Mike Wallace’s Future With Miami Dolphins In Doubt
By Brian Miller
Members of the Miami Dolphins organization have been asked repeatedly about the future of wide-receiver Mike Wallace and every single one of them has either skirted the questions entirely or simply said, “no one knows”. That is not a good indication of Wallace’s future with the team.
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A week ago Stephen Ross was asked about his big ticket wide-out and he simply replied “no one knows” but at this years Senior Bowl, Dennis Hickey danced around four questions asked about the wide-outs future. The Miami Herald has the answers, or runaround to those questions here. Are the Miami Dolphins seriously considering dumping one of their biggest playmakers? Are they seriously considering taking an almost $10 million cap hit to let him go? It appears the answer is yes.
If the Dolphins want Wallace out they could designate him a post-June 1st cut and only sit on $5 million of dead space this year while saving $6 million in cap space. If they release him prior to June 1st his dead cap number is around $9.6 million with a $2.5 million savings. It’s a tough decision for Dennis Hickey but history seems to be repeating itself with Joe Philbin.
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The Dolphins released or failed to re-sign several players following Philbins’ first season with the Dolphins, Reggie Bush, Karlos Dansby, and Jake Long. Three of the teams “player council” members. Dansby had been outspoken about his dislikes. Joe Philbin has repeatedly rid himself of players that didn’t fit the profile of what he wanted. A recent report from one of the local papers said that it was Philbin who asked to have Vontae’ Davis traded in his first season.
Wallace is clearly one of the top receivers on the team but if the reports of him quitting on the team are true, it’s likely the catalyst behind the non-committal talk from the organization. It’s also a bad move. The Dolphins lack playmakers and Wallace despite his diva attitude at times is a player that can change a game. The question is whether his value is larger than his distractions. That’s an internal question we don’t know about and may be what the Dolphins are weighing.
It was reported that the Miami Dolphins were asking Wallace to restructure his contract and take a pay cut but the Miami Herald reported that Wallace was not open to taking a cut in salary and frankly why should he? To be a team player yes but the Dolphins haven’t exactly utilized him the right way since he has been here.
Should the Dolphins opt to part ways with the wide receiver it would make the draft an interesting one as the team would need to draft a top wide receiver prospect early in the draft. The decision on Wallace will have huge ramifications on the teams salary cap and locker room so this could get very interesting as March approaches when Wallace is due a large roster bonus.