The trade that sent Jaylen Waddle to the Broncos made a lot of sense for the Miami Dolphins, but it forced the team to go over the NFL salary cap. That in turn put Jon-Eric Sullivan in a position to clear space.
The trade didn't become official until Thursday, after Waddle passed his physical, which put Miami over the cap limit. So how did Miami make the space? Sullivan had to get creative again, and this time he dipped into De'Von Achane's and Aaron Brewer's salaries.
Both players are likely to receive extensions this offseason. In fact, it wouldn't be surprising to see that happen on June 2nd, when Miami will get back $20 million from the Bradley Chubb release.
A simple restructure of De'Von Achane's salary put the Miami Dolphins $2 million under the salary cap
According to super-sleuth Barry Jackson, the hardest-working beat writer in Miami, the Dolphins made a couple of restructures at the same time the Waddle cap hit took effect.
The mystery of how the Dolphins created cap space to execute the Waddle trade has been solved. Per source, the Dolphins simultaneously executed simple cap restructures with Brewer and Achane. The moves have no impact on the Dolphins' ability to extend them long-term. The Dolphins…
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) March 20, 2026
With the space, the Dolphins will most likely sit out the rest of the offseason and, as Jackson said, focus on the draft. They will use the Chubb money to sign their draft class in June. With limited resources now, there isn't much Sullivan and the Dolphins can do at the moment without doing extensions.
The Dolphins now sit with the most dead money in the NFL, and it isn't close. Over the Cap puts Miami's dead money, including the June 1st-designated cuts, at a massive, NFL-record-breaking number.
Updated our dead money totals to reflect the post June 1 releases and what their final dead money for 2026 would be pic.twitter.com/UuykV4NFWn
— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) March 20, 2026
Since March arrived, the Dolphins have been focused on restructuring or extending the contracts of Achane, Brewer, and Jordyn Brooks. All three were named specifically by Sullivan as cornerstone pieces.
Over the Cap puts a Brooks restructuring at $4.9 million in cap savings. That's operation money, but a new extension could free up significantly more, especially if guarantees are pushed into future years of the deal.
The Dolphins are in a good position with their cap for future seasons. They are expected to have well over $100 million next year and more in 2028. The reason is that most of their dead money will be off the books when the 2027 league year begins next March.
Tyreek Hill, Jalen Ramsey, Jaylen Waddle, and a slew of others will no longer take up space. The Dolphins are taking the hit on those players this year, but will carry (for now) Tua Tagovailoa's $42 million and an additional $12.8 million due to Chubb's release.
The Waddle trade was significant for Sullivan. It netted him draft picks, but the Broncos picked up the entire salary moving forward. Miami was stuck with the dead money this year.
Overall, Sullivan and capologist Brandon Shore have been working near-miracles with the cap this year to facilitate the team's rebuild. While this will put the Dolphins in good cap space moving into the future, it also puts more emphasis on hitting their draft classes, especially this year.
With 11 picks in the draft, Sullivan can add a few immediate starters and still provide quality depth to develop. Something that Chris Grier was unable to do with any degree of consistency over his nine seasons.