Why the Miami Dolphins could be waiting for NFL team cuts later today

Today, the official new year begins in the NFL and the Miami Dolphins could be waiting to see what shakes off other NFL rosters.

Since the Super Bowl ended, NFL teams have been working towards this day. They have used franchise tags, transition tags, and tender offers. They have legally and illegally tampered with players, and of course, made trades. Today, all the moves can become official.

This is important because as of 4:00 pm this afternoon, the salary cap for 2022 will kick in and teams will need to be under it. That may sound easy enough but for many teams, it will have to be done by making hard choices with their roster and for others, creative cap management that will eventually come back to haunt to them…maybe.

In Washington, Ereck Flowers was released to save $10 million in cap space. Miami could easily part ways with several of their own players to create more cap space. The Dolphins unlike some teams don’t need to make moves to get under the cap.

Chris Grier hasn’t really made any splashes in free agency and his “aggressive” approach that he spoke about at the NFL Combine has been far from it. Miami has not targeted a single top end free agent but  instead has looked at third tier FAs to supplement their roster. That could change today.

Across the NFL teams are going to release players to comply with the cap. They are going to need to make space for other players that could be signed and that creates new faces to the already big list of FAs that are on the market.

Consider that the offensive tackle market is on hold. Only one free agent OT has signed with a team while the guards list was an early spree of signings. At WR most of the top free agents have yet to sign new deals and are waiting to see how the market changes.

This was similar to last season where many top FA WRs ended up re-signing with their own teams due to the high price they command and a dry market. This year could see more names on the WR list after this afternoon and that will drive interest in the top players down.

Veteran free agents released ahead of the start of the new year traditionally tend to sign one or two year deals and the money isn’t nearly as high for veterans coming off their rookie deals or a top player at their position. These are typically good fit players with low price tags that add depth and competition to start.

Grier may or may not have a plan specifically in mind for this afternoon but it would make sense given the needs of the team and the way they have gone about spending thus far. The next 24 hours will tell us a lot about what Grier is doing in free agency.