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Earlier in 2024, the Miami Dolphins signed quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to a four-year, $212.4 million deal to make him one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL. In 2023, he played the entire season without missing a start, and fully healthy, the Dolphins opted to extend him.
On Thursday night against the Buffalo Bills, Tagovailoa suffered another concussion, which has prompted several folks around the NFL sphere to suggest he should retire, though early reports are that he is not planning to do so. Clearly it goes without saying that we care way more about his current and future health than the pocketbooks of an NFL owner and the salary cap of an NFL team. With that said, the financial impacts of this are nuanced and will no doubt play a part in how the next 18 months move forward with the QB and his contract.
As part of his contract, Tagovailoa received $167 million “guaranteed”, according to media reports, but let’s dig into what that means a little bit.
There are two types of guarantees in NFL contracts; fully guaranteed and guaranteed for injury. In these media reports, the two are usually grouped together because it looks better for the player’s agent who is leaking the info. Fully guaranteed money is going to be paid no matter the player’s performance and is only voidable in cases where the contract is violated by a suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse or personal conducts policies. (It’s also not paid if a player retires.) Money that is guaranteed for injury is only paid out if a player is unable to be medically cleared and their career is over.
Tagovailoa’s fully guaranteed number is $93.17 million (not $167 million), and includes his 2024 signing bonus, 2024 salary, 2025 roster bonus, and 2025 salary. Of that, the $42 million signing bonus has already been paid and his salary is $1.125 million for the season. That leaves the remaining fully guaranteed money that has yet to be paid at around $50 million.
On the flip side, roughly $124 million in injury-guaranteed money is still yet to be paid.
If and when Tagovailoa makes it through the NFL’s concussion protocol (as he’s reportedly planning to do), he will no longer be considered “injured” for the purposes of the injury guarantee. Therefore, if he does retire, he would need to forego all of his future money, guaranteed or not. Lingering effects from injuries don’t rise to the level of the injury guarantee as long as he is cleared to play. It is only paid out in a “must retire” situation and not a “should retire” situation, as Over the Cap put it.
If for some reason Tagovailoa is not medically cleared, Miami would have to pay him the $124 million balance on the injury guarantees. They would be able to split those cap hits over the 2025 and 2026 seasons to be more manageable, and it’s likely he would sit on the PUP list for that time in order to manage the cap ramifications. Some of that cap hit would be offset by the team’s insurance, according to Over the Cap.
There is another looming contractual thing to consider, as well. In the middle of March 2025, his 2026 compensation of $54 million transitions from injury guarantee to full guarantee. That represents at least one looming deadline that could force the Dolphins’ hand in terms of their medium-term commitment to the QB.
If he is cleared and Miami releases him before that compensation becomes fully guaranteed, they will only owe him the remaining $50 million they owe him now and not be compelled to pay him the further $54 million.
If a medically cleared Tagovailoa walks away now, he will have made $73 million in his NFL career and he would not be paid any more money into the future.
