The Miami Dolphins offense looked awful against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday afternoon. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was out of rhythm during the 33-8 loss for Miami against Indianapolis.
Tagovailoa completed 14-of-23 passes for 114 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. With the way he looked, could this be the beginning of the end for Tua in Miami? He was pulled for Zach Wilson in the game against the Colts.
NFL Insider Believes That the Miami Dolphins Will Find Tua Tagovailoa’s Replacement In the 2026 NFL Draft
Dan Graziano of espn.com wrote about different overreaction and non-overreaction takes to Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season. From what he saw with the Dolphins on Sunday, Graziano believes it won’t be an overreaction when the Dolphins are potentially picking first in the 2026 NFL Draft. Graziano thinks that the Dolphins will be looking for a quarterback with that selection as well and said,
“Again, I didn’t enter the season expecting Miami to be one of the NFL’s worst teams. But a lot of people did, and I’ve certainly been wrong before. It’s possible the defense never gets fully healthy and looks this vulnerable all season. It’s possible Tagovailoa keeps struggling, though he has generally played well under Mike McDaniel when healthy. This program might never rediscover the promise it showed in 2022 and 2023, when the Dolphins made the playoffs in McDaniel’s first two seasons.
It’s important to note that Tagovailoa has $54 million in fully guaranteed money in 2026 and will almost certainly still be the Dolphins’ starter at least through that season (if healthy). But if this season bottoms out and the Dolphins are picking at or near the top of what’s thought to be a QB-rich draft, it’s not a huge leap to expect them to think about the future at that position.
It was only one game, but it was ugly in all the ways Miami’s doubters feared it would be. And when that happens, even in Week 1, some alarm bells are justified.”
If Miami does have the number one pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, it will mean that head coach Mike McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier as fired as well. The new head coach and general manager would probably want their own franchise quarterback and move on from Tua. The Dolphins still look bad to this day that they passed on Justin Herbert in the 2020 NFL Draft for Tagovailoa.
With the way the Dolphins looked on Sunday against the Colts, they looked like the worst team in the NFL during Week 1. If Tagovailoa continues to play this poorly, maybe Wilson or rookie Quinn Ewers will see the field for them at some point. It appears as if the 2025 NFL season for the Dolphins has disaster written all over it. Moving on from this current regime and Tua at quarterback after this year is necessary because this franchise needs a total reset.
If they were to land the number one overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, Arch Manning of the Texas Longhorns could be their primary target. Some other potential Tua replacements include Garrett Nussmeier of the LSU Tigers, Cade Klubnik of the Clemson Tigers, and LaNorris Sellers of the South Carolina Gamecocks.
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