“Be careful what is wish for.” That statement has some negative connotations attached to it. Tua Tagovailoa won, but at the cost of criticism that he would now derive from endless media outlets and football analysts. People have mixed reactions about the Miami Dolphins quarterback, and they are all warranted.

Colin Cowherd and his buddy, John Middlekauff stepped to the podium to give Tua and his dolphins a rude reality check this time. That’s because Tagovailoa isn’t even the top 5 quarterback in his conference, let alone the NFL. So, does a 4-year $212 million deal sound good? To Middlekauff, this sounds like a heist that Tua pulled on the Dolphins.

“Why couldn’t you [Dolphins] just offer him [Tagovailoa] Daniel Jones money? Like $90 million guaranteed. Cut that guarantee in half. Who are you bidding against?” said Middlekauff on The Colin Cowherd Podcast.

“Tua still feels like, ‘Is he even that good?’ Clearly you can win with him. You have a good offensive coordinator. He’s a good guy, like the character stuff. But his physical flaws, one he’s a relic. He’s a true pocket quarterback, bad athlete relatively.”

Well, let’s talk about his deal first. He’ll get a $42 million signing bonus and $167.1 million guaranteed, which is eighth highest among the QBs. Now he’s making an average annual salary of $53.1 million, which is lower than Joe Burrow, but higher than Lamar Jackson. Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about the pros and cons of this deal.

Tua thrives in McDaniels’ offense. That’s one of the reasons the Dolphins decided to extend him. He led the league with 4,624 yards and 29 touchdowns in the last season. There is no doubt that he deserves an extension. So, with the inflating NFL economy where everyone is racing to become the highest paid, it’s better to be done with his contract right now. It would be a $60 million a year affair if they didn’t. Not only Tua, but Miami also paid Jaylen Waddle a 3-year $84.7 million deal and  Tyreek Hill is also in line for a renegotiation.

The point is, the Dolphins don’t have to worry about paying big money to Tua anymore. They are committed to him. Not having to deal with a new quarterback next year and regulating cap is the pro of this deal because they are also extending their receivers to help the QB. So, what are the cons?

Can Tua Tagovailoa get out of this déjà vu loop?

The cat’s been out of the bag for a little while now. Everyone knows Tua struggles in cold weather. What happens when the playoffs come?. Let’s not even go that far. What happens when December comes and it’s bone chilling cold outside? We saw that in the game against the Chiefs, the Bills and the Ravens last year. Cold weather is his Achilles heel.

Tagovailoa is 0-6 in the game when temperature peaks at 45. When the temperature is below 40, he is 0-3. Above 45 everything is great! He’s 32-13 in the games when temperature was above 45 or more. Again, they lost to the Chiefs, the Bills, the Ravens. All in cold weather! The game against the Chiefs was the coldest one in the franchise history and Tua fell short 26-7. If you think that’s embarrassing, the Ravens defeated them 56-19, followed by the Bills, who defeated them 26-14.

Tua is just not made for the cold. There are other problems with him too. Most notably, the concussion that he got in 2022 is like a ticking time bomb. One wrong hit and there would be a possibility that he might suffer irreversible damage to his brain. Knowing all of this, would you still bank on Tua Tagovailoa? Let us know what you think.