Malik Willis Contract Ripped as NFL Exec Calls Out Tua Salary Cap Hit and Who Should Be Dolphins QB1

Even though the Miami Dolphins did what most analysts expected them to do under first-year general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley by tearing their roster down to the studs, their process of getting there is being criticized by people in the league.

An anonymous executive speaking to The Athletic's Mike Sando explained the decision to release Tua Tagovailoa by spreading his cap hit out over two years and signing Malik Willis were mistakes.

"They should not have signed Malik Willis," the exec said. "They should have taken the full Tua cap charge in one season. They should have gone with Quinn Ewers and just played out the season."

The Dolphins took an NFL-record $99 million dead cap charge by releasing Tagovailoa, but they were able to spread it out over two years by designating him as a post-June 1 cut.

Miami followed that up by giving Willis a three-year, $67.5 million contract in free agency to become the starting quarterback.

One big problem with the anonymous executive's plan is the Dolphins barely had enough cap space to put together a roster by spreading out Tagovailoa's dead cap over two years, let alone trying to fit it all in for the 2026 season.

Miami's dead cap in 2026 accounts for nearly 60 percent of the total salary cap ($301.2 million) because of all the players it released or traded this offseason.

Willis, while he was able to secure a nice payday after making just three starts over the past three seasons, certainly doesn't seem to be in a position to succeed given the construction of Miami's roster.

Things will get much easier for the Dolphins next year, when Tagovailoa ($43.8 million) and Bradley Chubb ($12.9 million) are the only players with dead cap charges at this point.

That's still $56 million for two players not on the roster, but it's a far cry from where things are right now. It also wouldn't be a surprise if the Dolphins are picking at or near the top of the draft in 2027 when they could potentially land a franchise quarterback to build around.

It's also not out of the realm of possibility that Willis shows enough as the starter in 2026 to suggest he could be a long-term solution and they use their draft capital to build around him.

There was no great option for the Dolphins to get out of the mess they were in, so the new regime led by Sullivan and Hafley have put their head down and just got to work trying to fix something that was deeply broken.