There are many figures one could blame for a lackluster Miami Dolphins roster at the moment, but no one deserves more blame than GM Chris Grier. Not only has Grier done a poor job of retaining top talent, but the names they have signed have been incredibly disappointing.
While quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has produced when healthy, his contract has not aged very well. Pass rusher Bradley Chubb finds himself in that same boat. These oft-injured veterans now have the dubious distinction of being ranked among the very worst contracts at any position in the NFL.
Bleacher Report listed Chubb as the eighth-worst contract in the league, all while Tagovailoa came in fourth place. The Tennessee Titans, fresh off having the worst record in the league last year, were the only other team to have multiple players in the Top 10. Grier will now need to work around these huge mistakes.
Dolphins QB Tua Tagaovailoa, EDGE Bradley Chubb named 2 of NFL’s worst contracts
To be fair to Chubb, he lived up to his end of the bargain after arriving in town from Denver, as he tallied 11 sacks in the 2023 season. However, he missed all of 2024 with an injury, and the Dolphins already seemingly found his replacements in the NFL Draft.
With Jaelan Phillips also nursing back to health and back-to-back first-round picks being spent on defensive linemen in Chop Robinson and Kenneth Grant, Miami is trying everything possible to fortify this defense in the event that Chubb isn’t in town for very much longer after this season.
Tagovailoa has proven to be a solid fit for Mike McDaniel’s system, but he has two major flaws that inhibit any sort of leap up a tier in the hypothetical rankings. First, and most importantly, his concerning injury history makes it difficult to imagine a world in which he plays all 17 games every year.
In addition, Tagovailoa (and the Dolphins as a whole) has a habit of starting off white-hot, but stumbling to the finish when the weather gets a bit colder. Given his already middling arm strength, this doesn’t seem like something Tua is going to radically change overnight. That’s not ideal for someone getting paid like an elite quarterback.
The Dolphins may decide to totally blow things up if they struggle in 2025, and the Tagovailoa and Chubb contracts are a sign of how much Grier and the front office have mismanaged this roster.
