Despite having no stars, Dolphins capped out

[Landshark]

This is disturbing

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/17/2698361/miami-dolphins-front-office-must.html

[EKnight]

^^This is what I don't get. Mike has been great about posting everything going on in the organization, and seems to think we still have a shot at Anderson and Winston. Well, the Herald is reporting that Miami wants to sign Flynn by the end of the weekend, so where is all this cash coming from??? -EK

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/17/2698614/miami-dolphins-hope-for-weekend.html

[Cathal]

I assume they'll either have to cut people or restructure contracts. I have no idea, though.

[MikeO]

^^This is what I don't get. Mike has been great about posting everything going on in the organization, and seems to think we still have a shot at Anderson and Winston. Well, the Herald is reporting that Miami wants to sign Flynn by the end of the weekend, so where is all this cash coming from??? -EK

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/17/2698614/miami-dolphins-hope-for-weekend.html

The way in this league you "structure" deals is probably more important than the money given. It's all about signing bonus and how much a player gets up front. Last night Sirius NFL radio had Miami at $14 mill in cap space. Now you have to save some of that for rookies and the draft. Now, I think that was the number BEFORE we signed Soliai and they are used an outdated number. Because I know after we signed him, Miami was under $10 mill according to Omar Kelly and Ben Volin. I don't know the exact number but I would guess they are just under $10 mill or at that $10 mill mark.

But Soliai gave us a huge hometown discount to stay. He took money up front over years. Hicks has a $2 mill deal but they might have structured that where he got little up front and on the cap and he has to make the team to get the rest considering he only had 3 starts last year on a bad Browns team. Making him easily cut-able. Not sure, I don't know how they did his deal but that would be my educated guess.

The Richard Marshall deal sounds like a big number, my guess since Arizona didn't want him (not because of bad play but because they are in cap hell) and only Miami came calling out of the gate of free agency, he probably didn't have a lot of leverage. Meaning Miami gave him roster bonuses down the road and he counts little against the cap year 1. Once again, easily cut-able after one year.

And  for the record, I never said we  did or didn't  have a shot at Winston, I really don't know. I just posted that Alex Marvez said he has us in his final 2 teams. I am sure there is a way to make Winston work. But if we add Flynn adding a high priced right tackle might be difficult unless they re-work some deal. And cutting Bell opens up a lot of money. Re-working the deal of Dansby alot as well. You can probably open up another $10 mill just working with those 2 guys right there and nobody else. You start cutting guys like Jason Trusnik and more and more cap space opens up. The Dolphins have ZERO cap issues right now.

And once again, Free Agency only started Tuesday at 4pm. Not even 4 days old. The big names are gone (minus Manning/Flynn) but there are a lot, yes a lot of quality guys out there that in a day or two or three can be had for reasonable if not downright cheap prices! And Miami can be in play for a lot of them.  I mean if the Fins by next week have Flynn, Winston, and Anderson locked up and their only glaring need is WR entering the draft I will throw Jeff Ireland a parade!!!

[bsfins]

http://www.rotoworld.com/teams/rosters/nfl/mia/miami-dolphins

While I'd take with a grain of salt,if you click on a player a lot of them have have their contract details.While it doesn't give you what they count against the cap,it gives you an idea who we're paying....... 2.5 million dollar kicker 

Those guy's that seem to always be around as nice back ups,they get expensive,our cheap/back up guy's their contracts go up each year too.....

[EKnight]

2.5 million for Miami's kicker? Sounds about right- he's the only person to score in three years! -EK

[Doc-phin]

This is disturbing

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/17/2698361/miami-dolphins-front-office-must.html

I didn't catch the part where it said we were capped out.  Only thing I took from the article is that we don't have much cap room considering we don't have stars on our team.  What is new about that?

Keep in mind that while we don't have the "Stars" of the league that get national attention, we do have some guys of merit that are costing us a good bit of our cap hits.  I don't think many would argue that Dansby, Davis, Wake, Long and Bush aren't quality enough players to eat up some cap space.

Other than Manning, I never would have supported big money to a free agent this year.  So far, so good in that regard.  I am a bit bummed that we are going to have to develop a couple of receivers out of the draft which sets us back a few years. 

I think we are just going to have to accept that Miami is going to rebuild, again.  Over the next few years we will see these high priced guys replaced by developed draft picks.  By then, we should have a QB developed.  At that point we can make a run. 

I just thank God we didn't do anything as silly as Buffalo did.  I am not saying that Mario isn't a good player, but his salary is going to cripple that team.  I could see it if he was a middle linebacker that makes adjustments and is all over the field, but an outside linebacker?  Too much money, IMO.

[MikeO]

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/03/17/from-salary-cap-to-draft-fins-have-problems/#.T2VRdA_k9TM.twitter

This is a better article that takes on the same issue.

[Landshark]

I had to bump this when I saw Armando Salguero's report.  The Dolphins are in the bottom five of the league in available cap space despite a serious lack of talent on this team.  One reason is over $13 million in dead money to guys like Vernon Carey, Yeremiah Bell, Brandon Marshall and Vontae Davis.

[Pappy13]

I had to bump this when I saw Armando Salguero's report.  The Dolphins are in the bottom five of the league in available cap space despite a serious lack of talent on this team.  One reason is over $13 million in dead money to guys like Vernon Carey, Yeremiah Bell, Brandon Marshall and Vontae Davis.

That's THIS year. Next year will be a completely different story because of the reason you just stated above so I'm not really sure this is all that big of a deal.

[MikeO]

Next year Miami has around $40 mill to spend. Little more but not sure of the exact number. They already re-signed Wake. The ONLY guy they really have to re-sign is Jake Long. Aside from that they can let everyone walk. I mean if you want to keep Bush or Hartline fine, but Miami is in great cap shape next offseason.

[Landshark]

That's THIS year. Next year will be a completely different story because of the reason you just stated above so I'm not really sure this is all that big of a deal.

You have to wonder how this team got into this mess, and why Ireland still has a job.

[miamiwestchester]

You have to wonder how this team got into this mess, and why Ireland still has a job.

and of course the answer is, because the owner is a clueless doofus.

[masterfins]

Funny.  I'll bet some of the people complaining about cap space this year also said the Fins lost Flynn because they were cheap.  Flynn, who is the backup to a rookie in Seattle.

[fyo]

Trashing Ireland in this context is moronic. We're maxed out on cap because a new head coach was brought in and cleaned house. Instead of spreading the pain over multiple years, "they" (Ireland and/or Sparano) decided to bite the bullet and take the hit this year. That's a direct result of going with a youth movement and eschewing big-name FAs.