Dolphins, Tua Tagovailoa are struggling to find middle ground

The market is the market. And the Dolphins may not be ready to give quarterback Tua Tagovailoa a market-trade deal.

Earlier today, Omar Kelly of Miami Herald posted a clip from ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, who confirms many of the things we’ve heard about the negotiations between Miami and its starting quarterback.

Tua wants an agreement at market level. The Dolphins have yet to offer one. Possibly they won’t.

The fact that a deal has not yet been reached makes this obvious. What’s far from obvious is whether Miami will get there before training camp opens.

As explained last week in #PFTPM and in this post, the Dolphins possibly plan to make Tua a final pre-camp offer that will be significantly more valuable than the remainder of his current contract (one year, $23.1 million) but also significantly less valuable than market value , as established by recent contracts given to Lions quarterback Jared Goff ($53 million per year in new money) and Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence ($55 million). If that happens, Tua will have to decide whether to accept the offer or continue pushing for more before the season starts.

The question then is whether the Dolphins will sufficiently improve the offering before Week 1. And the reality is, once Tua reports to camp, he doesn’t really have the leverage to make that happen. Even if he stands his ground and doesn’t practice while negotiations continue, at some point the negotiations end and the season begins. (That’s what happened two years ago with the Bears and linebacker Roquan Smith, who eventually failed to get a long-term contract before playing for the Bears until being traded to the Ravens at the deadline.)

Tua’s most effective move would be to not show up. Will he do it? That possibly depends on Miami’s final pre-camp offer — and their reaction to it.

Under the current split, it could be as simple as the first number on Miami’s offer being a “4” and the first number on Tua’s order being a “5.” As explained in item presenting the various candidates To be the first to reach $60 million per year, there are ways to manipulate the package to increase the average new money, like the Dolphins did two years ago with receiver Tyreek Hill.

Will it be enough for Tua to accept a deal that looks better than it actually is? A long-term market-level deal in apparel let’s see what he does this year and perhaps next will generate headlines indicating that Tua got what he wanted. The details could paint an entirely different picture.

Remember when the Raiders re-signed Derek Carr and it was widely touted as a $40 million per year deal? The contract was specifically designed to give Las Vegas an escape hatch after one season. And they took advantage of it.

In the end, will it be enough for Tua to get a deal that looks better than it is and that protects Miami if it doesn’t progress or potentially regresses?

That could be the key to getting a deal done before training camp begins. It could also be the key to avoiding something that rarely happens. An established, veteran quarterback who refuses to attend training camp until he gets what he wants.