Dolphins Fans Find Eerie Similarity Between Tua Tagovailoa and Ryan Tannehill

After a pitiful loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers that dropped them to 6-8 and out of playoff contention, the Miami Dolphins started making major changes. The biggest move, of course, came when they decided to bench starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for the final three games.

Rookie Quinn Ewers out of Texas has been named the starter, leapfrogging Zach Wilson for the opportunity. What Tagovailoa and the Dolphins do next, however, is anyone’s guess. There is little doubt that both sides may want to part ways. But the four-year, $212.4 million deal he signed in 2024 will make that difficult.

However, while challenging, it is not an unprecedented situation. As some Miami fans have pointed out, it closely mirrors what the franchise experienced with its last “franchise” quarterback, Ryan Tannehill. One Twitter user even broke down the similarities in the two quarterbacks’ journeys in South Beach.

“Both were drafted in the 1st round by Miami, played their first 6 seasons here, and were moved on from after simply being too average, not horrible, just average. After enduring the Tannehill era, & tanking to completely start over, the Dolphins repeated the exact same mistake,” they tweeted.

Tagovailoa was drafted No. 5 overall in 2020, Tannehill No. 8 overall in 2012. And while Tannehill was technically there for seven seasons, he missed the entire 2017 campaign due to injury.

Many pointed out that drafting Tagovailoa and Tannehill was not necessarily a mistake, since teams have to take chances on quarterbacks. Instead, they argued the real mistake was the second contract each received. Tannehill’s was a four-year, $77 million deal back in 2015, a lesson some believe the Dolphins’ brass failed to learn.

However, there was a larger portion that argued that Tannehill was actually a much more reliable QB than Tagovailoa, and they paid him a lot less too.

“The situations are completely different. Tua is a liability. Tannehill was on some bad teams with uninspiring coaches,” pointed out one reply.

“Tannehill was physically tougher. He was destroyed his first 2 seasons and always got up. He never had a head coach build and offense to his strengths, it was either an Aaron rogers or Payton manning offense,” explained another.

Tagovailoa has disappointed the fanbase more recently than Tannehill, so the recency bias is understandable. However, Tannehill was generally viewed as a more reliable presence and came at a much lower cost. That said, the numbers for both quarterbacks across their first six seasons with the Dolphins are intriguingly similar as well.

Dolphins QBs

Ryan Tannehill
88 starts
42-46 record
87.0 rating
123 TD/75 INT
0 playoff wins

Tua Tagovailoa
76 starts
44-32 record
96.4 rating
120 TD/59 INT
0 playoff wins

— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) December 16, 2025

Tannehill was eventually traded to the Tennessee Titans after the 2018 campaign, where he instantly won Comeback Player of the Year in 2019. He also ended up having a career renaissance for a few seasons after. With Tagovailoa also likely hitting the bricks—whether via release or trade—the Dolphins will hope that something similar doesn’t happen again.

If two QBs in a row leave Miami only to become the best version of themselves, the franchise might need to start taking a long, hard look in the mirror.