Fixing The Miami Dolphins Cap Issues
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By: James McKinney
Every Miami Dolphins fan probably knows that their favorite team will enter the 2023 NFL season in a bad cap situation. According to overthecap.com, the team is sitting at $16,377,201 over the cap for the season. So with that will also come cuts, trades, restructuring, or extending of certain players, most especially those with huge cap hits. So let’s go over some of the numbers for those top-paid players. As far as the renegotiated or extended contracts numbers I will also use the numbers from overthecap.com but these will not be exact as we cannot obviously predict what each player would agree to or what the team might offer, just a good example of what could be saved by restructuring or extending certain players. The risk in redoing contracts is that it usually includes giving the player more guaranteed money than they started with. So let’s begin.
The first player with the biggest cap number is Tyreek Hill whose current scheduled cap hit for 2023 is $31,450,000. Cutting him pre-June 1st is a bigger hit to the cap at 14.95M additional and post-June 1st saves you a meager amount of only 350K. Trading him pre-June 1st saves a bit over 11M but leaves 20.4M in dead money. Neither of these is something that anyone thinks will happen as Hill has more than proven his worth. That leaves restructuring or extending Hill. An extension seems unlikely but not impossible as Hill is signed through 2026. According to OTCs numbers, a restructuring would save $18,888,750 which would by itself get the team back under the cap. The less likely option of an extension could save even more at $20,148,000.
Next up for the biggest cap hit is Bradley Chubb. Chubb is slated to have a cap hit of $22,197,488 in 2023. Like with Hill, a pre-June 1st cut costs more than it saves with an additional amount of nearly 8 million added to the cap. A Post June 1st cut would save the team only 100K. Trading him pre-June 1st would save the team 11.4M while a post-June 1st trade saves the team 19.5M. A restructuring or extension could save the same amount at 14.736M.
Next is Terron Armstead whose 2023 cap hit is $21,114,706. A pre-June 1st cut cost the team nearly 5.5M in additional cap space. A post-June 1st cut would save the team a bit over 1.7M. Trading Terron pre-June 1st would save 11.5M while a post-June 1st trade would save 18.7M. A restructuring of his deal would save almost 12.6M while an extension would save a bit over 13.4M.
Next is Byron Jones who I think many expect to be released but here are his numbers for 2023. His cap hit will be, if on the roster 18.351M. A pre-June 1st cut saves the team a bit more than 3.5M. A post-June 1st cut saves the team 13.6M. I will skip the other numbers as they all save the team less money and no one is going to trade for a player that has openly told the world he still is unable to “run or jump”. Not sure how anyone can play football if you can’t even run.
Next is Emmanuel Ogbah. Ogbah was signed to a big extension last season and his cap number for this season is $17,185,294. Cutting him pre-June 1st would add 3.8M to the cap while a post-June 1st cut would save 185K. Trading him pre-June 1st would save nearly 11.2M while a post-June 1st trade would save almost 15.2M. Restructuring his deal would save a bit more than 9.2M and an extension would save just a bit over 11M.
Next is Jerome Baker who has a 2023 cap hit of $12,766,111. Cutting him pre-June 1st would save just over 4M while a post-June 1st cut would save just over 9M. Trading him pre-June 1st would save just over 4M while a post-June 1st trade would save just over 9M. Restructuring his deal would save a bit more than 5.7M and an extension would save just a bit over 6M.
Next up is a player that is due a new deal as he’s going into the final season of his contract. Christian Wilkins who I personally consider the heart of this team is due to make 10.752M in 2023. An extension that I believe every fan expects to happen soon would save the team just over 7.7M in 2023.
The final player I will highlight is Xavien Howard. His 2023 cap hit is slated to be $10,071,281 but will accelerate if nothing is done with the player or his contract all the way up to almost 26M in 2024. Cutting him pre-June 1st would cost the team an additional 23M against the cap while a post-June 1st cut would save 100K. Trading him pre-June 1st would cost the team almost 22M more against the cap while a post-June 1st trade would save just over 1.2M. Restructuring or extending his deal would save only 8K.
While some people will see an extension as something that you would not give certain players teams have been known to give players a longer deal with years at the end where they can dump the player with zero impact on the cap going forward. Some players just want the deal with the biggest overall number despite the underlying fact that they will never come close to making every dollar in the contract.
So tonight’s question is which of these players would you like to see the team do something with and which option do you think fits the team best?
Please give us your ideas for fixing the cap in the comments section below-
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Originally posted on The Phinsider
