Critical weekend for the Dolphins ahead as free agency looms

The Miami Dolphins face a critical weekend ahead of them as they prepare for free agency and the start of the league new year.

With still more than $20 million to trim off the roster, the Dolphins in recent days have spent more time adding fringe and depth players instead of trimming payroll. The moves are not bad moves as none will count against the Dolphins in terms of draft compensatory picks.

Miami has added two DTs and brought back Elijah Campbell on a one-year deal but the real work will begin this weekend.

Starting at 12:00 noon on Monday, teams may start negotiating with players who will hit the market on Tuesday. The Dolphins will need to get under the cap and that will require roster moves and restructured contracts.

Miami can achieve many of these tasks with a few simple moves but they will also need to create spending money as well and that could be problematic with limited room to work.

At some point in the coming days, we should see significant movement with the Dolphins as they work to get ahead of the season start. The Dolphins have already done quite a bit but still have not reached the cap limit. They are currently around $20 million over.

Miami believes they will remain competitive when free agency opens on Tuesday and fans' eyes are squarely on Robert Hunt, Christian Wilkins, and Andrew Van Ginkel.

Those three account for the top in-house free agents and it isn't much of a surprise that they have not been retained yet.