Dolphins’ Free Agency Splash means cap crunch for 2016

The Miami Dolphins front office has certainly made waves this offseason. They signed top prize Ndamukong Suh, picked up tight end Jordan Cameron, and extended one of the best centers in the league, Mike Pouncey, for five years.

All these moves came at a price to the Dolphins, however the price won’t be fully paid until after this upcoming season.

Miami has 76 players under contract and are a little over $10 million under the salary cap. That’s a good chunk of cap space just in case GM Dennis Hickey wants to add another experienced linebacker, offensive guard, or cornerback before, during, or after training camp.

However, in 2015, Hickey and company are going to be in a cap crunch. Speculation is that the 2016 cap will rise to about $160 million with Miami devoting slightly over $155 million to 44 contracts.

Suh’s cap hit explodes to $28 million in 2016 while Ryan Tannehill’s will be a $16.1 million hit. Those two players represent the largest cap hits on the team.

In order to gain more cap flexibility, the Miami front office will likely have to restructure some contracts, including the monstrous six year $114 million deal with Suh. Which is likely something Suh may not be too happy about one season apart from signing the contract.

Of course, the Fins can restructure some other deals with CB Brent Grimes, LB Koa Misi, S Reshad Jones, and LT Branden Albert for some adequate cap relief. If all four players were to restructure their deals to their maximum base salary it would provide Miami an additional $3.6 million in cap space.

But a Suh restructure remains the single largest cap relief option in the future, giving Miami a whopping $18 million in cap relief.

The Dolphins could also offer to restructure Pouncey’s deal for about $6 million in cap relief, though that seems highly unlikely as Pouncey would have to redo a deal he never got a chance to benefit from.

With the Dolphins cap situation the way it is, it’d be easy to say that the Dolphins have to make the playoffs this year because of the seemingly quiet offseason next year’s cap will bring. But remember restructuring happens all the time in the NFL and getting Misi, Grimes, Albert, and Jones to redo their deals should be no problem.

Just don’t expect the Fins to reel in another huge free agent signing. Not with the way Hickey and Co. have spent their money.

Cap information pulled from overthecap.com