an offer sheet. But that cap number would severely shackle the Dolphins’ ability to fill out a team around him. That seems the least appealing option.

3). Use the nonexclusive franchise tag, which is projected to be $42.1 million but could end up a bit higher based on the final 2025 salary cap number. That allows the player to sign an offer sheet with another team.

The original team has the right to match the offer or receive two first-round draft picks as compensation if the player leaves.

4). Use the transition tag, which is projected to be $35.3 million in 2025.

This tag works like the nonexclusive franchise tag, but it only provides the original team the right to match another team’s offer. If the original team decides not to offer a matching bid, it gets no compensation when the player leaves.

Once a player is tagged, the two sides have until July 15 to sign a long-term contract or, by NFL rule, the player will play on the one-year deal.

Of course, the advantage to the Dolphins of working out a long-term deal — besides removing the drama from the situation — would be the assumption of a 2025 Tagovailoa cap number that would be much lower than the 2025 tag options.

But as ESPN’s Jeff Darlington reported last week, Miami has remained reluctant to give Tagovailoa a deal with an annual salary in the $55 million range — which is the average of Lawrence’s new deal.

“A couple of weeks ago, it would be easy to argue that hey, we don’t know if he’s worth the money that the Bengals are paying Joe Burrow — which is $55 million a year on average,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter said. “But then Trevor Lawrence comes along. He gets $55 million a year on average. So when that happens, the market shifts.

“So the Dolphins and Tua Tagovailoa are now left to figure out what is the proper value for a quarterback of his abilities. The Dolphins want to keep him. They’re expected to keep him. They’re going to get him signed at some point. The question is what is that number.”

There’s a decent chance the deal gets done in the weeks or months ahead because both sides seem determined to get it done.

▪ Count ESPN’s Ryan Clark among those encouraging Tagovailoa not to play another snap for the Dolphins before he’s given a new contract, though there’s no evidence to this point that Tagovailoa would go to those extremes and sit out instead of making $23.1 million this season.

“If I’m Tua, I do not step foot onto a Miami Dolphins practice field or stadium field until I have some sort of guarantees,” Clark said. “If a contract is not done, I do not go to work.”

Longtime NFL backup quarterback Brian Hoyer, making a guest appearance as an ESPN analyst, said he hates to say that Tagovailoa is a “system quarterback” but suggested Miami might be able to find someone cheaper to do the same job in this offense.

“Whether I think he’s worth it or not, he’s going to get paid,” Hoyer said.

▪ ESPN’s Mike Tannenbaum, the former Dolphins executive vice president, said: “The bull’s-eye is really small. He’s a great player. The average per year is really easy to figure out — $55 millionish. To me, the guaranteed money is really hard. The Dolphins are going to say, ‘You were hurt in college. You were hurt in the NFL. We have to be prudent here and we have to protect ourselves.’

“Tua can say, ‘I played in 17 games last year. Sixty-six different quarterbacks played in the NFL last year; I played in every one of them.’ So why am I taking a discount?... That’s why [a deal] isn’t done.”

▪ How has new Dolphins safety Marcus Maye fared in coverage in recent years?

Last season, in seven games (all starts) for New Orleans before a season-ending shoulder injury landed him on injured reserve on Dec. 6, Maye allowed 11 completions in 15 targets for 166 yards, a 15.1 average.

But his passer rating against was very good (69.7), because he had two interceptions and allowed no touchdowns, per Pro Football Focus.

In 2022, in 10 games (all starts) for the Saints, he allowed a 96.3 passer rating in his coverage area — 7 completions in 13 targets for 74 yards (a 10.6 average) and one TD and no interceptions.

He has eight interceptions in 77 games, all starts.

New defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver is expected to play Maye, Jevon Holland and Jordan Poyer together at times.

▪ Some media notes:

Though South Florida’s ratings for the Dolphins are much lower than the local ratings for most NFL teams, here’s some perspective:

Even when the Florida Panthers reached a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, the local TV audience for that game was less than any regular-season Dolphins game last season.

Game 7 of the Panthers’ Stanley Cup Final series win against Edmonton drew a 9.2 local rating on WPLG-Channel 10, one to four ratings points less than what regular-season Dolphins games generate and about six ratings points less than what Dolphins playoff games produce.

That Panthers rating equals 9.2 percent of Miami-Dade/Broward County homes with TV sets.

As perspective, the Heat’s most recent Game 7 — against Boston in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals - had a 14.6 South Florida rating on TNT, which is available in fewer South Florida homes than ABC….

While all three Dolphins preseason games will be televised live in South Florida on CBS 4, none will be televised live on NFL Network, which will instead air them on tape (times to be announced).

▪ Country music star Darius Rucker, a big Dolphins fan, has personally asked Stephen Ross to please, please win a Super Bowl in Rucker’s lifetime.

“I was sitting in Mr. Ross’s box one day and he said, ‘Darius, you’re a big Dolphins fan. Anything I can do for you?’

“I said, ‘Mr. Ross, can you win a Super Bowl before I die? Just give me 365 days to tell all my friends to eat it!’ Rucker said on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio channel with Damon Amendolara and Mike Babchik.

Rucker, 58, is still lamenting the Dolphins being scheduled for a Saturday night wild card game in Kansas City, in sub-zero conditions.

The NFL “screwed us,” he said. “And they, you know, they can say what they want. I love the NFL and not coming down on ‘em, but you could tell who the NFL wants to win. And they wanted the Chiefs-49ers.

“They wanted that so bad ‘cause the ratings, you know, ‘cause Taylor Swift and everything was going [on]. They wanted it and they got it. It was a great football game. But, you know, yeah, we got screwed. Or, we could have just beat the Bills and played at home! … That’s being a Dolphin fan right now.”