Tua Tagovailoa, when he spoke to the media on Wednesday, was asked about the contracts Jalen Hurts and Justin Herbert got this offseason and if he has had any talks with the Dolphins about a long-term deal. On Tuesday, Justin Herbert signed a five-year $262.5 million contract with $218.7 million guaranteed.  Hurts signed a five-year deal with $255 million with $110 million guaranteed in April.

When he was asked about Herbert in particular, he said,  “Yeah. I mean, it’s big. Big. First off, congrats to him and congrats to Jalen (Hurts) as well earlier on his contract. I think it’s really good for the quarterback market. That’s what I would say. It’s really good for the quarterback market. It gets me excited, gets me going. But at the same time, they got what they deserve and I’m happy for them.”

Tua was asked about the state of his contract in light of the new deals that have been handed out, and he said he hadn’t thought much about his contract since his 5th-year option was picked up a few months back. And when he was asked if it is best to work on a new deal now or to wait and see and put it aside until after the season, Tua said, “I think regardless of what it is, if they wanted to do it now, if they wanted to wait, whatever; I think for myself I’m always a person that wants to prove to myself that I deserve whatever I get. So for me, I feel like this is something that I need to work for. It’s as plain and simple as that.”

To me, the Tua situation is unique in that even though he was drafted between Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert and well before Jalen Hurts, the Dolphins nor Tua should want to talk about a long-term contract at this point in time. And while Burrow has yet to put pen to paper on a new long-term deal, he is expected to do so any day now, and it is expected to be the richest contract in NFL history.

For Tua, the answer is obvious, he has missed a lot of games, and he would be getting paid for a body of work that is incomplete at this time and not his best. While Hurts and Burrow have been to a Super Bowl, and Herbert has led his team and played in an actual playoff game. Tua has none of that on his resume at this time.

For the Dolphins, it comes down to a level of trust. Hurts, Herbert, Burrow, you can count on to be on the field week in and week out and do not have the label of “injury prone” attached to them nor a history of concussions. The Eagles, Chargers, and Bengals have very little level of risk with the quarterbacks they drafted. The Dolphins have an extremely high level of risk as we saw Tua become injured and miss multiple games on routine plays and hits in his career with the Dolphins.

The unfortunate part for Tua is even if he were to stay healthy all of this upcoming season and lead Miami on a deep playoff run, he still would not get a deal on par with Hurts, Burrow, and Herbert because that level of risk hanging over Tua’s head will never go away as there have been far too many injures and far too many games missed. And as a player gets older, they don’t get healthier; they only begin to break down more, especially in a contact sport like the NFL.

In reality, if Tua were to stay healthy this season and play at a very high level, he would be in line for a contract similar to the one Daniel Jones got of four years, $160 million with $104 million guaranteed.

If Tua stays healthy and plays like he played in 2022, Miami will be more to write him a big fat check to keep him around. But it won’t be the earth-shattering record-breaking deal he is seeing other quarterbacks from his draft class receive.