Dolphins top 20 2016 moves: number 12
By Brian Miller
Today we continue Looking back at the 2016 off-season for the Miami Dolphins and the 20 moves that could impact not only the 2016 season but beyond.
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Number 12: Restructuring Ndamukong Suh
The Dolphins didn’t surprise too many in the NFL when they decided to convert some of Ndamukong Suh’s salary this off-season. The Dolphins were able create some cap space by converting portions of his salary. Miami reduced Suh’s 2016 salary cap number to $12.6 million.
By converting his salary Miami saved money in 2016. They also released Greg Jennings and restructured Koa Misi as well. All on the same day. It was evident Miami was going to hit free agency hard.
That wasn’t the case as we now know but the restructure of Suh is interesting. Miami, at the time of this writing, are over $12 million under the 2016 cap. Money that can obviously be carried over into 2017.
What’s interesting however is the fact that by restructuring Suh’s deal, it pushes his contract number up in subsequent seasons. In 2017, Suh’s salary jumps to $20 million, in 2018 that number jumps to $26 and then to $28 million. How much of those numbers are guaranteed will be the tell all if the Dolphins did the right thing.
2017 will be an interesting year for the Dolphins and Suh. If they release him they will carry around $10 million in dead cap space and only save around $9.8 million. That may not seem like a lot and it’s not because where the issue comes in is 2018.
If the Dolphins opt to not release Suh in 2017 or restructure his deal, his cap hit jumps to the aforementioned $28 million in 2018 and the cap hit should the Dolphins let him go in 2018 would jump to $22 million in dead money. According to OverTheCap.com.
This will make for an interesting off-season in 2017 where the Dolphins could be looking at reworking Ryan Tannehill, Suh, Mario Williams’, and Branden Albert’s contracts. The four combine to count over $60 million in 2018 cap space.