Dolphins bench Tua Tagovailoa vs. Browns; Mike McDaniel says ‘everything’s on the table’

Tua Tagavailoa was benched in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 31-6 loss to the Cleveland Browns, with coach Mike McDaniel promising a “tape-driven” process to decide the team’s starting quarterback moving forward.

Tagovailoa completed 12 of 23 passes for 100 yards and three interceptions — including a pick six and another interception thrown while standing in his own end zone — before he was pulled from the game and replaced by rookie Quinn Ewers. Ewers completed 5 of 8 passes for 53 yards, took two sacks and fumbled twice while leading two drives.

“Before watching the tape, I don’t want to over-conclude anything. But, you turn the ball over, it’s the No. 1 indicator of wins and losses, and it negatively affects the team,” McDaniel said. “There are multiple factors in those turnovers, but I know at least one to two of them were extremely preventable from Tua, and he knows that.

“He just wasn’t good enough, so we’ll watch the tape and change our style of play if we have to. Everything’s on the table when you go to a game, you fully know that you have the capability to win and get handed a very, very humbling loss.”

After the game, Tagovailoa told reporters his benching was the “head boss’s decision.”

“Not happy, not proud of where I’m at with my play, how I’ve gone about things this year,” Tagovailoa said. “I know I’ve got to be a lot better. I’ve been better for the Miami Dolphins (in) years past, but this isn’t years past. This is this year.”

Tagovailoa caught some negative attention last week when he called out teammates for skipping player meetings after the Dolphins lost to the Los Angeles Chargers. McDaniel later said the postgame news conference was “not the forum” for Tagovailoa to air out frustrations, and the quarterback apologized for his actions later in the week.

“There are a lot of guys who will have an important work week,” McDaniel said. “If you are negatively affecting the football team routinely, I don’t have a choice but to assess a different player. I have to coach a lot better as well. We’re gonna find out who and what we’re made of.”

Tagovailoa signed a four-year extension last summer worth up to $212 million. At an average of $53.1 million per year, he’s the sixth-highest paid quarterback in the NFL. Looking ahead to 2026, he carries a salary-cap hit of $56.4 million, with a $99.2 million dead cap hit if he were to be released before June 2 of next year.

The Dolphins’ latest loss comes as McDaniel’s seat has never been hotter. Sunday’s performance figures to make his job security even more of a question.

“The way I look at this job is I find it very offensive to all parties involved if I’m thinking about having a job. I need to be doing my job,” McDaniel said when asked about his job security. “For as long as I coach for the Miami Dolphins and this organization, they’ll get everything from me. … You have a job, you do your job, and you do it to the best of your ability. That’s where my concern lies.”

The Dolphins selected Ewers in the seventh round of the 2025 draft out of Texas. He was promoted to backup quarterback this week after the Dolphins declared Zach Wilson inactive. Ewers’ action against the Browns marked his first regular-season snaps after playing in all three of the Dolphins’ preseason games.

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