Chris Perkins: The Tua era was the most disappointing stretch in Dolphins' history

The Tua Tagovailoa era, the most disappointing and confounding stretch in Miami Dolphins history, closed with a predictable whimper with the team’s announcement Monday morning that the quarterback, Miami’s No. 5 pick of the 2020 draft, will be released after the start of the new league year on Wednesday.

Tua’s six-year legacy with the Dolphins will be recalled as injury-filled and unfulfilling.

The Tua era featured the most talented Dolphins teams in two decades. It had a ton of first-round picks, three likely future Hall of Famers — wide receiver Tyreek Hill, cornerback Jalen Ramsey and defensive tackle Calais Campbell — and a lot of highly paid free agents but didn’t even result in a single playoff victory.

Relative to talent and expectations, no era in franchise history had so much and delivered so little.

As for Tua’s ranking among Dolphins starting quarterbacks he’s obviously behind Hall of Famers Dan Marino and Bob Griese, and he’s narrowly ahead of Ryan Tannehill. However, I would have taken a prime Chad Pennington over prime Tua.

For a very brief while, the Tua era was fun. But that was largely because of Tyreek’s heroics.

As a whole, it never came close to reaching its potential. Tua’s teams, led by Tua himself, left way too much meat on the bone.

But I don’t blame Tua. He was limited, and his limitations were obvious.

I’ll always contend the franchise let Tua and its fanbase down by overrating his skills.

Tua’s career numbers are 120 touchdowns, 59 interceptions (narrowly reaching that minimal desired 2:1 ratio of touchdowns to interceptions) and a 96.4 passer rating.

I’d have to be convinced that Tua, who has always been a class act, was ever more than a mid-level NFL quarterback, even in his glamorous 2023 season when he passed for 4,624 yards, 29 touchdowns, 14 interceptions and a 101.1 passer rating while playing all 17 games.

At his best, Tua, who was signed to an ill-advised, franchise-crushing four-year, $212 million contract extension in 2024, was known for his four “superpowers” of anticipation, accuracy, vision and timing.

But nowadays, Tua is now known for being overpaid, immobile and one hit away from having his career jeopardized or perhaps ended with a concussion — Tua’s medical nemesis (he sustained two diagnosed concussions and one other suspected concussion during his time in Miami).

Tua’s glory years, the 2022-25 seasons, added up to a mediocre 35-35 record, including an 0-2 mark in the playoffs as Tua and his cohorts were constantly outplayed and outcoached in games against playoff-caliber teams.

Miami ended 5-22 against playoff teams in the Tua era, and in the 2023-24 seasons, the years Miami should have contended for a Super Bowl, Tua was 2-10 against postseason teams with 15 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.

No one in the Tua era was good enough, not former general manager Chris Grier, not ex-coach Mike McDaniel, not Tyreek, and not Tua, all of whom have been recently dismissed by the franchise.

We’ll see how well Tua does without the crutches of McDaniel and Tyreek. I don’t think it’ll be impressive.

McDaniel is credited with reviving Tua’s career, which he did.

But to me, McDaniel simply instructed Tua to throw to the speedy Hill, and Tua did that very well.

Throwing to Tyreek is the reason both Tua and McDaniel found fame. Once that was gone, this era was dead, which is what we saw beginning with the 2024 season when Hill was limited to 959 yards receiving after posting 1,710 and 1,799 receiving yards in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, respectively.

That’s the harsh reality.

Tua was never a top-level talent.

Tua’s fan club, Tuanon, always hated me because I was never a flag-waving Tua supporter. I started out as a Tua doubter (hey, prior to 2022, I hadn’t seen the guy do anything significant) but became convinced the Dolphins could win a Super Bowl with him.

I think Tua, in his career-best season of 2023, was just as good as Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts in 2024 or Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold in 2025, both of whom won Super Bowls.

The difference?

Philadelphia and Seattle wisely built a foundation that included its quarterbacks. Miami, on the other hand, built its foundation on its quarterback.

We see what resulted.

Regardless, I’ll recall Tua fondly on a personal level.

I’ve said this before, but my best memories of Tua will be those occasions when the beat writers chatted with him casually in the locker room.

It started late in the 2023 season when Tua asked a group of writers whether he should allow the TV show “Hard Knocks” into his home. A few other occasions followed.

Tua was always chill. I always appreciated his mentality. I’d give him a fist bump when he was sitting at his locker and say, “What up, Tua?” He’d always smile and say, “What up, bruddah?”

My absolute, without-a-doubt favorite quote about Tua came from wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, a teammate from their days together at Alabama. You’ll recall when Tua lost perhaps 30 pounds prior to the 2024 season.

Waddle noted the weight loss and then remarked with a reflective smile, “I miss chubby Tua.”

Perhaps, for one reason or another, I’ll say the same thing in two or three years.

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