The Miami Dolphins have struggled a lot over the 2025 season. While they began the year on a poor note, a four-game winning streak coming out of the NFL Trade deadline kept the roster and their playoff hopes alive.
But after the Dolphins' brutal Monday Night Football loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike McDaniel didn't shut the door on some changes. One of those changes was a potential benching of Tua Tagovailoa.
And just a day after those comments from McDaniel, according to NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport, the Dolphins have benched Tagovailoa for rookie seventh-round QB Quinn Ewers.
Why the Dolphins are benching Tua Tagovailoa for Quinn Ewers
"Major move for the Dolphins: They are benching starting QB Tua Tagovailoa and starting rookie QB Quinn Ewers against the Bengals, per The Insiders," Rapoport reports.
McDaniel alluded to this potential move during his Tuesday press conference, and now, it's official. Tagovailoa will sit on the bench, while Ewers takes the reins of the offense.
While the Dolphins have well over $200 million invested in Tagovailoa, the decision to bench him comes amid a brutal season, and was a long time coming.
So far in 2025, Tagovailoa has 2,660 passing yards and 20 touchdowns with an NFL-leading 15 interceptions this season.
He's also taken 30 sacks, the most in his career, and overall, has one of the worst passer ratings (88.5) of his NFL career so far.
More: Tua Tagovailoa's contract looks like a nightmare for the Dolphins
The Dolphins need to move on from Tagovailoa, even if it means eating a huge chunk of dead cap space in the coming years.
Tagovailoa is under contract for $54 million guaranteed in 2026, and yet, the Dolphins are benching him. The simplest explanation is that he's just not good enough anymore.
His struggles this season are the worst he's looked since his rookie year in 2020. Tagovailoa is not the answer for Miami, and Ewers, a rookie, might be.
The Dolphins won't know for sure until they try, and now that they've been eliminated from the playoffs, making the switch to Ewers to close out the year makes a lot of sense.
Tagovailoa cannot prove much to the Dolphins over these final three weeks, but Ewers, a rookie, could emerge as an option in 2026 as the Dolphins try to figure out how to manage the massive Tagovailoa contract problem into the future.
More Dolphins News:
- Mike McDaniel gives bizarre answer for Dolphins' lack of late-game urgency vs. Steelers
- Dolphins can't keep handing Tua Tagovailoa the QB Job after Steelers loss
- Dolphins playoff picture: Updated chances for Miami to make 2025 NFL postseason after Week 15 loss to Steelers
- Dolphins gave up on their playoff chances with head-scratching 4th quarter vs. Steelers
- Steelers vs. Dolphins final score, results: Rodgers throws two touchdowns, Steelers bully Dolphins to stay atop AFC North