Dolphins lay groundwork for long-term extension for quarterback Tua Tagovailoa

MIAMI GARDENS — The Dolphins have remained in contact with the agent for quarterback Tua Tagovailoa while hoping to lay the groundwork for a long-term extension, general manager Chris Grier said Monday.

“Had good conversations throughout the year,” Grier said. “Never talked about money or anything. Just good conversations about where he is and the relationship with Mike.”

Coach Mike McDaniel said his goal for Tagovailoa in 2024 is to “make sure the curve continues to be exponential in his growth.”

Tagovailoa made the Pro Bowl as the AFC’s starting quarterback and led the league with 4,624 passing yards. But he threw for just 199 yards, one touchdown and one interception for a passer rating of 63.9 in Saturday’s 26-7 wild-card loss at Kansas City.

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Tagovailoa is due to make $23 million next season under the fifth-year option of his contract, a team-friendly cap number. The catch is he could become a free agent after that.

“The goal is to have him here, long term, playing at a high level,” Grier said.

Tua Tagovailoa's pay could double

The cost would be more than double what the Dolphins are paying now. Quarterbacks Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts are averaging more than $50 million per year. When that was pointed out by a reporter, McDaniel joked, “Is he representing Tua?”

Grier: “I think everything will be productive, and we'll just see what happens.”

The Dolphins are $40.7 million over the cap, according to overthecap.com. The only teams with bigger issues are the Bills ($43 million), Chargers ($44.9 million) and Saints ($82 million). Grier isn’t overly concerned about the cap situation until the March deadline, pointing out the possibility the Dolphins can “be creative” to gain flexibility.

It’s against that backdrop that the organization also would prefer to retain defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, who is about to become a free agent and command a high price.

“Christian and I actually had a really good conversation today,” Grier said. “We’re very happy with him. He bet on himself after a summer of negotiations where we made a couple of offers and one we felt very good about what’s fair and he and his representation said as much, but we couldn’t close that gap.”

Grier said the Dolphins will “stay in communication” with Wilkins’ representation and “see what happens.”

Connor Williams, Rob Hunt also are without contracts

Grier has similar hopes in possibly retaining center Connor Williams and guard Rob Hunt.

The Dolphins’ loss left them 11-7 and one-and-done for the second consecutive postseason. Grier cited injuries as a mitigating factor.

“Our players deserve a lot of credit,” he said. “I mean, they battled their ass off — excuse me.”

Grier didn’t pin injuries on the strength and conditioning staff.

“We feel really strongly that they’re the best,” he said.

McDaniel has called offensive plays his two seasons with the Dolphins. He said he didn’t want to make emotional decisions immediately following the season on whether changes would benefit the club.

“You have to critically assess by slowly evaluating everything,” he said.

That includes assessing why the Dolphins handled teams with losing records but struggled against teams with winning records. McDaniel said it’s important to not have a “defense mechanism,” clouding an examination of why this is, adding, “The bottom line is we didn’t get the results that we wanted.”

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Grier agreed that he did not think wholesale changes are necessary to the roster.

“We feel good about it,” he said. “But like you said this is 48 hours or less after a game still and you go through our process like we always talk about.”

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Grier said coaches will compile their evaluations and so will the personnel staff.

“Then we'll all get together and then we'll make appropriate decisions that we feel we need to make,” Grier said.

Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at  hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal. Click here to subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Dolphins lay groundwork for long-term extension for QB Tua Tagovailoa