Tua Tagovailoa to sign with Falcons as former Dolphins starter looks for reset

The Atlanta Falcons have found their replacement for Kirk Cousins, reportedly agreeing to terms Monday with soon-to-be former Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, league sources tell The Athletic.

The Dolphins announced earlier Monday that they will release Tagovailoa on Wednesday, the first day of the league’s new year, incurring a record $99.2 million in dead money on their salary cap. The Dolphins will be paying the vast majority of his salary in 2026, making the quarterback a very low financial risk for the Falcons.

The move, which came after the Dolphins failed to find a trade partner to take on Tagovailoa’s contract, ends a tenure marked by occasional offensive fireworks, repeated head injuries and zero playoff wins.

Tagovailoa, 28, is less than two years removed from receiving a monster extension from the Dolphins in the summer of 2024, which made him one of the highest-paid players in NFL history. Miami selected Tagovailoa with the No. 5 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft and saw enough through his first four years to give him the big second contract, despite the injury concerns Tagovailoa carried.

Tagovailoa missed six games in the first season with the new contract, including four after suffering a Week 2 concussion, but remained steady in his performance on the field in the 11 games he started. Tagovailoa’s 2025 season was a different story. He struggled on the field and made headlines for saying the wrong things. The Dolphins were one of the worst teams in the NFL through the first half of the season before they managed to pull off a four-game winning streak after Halloween.

Tagovailoa’s bad season became worse when he was benched after the team’s 28-15 Week 15 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Dolphins revamped their leadership in the offseason, hiring Jon-Eric Sullivan as general manager and Jeff Hafley as head coach. Despite the significant cap hit that came with releasing Tagovailoa this offseason, the new regime chose to part ways and look for a new answer at quarterback.

How he fits

It’s impossible to know whether the Falcons’ new regime — president of football Matt Ryan, general manager Ian Cunningham and head coach Kevin Stefanski — views Tagovailoa as a true competitor for the starting job with third-year quarterback Michael Penix Jr. or simply a veteran security blanket. At the minimum, Tagovailoa gives Atlanta a competent starter until Penix can return from the ACL tear that ended his 2025 season in Week 11.

Penix and the team have been optimistic in their evaluations of his rehabilitation this offseason. But the 2026 season opener is only nine months removed from his injury, so it’s no guarantee he’ll be ready for the start of the season. Even if he is, he will miss most of the offseason practices.

Penix is 4-8 as a starter in his two years in the league, so he’s hardly a proven commodity. But Stefanski said he is excited about Penix’s “trajectory.” Like Penix, Tagovailoa is left-handed, so that will make life a little easier on offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and the rest of the offensive players.

2026 roster impact

We know that Tagovailoa and Penix will be Nos. 1 and 2 on Atlanta’s quarterback depth chart. We just aren’t sure what the order will be. The Falcons still need a third quarterback, but they can use that spot on a developmental player later in the draft.

Cap update

The Dolphins still will be paying most of Tagovailoa’s salary, so he can play for the Falcons for the minimum of $1.2 million in 2026. He will be paid $54 million by Miami this year, minus the value of his deal with Atlanta.

Josh Kendall’s takeaway

You have to be a bit worried when your team signs a player who another team just ate $99.2 million of dead money to get out of the locker room. But the price for the Falcons is so low, it’s probably worth the (low) risk.

The best-case scenario for Atlanta is that Tagovailoa is competent in whatever games he starts, isn’t good enough to make Penix think the team is moving on from him and doesn’t cause any issues in the locker room. It’s quite a delicate needle to thread.