How bad are the contracts of the current Miami Dolphins roster? Enough that even if Jon-Eric Sullivan places calls to players' agents with the hopes of finding some extra cap space, he won't find much.
There are a lot of decisions that will fall on the shoulders of the Dolphins' new GM before it ever falls far enough downhill to land on the shoulders of head coach Jeff Hafley. It's a swirling flood of bloated contracts and poor decisions that have put the Dolphins in at least a two-year cap rebuild.
Miami is chugging along on a cap train that currently boasts over $30 miilion in overages. Add to this 34 impending free agents on a roster that can hold 90 in the offseason, and you start to see that the math doesn't add up.
Jon-Eric Sullivan needs to make tough decisions with the Miami Dolphins spending money
Before he can start waving his ink pen around and chopping players off the roster, he can save some money by restructuring contracts. The Dolphins' best options, however, may not be options at all.
Player | Restructure savings |
|---|---|
Minkah Fitzpatrick | $10.7 million |
Jordyn Brooks | $4.9 million |
Aaron Brewer | $3.9 million |
Alec Ingold | $1.5 million |
Jason Sanders | $1.4 million |
Restructuring those five players would free $22 million in cap space, but only Brewer and Brooks should be considered as an option; they could also get new contracts entirely. Both were specifically mentioned by Sullivan as cornerstone players.
Looking at Ingold and Sanders, however, they were better served by outright release. Miami would save $3 million on Ingold and $3.9 million by cutting Sanders. The difference is that restructuring them avoids a dead-money hit.
Miami could also restructure the players that most believe will be released. Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill, Bradley Chubb, and Austin Jackson would provide larger returns, but their futures with the team are already considered over or at least thinning.
Player | Restructure savings |
|---|---|
Tua Tagovailoa | $30.4 million |
Bradley Chubb | $12 Million |
Austin Jackson | $7.6 million |
Tyreek Hill | $25.7 million |
Chubb took a pay cut ahead of last season; he could have an interest in a restructure that guarantees him more money while giving the Dolphins some breathing room. Cutting him, however, would carry $10 million in dead money and a $20 million savings.
Miami just needs to yank off the band-aid on some of these players and start rebuilding despite the word not being thrown around. In two years, they could be sitting in a similar position as the Broncos, where they are out of the bad contracts and competing deep into the playoffs.
Whatever happens this offseason will tell a lot about what Sullivan is bringing to the table. If he tries to compete on paper with the current roster he has, it won't work, and we will once again have the same type of GM we had with Chris Grier.