Jalen Ramsey gets creative, urges Dolphins to pay Tua Tagovailoa ahead of 2024 NFL season

Tua Tagovailoa will enter a major turning point in his career. The Miami Dolphins quarterback is entering the fifth-year option of his contract in the upcoming season, followong which he will become a free agent.

Questions about his future have abounded, but teammate Jalen Ramsey has one solution: extend him. In a recent golfing trip, the cornerback wrote on his scorecard:

"Pay Tua!!!!!"

Tua Tagovailoa is coming off a career year, amassing a career-best 388 completions for a league high 4,624 yards and 29 touchdowns.

His passing corps has only gotten deeper recently, as the Dolphins added Odell Beckham Jr. to complement Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, and tight ends Jonnu Smith and Durham Smythe.

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What would an ideal Tua Tagovailoa extension look like?

Assuming that Tua Tagovailoa gets paid, what would his contract extension be?

The Miami Herald's Omar Kelly? with an unnamed agent, came up with a six-year, $234-million deal with a $181-million guarantee. They broke it down as follows:

• 2025: Base salary of $2 million, with an option bonus of $35 million that may be spread out over the next five seasons and a cap number of $19 million
• 2026: Base salary of $2 million, with an option bonus of $45 million that may be spread out over the next five seasons and a cap number of $29 million
• 2027: Base salary of $2 million, with an option bonus of $40 million that may be spread out over the next four seasons and a cap number of $38 million
• 2028: Base salary of $33 million with a cap number of $68 million. At this point, the Dolphins can rework the contract to decrease the cap number - say, $30 millions is turned into a signing bonus, lowering the cap number to $49 million.
• 2029: Option year. Base salary of $40 million with a cap number of $66 million. The same process as in 2028 can be done, but if done a year earlier, the cap number will be $76 million. $40 million can be turned into a $38-million signing bonus.
• 2030: Option year. Base salary of $70 million with a cap number of $89 million. At this point, the Dolphins can add void years to the contract to stretch out the cap hit.

The agent concluded:

“Neither party can walk away feeling this deal is unfair. Tua’s people would be crazy to not take guaranteed money with his injury history, and the Dolphins would be showing the workforce that if you bust your [behind] we’ll do right by you, which they haven’t always done.”

Tua Tagovailoa's fifth-year option is expected to pay him $23.2 million.