AFC East

Barry Jackson: How a lucrative, long contract for Tua Tagovailoa could help solve a 2024 Dolphins problem

MIAMI — If the Dolphins decide, after the season, that they need to pay Tua Tagovailoa about $50 million annually in a long-term contract, that would be a good thing, because it would suggest that he stayed healthy for all or most of 2023 and continued to perform at this high level. But wouldn’t that further worsen the Dolphins’ salary cap crunch? Eventually, yes. But in the short term, absolutely not. Tagovailoa is under contract next season at $23.1 million under the fifth-year option that was exercised by the Dolphins long before the May 1, 2023 deadline. That would be his cap number for 20…