MIAMI GARDENS — Tua Tagovailoa’s contract extension just got even sweeter.

If you felt good when news broke of the four-year, $212.4 million deal Friday, you should feel better about it today.

No, there isn’t any additional value in it for Tagovailoa and his family, who are set for life.

The Miami Dolphins are the ones richer.

Because the name at the top isn’t Deshaun Watson’s.

More: Credit Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel for pushing Tua Tagovailoa contract over finish line

You remember Watson, the guy the Dolphins tried to acquire and make their franchise quarterback at a time when they weren’t sure that Tagovailoa had the goods. OK, I know you’d prefer not to remember Watson, and I know his injury-aborted 2023 season — while Tagovailoa was making the Pro Bowl — make it easy to forget Watson.

But while the Dolphins were high-fiving one another over coming to terms with Tagovailoa, Watson was being Watson at Cleveland Browns camp.

Deshaun Watson is the victim here?

The contrast was a beaut.

On one hand, you had a quarterback coming off his best season, talking about how grateful he is to everyone from Dolphins ownership to the front office to teammates to the guys collecting trash from the training facility. (OK, he didn’t get that far, but if given five more minutes, you never know.)

On the other hand, you had another quarterback playing the victim.

You read that right. Deshaun Watson, asked what he has changed in his approach for this season, actually whipped out the victim card. He came across as bitter. Petulant. Delusional.

What had he changed? Nada.

"Honestly, it's really just blocking out all the bull---- outside,” Watson told reporters. “Stuff coming in two years, different environment, different team, different all that. So you come in and your character is being mentioned this way and then kind of flip on you and the biggest thing, you're trying to get people to like you or improve. But now it's like, at the end of the day, it's two years in and if you don't like me or you have your own opinions, then it is what it is.

“So, I think blocking out all the noise and focusing on me, focusing on what I need to do to be the best Deshaun Watson I can be for myself, for my family and for my teammates."

Personally, it’s tough to imagine why anyone wouldn’t like Watson, charmer that he is, unless it’s possibly that thing about the two dozen women who accused him of inappropriate conduct and sexual assault while giving him massages. Yeah, that thing that qualifies as “bull----“ or “all the noise,” according to Watson.

Look, we could go on and on about Watson’s character. That was tried in the court of public opinion as the Houston Texans were booting him out the door. It’s essentially just a footnote that contrition will never enter the guy’s thinking. If you’re so blinded by him as an athlete that you believe all those women fabricated their accounts only for money, you’re never going to see the light.

In pure football terms, do you want Tua Tagovailoa or Watson?

So let’s spin this another way.

Remember how we started? Back when the Dolphins were unsure Tagovailoa was the answer but pretty confident that Watson was?

Now what’s your answer? Straight up, which quarterback would you rather have, putting aside off-the-field concerns? Good chance you said Tagovailoa. But even if you still say it’s Watson, you certainly had to think about it. And your choice was based on what was and what could be, not what Watson is.

Comparing careers, Watson, in six seasons he was able to play, made three Pro Bowls. His record is 36-29. Tagovailoa, through four seasons, made one Pro Bowl, is 32-19. Looking deeper, Tagovailoa has averaged 238.5 yards per game (15.4 fewer than Watson) and 7.7 per attempt (0.3 fewer). He has 81 passing TDs (37 fewer), 37 INTs (eight fewer) and a 97.1 passer rating (3.7 lower). His rushing yardage is minimal.

Of course, there’s a problem with that comparison. The last time Watson was the Watson the Browns thought they were getting, we were in a pandemic. Three full seasons have come and gone since. Maybe Watson can recapture the athleticism and playmaking that allowed him to throw for 4,823 yards in 2020. He won’t turn 29 until September. But maybe those performances will remain a memory.

The problem with comparing their 2023 seasons is Watson appeared in only six games before injuring his shoulder.

Sticking with relevant stats, then, Tagovailoa, who turned 26 in March, blows Watson out of the water. We look to completion percentage (69.3 to 61.4), yards per attempt (8.3 to 6.5), yards per game (272.0 to 185.8) and passer rating (101.1 to 84.3).

Oh, and Tagovailoa was just voted by peers as the 36th-best player in the NFL. He also has never been upstaged by a Joe Flacco cameo. Watson? This year will mark the third straight he doesn’t make the top 100.

Finally, there’s the price. Tagovailoa cost the Dolphins one first-round pick. The Browns handed over three first-rounders, plus three mid-rounders in the trade for Watson, then handed him a five-year, $230 million contract that’s fully guaranteed. Tagovailoa’s deal calls for $93.17 million guaranteed at signing and $167 million in total guarantees.

So there you have it.

Who you got?

The quarterback or the victim?

Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal.

Click here to subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Dolphins lucked out committing to Tua Tagovailoa, not Deshaun Watson