The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

The Dolphins rank 30th in NFL salary cap space, according to Spotrac. One might argue that -$16.9 million isn't really "space" at all. It's more like a really bad credit card debt.

https://sports.yahoo.com/miami-dolphins-salary-cap-much-170323807.html

Highest-paid Miami Dolphins in 2025:

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa $39.4 million
Edge rusher Bradley Chubb $29.3 million
Receiver Tyreek Hill $28.7 million
Left tackle Terron Armstead $22.4 million
Cornerback Jalen Ramsey $16.6 million
Right tackle Austin Jackson $14 million
Edge rusher Jaelan Phillips $13.3 million
Defensive lineman Zach Sieler $12.4 million

The highest Miami Dolphins dead cap salary cap hits of 2025: (The Dolphins are eighth in the NFL with $21.6 million in dead cap space)

Cornerback Xavien Howard $15.7 million
Defensive end Shaq Barrett $4.4 million
Receiver Odell Beckham Jr. $895,000

Within the article it mentions that without drastic restructures for our highest paid players, parting ways with both Chubb and Armstead is our only realistic chance to make any cap space.

Since the article was published, it looks like there's been a little space freed up by the departures of Thompson, Needham, etc, but we're still $-14.1 million (29th).

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/miami-dolphins/cap/_/year/2025

Between this and the numbers of FA leaving Dolphins are not going to be able to match this year.  Forget improving.

We did that last year so its very possible we continue that trend.

We chose to pay Tua so everything kind of lives and dies by that decision.  He has to play, and play well, to make up for the other holes.  We will be a slow trickle of lost talent that we're going to have to make up with smart money.

I don't fully understand how the cap works, but how can we afford to keep a guy like Armstead?  He is hurt all the time and the line sucks anyway.  At least suck for cheap.

I find this kind of take pretty weird.  Do you - a Dolphins fan - think the same thing about BAL, PHI, LAC, CIN, DET, GB, JAX, and DAL?  Because they're all paying their QBs big bucks, too.

If you don't have a starting QB on a rookie contract, you're either paying some reclamation project on a short-term contract (e.g. Baker, Carr, Russ) or you signed your franchise QB to a monster deal.  The teams who are paying their franchise QBs significantly less than Tua signed those deals several years before Tua got paid.

Big QB contracts are not a competitive disadvantage if your competitors are also paying them.

Yes. When you pay people big money they have to be game changers to offset the low income people. That was exactly our problem. Our big money guys didn't do much for us ... especially when we needed them to step up.

Tua is a decent QB.  But he isn't a game changer.  Also he has had only one season out of 5 has he played more than 75% of the season.  The Dolphin's should be paying Tua less than other teams pay QBs that aren't taking unnecessary injury risks. 

The argument in favor of the extending him last season was "if we wait it will be even more expensive next season"  the argument against was "let's see if he can play the full season"  I am pretty sure if the Dolphin's had chosen to wait they could have gotten him for less this off season. 

^^^ I agree. I think what happened with Wilkens probably freaked them out a bit. Tua's play would have actually warranted him less unlike Wilkens. 

Yes, pretty much.

It doesn't mean that it's over, but you kinda gotta find a way to win with what you have.  There are diamonds in the rough and exceptions, but for all of these teams, for the most part -- if you have top paid QB and they don't play in the games, you're cooked.

Dolphins were worried Tua would leave for a monster deal and then get a season ending injury?

^^^ I think they were or else there was no need to make the deal early. I don't think there are many, if any, teams that would pay him what we are paying. It kind of looks like the Dolphins panicked when in fact they were only competing against themselves.

Let's suppose that MIA refuses to pay Tua the $53M/yr they gave him, and instead he signs with some other team (e.g. LV) for the $45M/yr Kirk Cousins got.
Are the Dolphins better off because some other team paid him less?

The team had the worst offense in the league without Tua under center.  Which QB do you pick up that changes that... Sam Darnold?  Jameis Winston?

I think we're asking and answering two things.

I am not even debating whether or not we should've paid Tua.  I'm past it.  You can make arguments that we shouldn't (or that we should), but we have, in fact, paid him and kept him, so here we are.

And now that we're here, in order to be successful, the only way to get there short of a miracle is for Tua to stay healthy and play well enough to compensate for the talent losses that will come over time.  That's pretty standard.

As long as Tua is the starting QB the dolphins are only as good as the backup.  Tua is fun to watch, but he doesn't play it smart

Tua's contract in isolation isn't ridiculous. But throw in the other high guaranteed contracts we're already committed to, and it's trouble.

Immediately after Tua signed up, I said that it made Tyreek effectively unaffordable after 2024 - if we cut him after this season under the old contract, we would have saved something close to $60 million in cap space. Yet Grier restructured his contract to bring more money forward and basically guarantee it all.

If you check out the link to those Spotrac tables (and toggle the year from 2025 to 2026, 2027, etc) you will see the bulk of Waddle's cap hit kicks in from 2027. The cap hits for Tua and Ramsey sharply increase from 2026 to balloon in 2028.

None of it is ridiculous.  Prime QBs in the NFL cost a ton of money to stay in their city.  That's just the way it is.  You can either lean into it or cut bait.  We leaned into it, like so many teams do, and that's fine.  But it's a choice that has other repercussions.  You can't afford to do that and also better yourself at all these other positions.  So, the QB has to play and play great in order to succeed.  Tua has missed games, therefore it isn't working out.

I don't think this is a controversial take.  I love Tua.  I want him to play and I want him to play well and I think he's very good.  But if he doesn't stay healthy or doesn't play well, we kind of have no shot.

I'd say we didn't so much as lean into it, we jumped hard and we jumped early. We could have made him play out his rookie contract (this season), and we could have franchised him the year after that (next season). It's not unheard of - the Ravens did it with Jackson, and that hasn't hurt them one little bit.

Like I said earlier (and elsewhere, I think in the "Tua gets paid" thread), it's not a ridiculous contract. In isolation there's nothing wrong with it at all. It's fair value compared to other QB at a comparable skill level around the league that got paid...

But as you also mentioned there are consequences, and big ones at that because we maxed out the credit card with him on a rookie deal. We lost a lot of highly drafted players last offseason to bring his payday forward, and we are going to lose more the next couple of offseasons to pay the rest of his contract, along with huge cap hits of Tyreek (for at least next season whether he stays with us or not), and possibly Chubb and Armstead (if we don't do some effective renegotiation's, or cut them), then Ramsey from 2026 and Waddle from 2027.

Get ready to say goodbye to Holland and Kohu, then Achane, Phillips, Jonnu Smith, and probably Sieler when their contracts end. They're getting paid comparatively peanuts right now, and we won't have the money to keep them.

Dolphins have overpaid on many contracts.  It almost appears that the Dolphins giveaway money so they can brag they have a top 5 paid QB, top paid we.

Dolphins thought they were very close to competing for a Championship, so they overpaid for some free agents.  Unfortunately Grier/McDaniel were wrong about Tua, wrong about the Oline, and injuries exasperated the issue.

At the moment Tua signed his deal, he was the 3rd-highest paid QB, which became 4th-highest later that same day.  By the end of that offseason, Tua was 5th.

If the Dolphins' goal was to "brag they have a top 5 paid QB" then they didn't pay Tua nearly enough, because he won't be a "top 5 paid QB" even one year after his deal was signed.  They would have needed to give him Trevor Lawrence or Dak Prescott-type money if that was actually their goal.

Dolphins will manipulate the salary cap and extend these big payments but they aren't going to be able to bring in enough talent to make much of a difference. Watching these playoffs its apparent we are an FCS team in a FBS league. Sure we can win once in a while but we won't be able to compete with the good teams most of the time.

Well the Dolphins would be in the hunt for another QB in this draft and wouldn't have his salary to worry about so yeah, I kinda think that would be preferable to the situation we are in now. Call me crazy, I've been called worse.

Don't mistake that for saying that would solve all the Dolphins problems as it wouldn't, but I would rather be looking for a QB in this draft than going into next year with Tua. That's as far as I'll go.

There is no chance any rookie QB coming out this year would be able to run this offense.  In the scenario you propose, you might as well just get rid of McDaniel.

I mean, if the idea is that Miami would be "better off" to blow up the team and fire/cut everyone... that's not something you need to plan for?  You can just do that at any time, particularly if your "goal" is to tank for an early pick.  You can do it right now!

P.S. obligatory reminder that tanking doesn't work in the NFL, which should be obvious given that Miami successfully acquired the QB they were supposed to tank 2019 for (and that you are currently saying should have been discarded)

Then change the offense to one that the QB can run. It's not like this is the only offense that works or that McDaniel can run, we just run it this way because it's what Tua does best.

We've seen what his offense looks like when Tua isn't running it.  It's terrible.
If he could make it effective with a lesser QB, he would.

I think you also have cause and effect backwards: McD wanted to come to Miami because he thought Tua would be perfect to run his offense.  He didn't design his offense around Tua after the fact.

The Dolphins need to pause and develop a long term plan for improvement.  They keep on pretending like they are almost there and maxing out the credit card for a mediocre season. 

They need to go into this off season saying, "how do we put ourselves into a position to be a contender in 2027"  not "how can I shift my cap space issues into next year."

Yes, since 1974.

I don't think that is quite right.  There have been times when the Dolphins have attempted long term plans.  But recently every year they take a max everything this year, don't worry about salary cap, etc for next year. 

2023 was the first time the Dolphins had made the playoffs in back-to-back years since Marino.  Of course they are going to try to win now.

The Dolphin's now have a choice.  Either once again do everything they can to max out the credit card and trade having a slightly better team this year with the ability to have a much better team in future years. 

read: go back to the drawing board and completely start over, as they have multiple times since 2004

Yup.  They can either do it this year, or they can dig the hole deeper and do it down the road.  But they need to do it before they are a serious contender. 

Ya gotta good coach but the GM doesn't know how to build a team.   

Yeah, I know.  It was a callback to T-shirts we had made in the aughts.

As I said earlier in this thread: blowing the team up is not something you need to plan for.  You can do it at any time!

So yeah, the Dolphins should actually try to win with their current employees before giving up and starting all over.  It's not like there's some sort of time limit on the ability to start from scratch.

You can continue to delay the rebuild.  But you are only digging a bigger hole.  The Dolphins do not have a path to win LX nor LXI and probably not LXII but they most certainly have a path to compete for LXIII. If they go all in on LX  they won't compete for LX nor LXIII nor anything in between.

By the way I don't expect the Patriots to win LX and I don't want to see them burning cap space or picks so they can lose week 1 of the playoffs instead of missing them entirely.  I want to see them do a methodical build that gives them a chance in for LXII at the earliest.  Dolphins are in a mode of maxing out the credit card to buy duct tape.     

Mike McDaniel is one of the youngest coaches in the league; he has many more decades of coaching left in him, for as long as Ross is willing to pay him.  So you don't need to win now for his sake.

There is only one rational justification for starting the rebuild as soon as possible: to maximize the number of years you compete during Tua's prime.  Yet I am confident that the "blow it up" crew is not advocating this course of action; Tua's departure is part of their plan.

So again, if your plan is to raze everything to the ground, whether you do it in 2025, or 2026, or 2027 doesn't matter; you can always blow up the team at any time.  There is no advantage to giving up early, but there IS an advantage to continuing to try with the players you have.

Or to put this another way: if the goal is to get back to something like week 14 of 2023, where you have the #1 offense in the league and you are in possession of the 1 seed, it is easier to do that with the players that you have already done this with than it is to start over from scratch.  And the Dolphins should know this, having failed to do so for the prior 30 years!

No, we've seen what Tua's offense looks like when Tua isn't running it. Not the same thing. I'm not saying that McDaniel can take just any QB and make him successful, the QB has to be decent to build an offense around, but McDaniel hasn't had any QB's at Miami that were decent other than Tua so far. That doesn't mean McDaniel only has 1 offense that needs Tua as the QB.

Dude, Tua is not the OC nor the head coach.  When Tua is standing on the sidelines in street clothes, it is not his offense; it's Mike McDaniel's offense.

I know people want to blame Tua for all the team's ills, but saying the reason the offense is terrible when Tua is watching on IR is because it's "Tua's offense"... that is delusional, man.

You can't just change the entire offense that's been taught for the last 2 years just because Tua is hurt. The offense doesn't change, just the QB changes. You might be able to install a few new plays, but the entire offense doesn't change and even if it did you would have an entirely new offense that you expect the team to be able to not only learn but execute well in a week. Only once you remove Tua for good can you change the offense and only with at least a full spring to do it.

I'm not blaming Tua for the teams inability to fulfill it's full potential, there's a lot of holes on the team, many of them on the defensive side of the ball, but you can't deny that there are holes in Tua's game that Tua cannot fix. He does a great job with doing what he does best, but he can't really go beyond that. Tua has actually surprised me by how well he's played at times, but on the other hand he's also had me shaking my head at some of his decisions especially in critical situations. When the pressure is on to win a game he seems to take on too much responsibility himself and he lets the entire team down in those cases, he's much better when he's supposed to win and the pressure is off. When he goes up against a good team especially a good defensive team that takes away what he does best, he doesn't adjust well, at least he hasn't shown me yet he can do that. Great QB's rise to the challenge, that's not what I see in Tua. That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Having an opinion other than yours isn't delusional. If it were there would be a LOT of delusional people.

We've also seen the way Tyreek and Waddle both mail it in when Tua is not the QB (with the one exception of the Browns game, where I would guess Hill was told to put in an effort for once).

If the key guys you are throwing to don't buy in with a backup QB, it doesn't matter who they are, McDaniel's offense is screwed. The same goes when they don't put in the effort when they're not getting the ball.

Securing a capable backup is a priority this offseason, but another priority should really be looking into the attitude of these key players (whom we are paying a shitload of money) to see what has to be reset. We ain't going anywhere if what happened between the ears this season is repeated.

The offense will somehow improve by getting rid of the only player that has so far shown to be capable of running it.
OK, man.

So when the offense fails to produce when Tua is on the field, it's Tua's fault because he can't perform under pressure etc.  And when the offense is far, far worse when he's NOT on the field, that is... also Tua's fault, because his existence means McDaniel can't design a functional offense that any other QB can understand.  In other words, even if Miami gets a decent backup - you know, someone who has already proven that they can fill in capably on a team with an exceptional starting QB without needing to have the offense totally reworked, like a Teddy Bridgewater or a Tyler Huntley - the offense will still be terrible any time Tua isn't under center because it's Tua's offense.  (And most importantly: this does not mean Tua is an outstandingly exceptional weapon that Miami must keep at all costs.  No, it somehow confirms he's above-average at best.)

The hoops that people will jump through to lay the team's problems at the feet of the QB... it's amazing.

P.S. For what it's worth, my only real problem with Tua is that he tries to do too much (as you said) and refuses to protect himself.  (This problem has progressed to the point where I actually consider it a coaching issue now; I blame McDaniel for not benching Tua for a series every time he doesn't slide.)  But this is a far stretch from blaming him for the lack of production from McDaniel's offense when Tua is on the sidelines.

Show me the post where I said the offense would improve without Tua. You can't do it. The team can improve without Tua provided you spend the money that you are spending on Tua to improve things like the line and the defense and focus more on having a well rounded team that's built for the playoffs rather than the team they have now. It won't be easy and maybe that's too much to ask of McDaniels/Grier, but I wouldn't be against them trying.

Lamar Jackson winning a 3rd MVP and failing to make it to another Superbowl is more proof that a team is more than just it's QB. I preferred football when the QB wasn't the sole focus of your team, when defenses and mistake free offenses won championships. I believe that it would still be possible to win that way if it weren't for the crazy contracts given to QB's these days, many of them not deserving of such money. Most of the QB's are only getting that kind of money because they are the QB and not much else. There's a handful of QB's worth the money spent on them today. Yes, I realize you can't go back and change things, it is what it is and yet I still think there's room for improvement on this team by spending less on the QB and more on the rest of the team. Call me crazy.

By the way, it's not just Miami that is in this predicament so it's not solely a Miami problem, it's a league wide issue that's getting worse and worse. Dallas is in the same position in my opinion, spending way too much on their QB and not having enough money to spend on the rest of the team. He's a decent QB, but no where near worth the money he's being paid. I believe they too should have let their QB walk the last time his contract was up for renegotiation and tried to find a cheaper alternative, maybe in the draft? Did they forget that they got Dak in the 4th round? Hell pay the backup a little more and go with him probably would have been a better option. Then maybe they could have gotten some RB's or WR's to throw to beside Lamb?

Speaking of getting QB's in the draft you don't have to draft one in the first 5 picks, you can get QB's that don't have the same resume as the stars later in the draft and some of them actually pan out. Many don't, but how's this any different from every OTHER position other than QB? You should probably draft at least 1 QB in every draft unless you already have your franchise QB and just keep trying to find one that pans out. That's what most teams do for all the other coveted positions rather than trying to hit on that one franchise QB in the first 5 picks and then sticking with him far too long when he doesn't turn out to be a franchise QB and then even worse paying him like he's a franchise QB when he's not. I'm not necessarily talking about Tua here there's a lot of QB's that fall into this category in my opinion. I'm just generalizing, but I do see Tua as a symptom of the disease, not the disease itself.

This isn't a new take from me either, before they paid Tua I said they probably should let him play out his contract and then negotiate a new one if they still felt the need and take the chance that Tua would bolt to another team. Had they done that they probably would have saved themselves a lot of money as I don't think there would have been teams lining up to pay Tua after this year. I also said they were stupid for letting a couple of their best defensive players last year walk in free agency. I think Miami could have held onto those defensive players if they didn't pay Tua and perhaps the team would have been better off in the long run. That's just my opinion, I could be wrong and you're free to disagree with me, doesn't make me delusional.

^^^^ Nobody claims that the sole act of getting rid Tua or Hill will improve the team And that is what Spider is arguing against.

But getting rid of expensive players who to eat more cap space then their production justifies and replacing them with players with a better cost to production ratio will improve the team in the long term

Here:
The implication is that the "change" would be an improvement, because it doesn't make sense to change the offense with the goal of being worse.

As I said earlier in this thread, if your competitors are also forced to "overpay" their QBs "more than they are worth" then it's not a competitive disadvantage.

But the ultimate argument I have against this approach is simple: look at the teams who haven't paid out a huge contract to a franchise QB in a while.  Teams like NO, LV, IND, and TEN.  Do they seem like they have a competitive advantage worth emulating?  Or to look even closer to home: do you look back on the 2000-2011 Dolphins and think those teams had a more promising QB situation than MIA does now because of how much money they were saving under center?

Very disingenuous. 

The Dolphin's designed an offense that is very specific to Tau, and one that does not translate well to back up QBs.  Because the offense is not one that is repetitively easy to transfer to a backup, backup QBs struggle much worse more than they would with a normal offense. 

Having an offense that is designed specifically for the starting QB is not always a bad thing.  But it is a very bad thing when the starting QB rarely completes an entire season. 

And part of that claim is that if Tua were to leave the team, the offense with other QBs under center would somehow improve.
The evidence for this claim is not only non-existent, it's counterfactual: when Drew Brees was out, Sean Payton was able to adjust his offense to work capably with Teddy Bridgewater, and when Lamar Jackson was out, John Harbaugh was able to adjust his offense to work capably with Tyler Huntley.

If the Miami Dolphins offense cannot adjust for literally the same backup QBs that capably executed offenses built around HOF-level QBs, why would you think McDaniel can make any competent offense without (a quarterback at least as good as) Tua?

Again, if you are arguing that Tua has an extremely unique skillset vital to running an offense capable of being #1 in the league, and also can't possibly be replaced in the offense with any other backup, that is an argument that Tua is really good and should be kept at all costs.

IMO Miami doesn't need a full rebuild.  But changes need to be made, and from the press conferences in the off season it doesn't seem like McDaniel and Grier get it.  Reluctantly one of them needs to go, and I think that is Grier.  A new GM won't have the attachment to players that need to go. Steps needed:

1) Start using the OC to call plays.
2) Get rid of Hill and Armstrong
3) Use all of their draft picks on drafting players, don't trade away a bunch of picks to get one high priced player.
4) Use a high draft pick on a QB AND bring in a backup QB that has at least a full season of starting games.
5) Focus the rest of the picks on O-lineman and cornerbacks/safeties.
6) Get rid of players that don't want to commit all their time during the season to getting better.

The Ravens, Bills, and Chiefs aren't going away, and Miami needs to beat at least one of them just to get to the Conference Championship game; and right now they don't have the players/coaches/culture to do that.  But with a good draft and good coaching they could have a team in 2026 that could compete.

I don't understand why people are calling for McDaniel to hand over playcalling duties when that's one of his main strengths.  What is he supposed to be doing during the game if someone else is calling plays?  Whatever that is, he should hand those duties over to an assistant head coach (or whatever) so he can focus on calling plays during the game.  McDaniel is far from the only head coach that's also a playcaller; CIN, CLE, GB, KC, LAR, MIN, and SF all have their head coaches calling the plays.

To the team yes. Not necessarily to the offense. The implication is that you spend the money somewhere more beneficial to the overall roster.

IMO he doesn't do a good job calling plays, specifically in important situations.  He has improved his timeliness in getting plays into the QB, but is still slow at times.

We were specifically talking about the offense and why it has been absolutely terrible every time Tua has been out.  You claimed that it was not due to McDaniel's own shortcomings, but because he was being handcuffed by having Tua on the roster and that getting rid of Tua would allow him to redesign the offense.

Now it sounds like you're trying to claim you meant the rest of the team would be better without Tua's contract, but that makes no sense as an explanation for why the offense has been putrid with Tua on the sidelines... ESPECIALLY since the offense was still terrible with Teddy under center, back when Tua was still on his rookie deal.

McDaniel is very limited on his options for short yardage plays and it really makes him look bad. That's where I see most people complaining about Mike  The problem for me is I don't know if that is a Mike issue or a Chris Grier thing but our o-line sucks so we can't run in those situations with any kind of consistency.

No, you were talking about that, I was merely considering whether Miami would be better off without Tua and his contract. This discussion started last year before they even paid Tua and him coming off his best season by far. My comments have nothing to do with how the Dolphins offense played this year with Tua or without him.

You seem to be of the opinion that no one can run this offense better than Tua and I don't disagree with that, what I disagree with is whether the team as a whole can be better without Tua and his contract. That's 2 different questions. I agree with you on the first one, I disagree with you it appears on the 2nd because you don't believe that McDaniel is capable of putting in an offense that will work with anyone other than Tua. I'm not convinced that is the problem, I still believe the problem is the defense. I believe a better defense would make up for the deficiencies in the offense, especially in the playoffs. Obviously the offense can't be crap, but it could be less than what it is now with Tua and still win games if the defense could force a punt or turnover on downs when it matters or the offensive line could get a 1 yard push off the line on 3rd and 1 to pick up a first down. This is the problem that needs to be corrected and it still could be even with Tua's contract, but it would make it a lot easier without Tua and his contract in my humble opinion. Everyone says you need a franchise QB, I say it's a lot easier to find a franchise QB when your team relies a lot less on your QB to win games. The Eagles are a great example of that in my opinion.

Everyone talks about how great Mahomes is and how Allen doesn't measure up, but lets face it, when the Bills needed to stop Mahomes the defense couldn't do it and when KC needed to stop the Bills from driving for a FG to tie the game the defense stepped up and did just that. You can say that's all Mahomes or Allen, I tend to think the 11 guys on the other side of the line of scrimmage have a LOT to do with it. Miami's defense can't even do that when the opposing QB is Jordan Love let alone Mahomes, Allen or Jackson.

You are paying for an elite QB. If you are paying for an elite QB then he should be able to get the ball to an okay WR

You are paying an elite WR. If you are paying for an elite WR then he should be able to catch balls thrown by an okay QB.

If you actually have an elite QB and elite WR then you should be challenging records. 

You are paying as if Tua-Hill is Brady-Moss or Montana-Rice.

We're already destined for a full rebuild, whether you like it (or realize it) or not.

A lot of the high draft picks gathered/spent during the last rebuild (including the Tunsil bounty) have already left the team to get more money because the credit card was maxed out (or they just flopped).

Grier's overly generous contracts awarded to a handful of players has relegated this team to an elite few of mercenary haves, and then the have-nots made up of the washed out veterans, draft picks, practice squad guys making up the numbers, and then the occasional few genuine bargain acquisitions who will also leave as soon as they get a better deal when their contract expires.

You can kick the can down the road for so long, but eventually you will run out of shoe leather...

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/miami-dolphins/cap/_/year/2024/sort/cap_total

Last season we were carrying dead cap money of $11.4 million for X, and $10.6 million for Byron Jones.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/miami-dolphins/cap/_/year/2025/sort/cap_total_top51

Next season we are already looking at another $15.7 million cap hit for X, plus another $4.4 million for Shaq Barrett, etc, who are not on the roster...

Tua's and Ramsey's salary cap hits really kick in from 2026 (to the tune of $56.4 million and $25 million) and Waddle from 2027 ($33 million), all ballooning in 2028 (a grand total of nearly $140 million of the whole cap). I haven't even mentioned Tyreek, Chubb or Armstead who have massive implications on the cap the next 2-3 years.

Further restructures will ultimately result in more dead money for players who aren't even on the roster. If we keep this stuff up it's self-defeating long term, and take too long for most of us to tolerate to recover. We are staring at a gigantic shitshow of a mess right now.

The team cuts have started... veterans Durham Smythe and Raheem Mostert have been released, along with Kendall Fuller.

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/dolphins-cut-two-more-veterans-01jm367ccy4s

Mostert went straight from the doghouse to the outhouse...

Not unexpected, but that's scratching the surface of what needs to be done just to get back to the starting line for 2025.

The Miami Dolphins took a nice step toward becoming cap compliant before the March 12 deadline when they released three veterans Friday, but they still have some work to do.

The Dolphins cleared about $8 million of cap space by terminating the contracts (the actual wording of the transactions) of cornerback Kendall Fuller, running back Raheem Mostert and tight end Durham Smythe.

The Dolphins still have to clear about $5.4 million to get under the salary by March 12, with a reminder that only the top 51 cap numbers are calculated before the "final" roster cuts in late August.

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/who-could-become-other-dolphins-cap-casualties-01jm8ce6mzm3

The story goes on to suggest that Sanders ($3.3M), Bailey ($2M) and Tindall ($1.4M) are at the top of the list to get the axe to make the deadline.

Armstead and Chubb have both given us a huge break before the March 12 deadline, and have taken restructured deals.

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/breaking-down-armstead-s-revised-contract-and-what-it-suggests-01jnphzm8ee2
https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/breaking-down-bradley-chubb-s-revised-contract-01jnrzh1ezz9

We still have bugger-all cap space to do much, but at least we're below the required mark - Sanders, Bailey and Tindall might not find themselves in the unemployment queue (yet).

It's expected that Armstead will be retiring, that's why he gave the Dolphins the break, but he's still thinking about playing.

Both Armstead and Chubb have agreed to moves to get the team out of the total disaster it was facing come the March 12th cutoff...

It was a goodwill move that saved our bacon. But we still have little to no room to really make significant moves to plug our shortcomings, at least until June 1st, when the next lot of major decisions have to be made. Today proved it. We are literally looking at leftovers in the rubbish bin, because we can't afford anything better.

True, but everything changes after the draft.  If Miami can draft some great players they need it helps.  If other teams are able to upgrade positions through the draft then they let go of decent players Miami could pick up.

So we are still scraping off the bottom of the tailings of a mine that someone has gone through and extracted 99.9% of the gold out of already, hoping to find a small nugget to pay the bills.

Unless Grier hits the jackpot on the draft poker machine this time (not likely), there's really not much to look forward to. 

Grier's done okay with drafting.

It's not like going out and spending ungodly amounts of money for free agents is a ticket to success.

Grier needs to hit (at least) three (Pro Bowl) quality starters this one draft for us to go anywhere this season. He's hasn't done it before with bags of multiple 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounders. Yes we have ten picks this year, but let's face it, his chances aren't good.


Like Grier has already done to satisfy McDaniel's impulse wants? Yeah, I have to agree with you with that. More so now, as we have bugger all money to spend.

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/takeaways-from-newcomer-media-sessions-01jq4rnv4z11

Let's have a look at a few of these gems of quotes from our recent acquisitions in free agency.

QB Zach Wilson:

"Another interesting nugget was Wilson saying he learned in Denver about the importance of building chemistry with his teammates, which he accomplished by spending more time in the locker room."  Are you fucking serious? He was spending less time in the locker room as the Franchise QB for the Jets than as the 3rd stringer for the Broncos? How backward is this clown?

DB Ifeatu Melifonwu:

"As a bit of a red flag, Melifonwu said regarding his numerous injuries early in his NFL career that early on maybe he 'didn't do as much I should have.'"

(https://i.imgur.com/vKqu0SI.jpeg)

LB Willie Gay Jr:

"Gay called Hill 'down to earth'". I think that's the first time anyone has attributed that to Tyreek in over a year, especially after all of his more recent shenanigans...

"Gay called the cold playoff game between the Dolphins and Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium two seasons ago 'horrible', adding he never wants to do it again." So I guess he's either planning on Miami having home field throughout the playoffs, or (more likely) missing the playoffs altogether.

"Finally, Gay said the Dolphins chose him and not the other way around, indicating he didn't have other offers in free agency. This is not an admission you hear very often." Hmmm...

(https://i.imgur.com/22SeHmE.gif)

TE Pharaoh Brown:

"But yet we heard it again right away because Brown said 'beggars can't be choosers.'"

"While he understands the talk of the Dolphins needing to be more physical, Brown said, 'I'm not setting out to make this team more physical. Energy feeds off energy.'" Oh dear.

Yep. We are literally scraping the absolute scum off the bottom of the barrel to make up a team (again).

^^^^^^With the Dolphins salary cap situation they need to shop the clearance scratch and dent bin.