In the NFL, there is no such thing as an overpaid contract. Players are making more now than ever before, and as we have learned from Tua Tagovailoa, "The market is the market."
For the Miami Dolphins, that market is destroying the team, and there is little anyone can do about it. Dolphins general manager Chris Grier messed up. He allocated too much money to players that probably shouldn't have received those big contracts.
Guys like Tagovailoa, you can understand, but if we look at what is now holding Miami back, it's clearly contracts that could have been used in other areas of need.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel has to work with what he is given, but he probably doesn't have much say in where Grier spends his money. That creates a problem as evidenced by the offensive line's play and personnel.
5 largest contracts entering the 2025 offseason for the Miami Dolphins
For 2025, these five players carry the most cap space. We included the dead money and savings if they were to be released prior to June 1st.
Player | Cap number | Dead Money | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
Tyreek Hill | $27 million | $55 million | $28 million |
Bradley Chubb | $29 million | $27 million | $ 2 million |
Terron Armstead | $22 million | $18 million | $ 3.5 million |
Tua Tagovailoa | $39 million | $83 million | $ 44 million |
Jaylen Waddle | $8 million | $31 million | $ 23 million |
Of those five contracts, the only two players that could bring the Dolphins relief are Bradley Chubb and Terron Armstead.
If both were to be designated June 1st releases (the NFL allows for two), Chubb would save Miami $20 million against a $9 million hit, and Armstead would save Miami $14 million against a $7 million hit.
Entering next season, the Dolphins will have four players with cap hits of over $20 million, nine players with hits over $10 million, and another eight players counting more than $4 million in cap space.
Can the Miami Dolphins climb out of cap purgatory ahead of the 2025 season?
As much as fans would love to see a return of Chubb and, eventually, Jaelan Phillips, they may need the cap space before the season starts. That doesn't bode well for Chubb and Armstead, who both are candidates for June 1 designations.
Without knowing what the 2025 cap increase will be, OverTheCap has Miami just over $4 million in cap room next year. Clearly, that will go up, but it will make operating through free agency difficult.
The biggest issue with these contracts, however, is not the dollar amounts but the structure. With Tyreek Hill, the Dolphins inflated his deal with additional money but no extra year add-ons. That creates a cap issue immediately because there is nowhere to stash it.
Chances are, the Dolphins are going to use that extra money as a way to get him to restructure before free agency begins in March.
Armstead did the same thing last season. While on the verge of retiring, Miami approached him about a restructure. He agreed, and the Dolphins gained more cap space but pushed it into 2025, where they will have to deal with it again.
Chubb's contract was not structured well. Miami doesn't have a great out for him without using a June 1 designation until 2027, when they would save $20 million against a $9 plus million cap hit. That was a bad structure as the dolphins will inevitably eat a big chunk of dead money.
Grier will have his work cut out for him this next offseason if he is still in charge of the team. The Dolphins have a lot of holes to fill on both sides of the ball and could use improvement almost universally across the roster. Depth is an issue, and the start of the 2025 offseason will be challenging for some starting roles as well.
It might seem easy to speculate on many contracts being terminated to increase salary cap space, as evidenced by these five contracts.
Player | Cap Hit | Dead Money | Cap Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
Raheem Mostert | $4 million | $1 million | $3 million |
Jake Bailey | $2.5 mmillion | $550K | $1.9 million |
Blake Ferguson | $1.1 million | 0 | $1.1 million |
Channing Tindall | $1.6 million | $212K | $1.3 million |
Jason Sanders | $4.7 million | $1.3 million | $3.3 million |
Looking at those numbers what stands out is these players are not saving Miami much at all. The rest of the lower-end roster will either save an almost identical amount to the dead money or around a million in savings overall.
2025 offseason is going to be filled with cap questions for the Miami Dolphins
These players represent the most money that can be saved by a simple release, and that isn't a lot of money, $10 million in total. Of those five players, Sanders isn't likely to go anywhere.
He has put up reliably good numbers, especially outside of the 50. Barring a contract extension or a restructuring, Sanders sticking around would reduce the cap savings from these five players to roughly $7 million.
What the current status of the Dolphins' salary cap situation indicates is Miami invested a lot of money into either one position group or players who have had injury histories.
It also indicates that the Dolphins may not be a big player in the early stages of free agency once again and will spend the first month filling deeper gaps in the roster while they wait until June 1 to get more cap relief from the potential releases of Armstead and Chubb.