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Dolphins facing one of the worst salary cap situations

Daytona Fin

Daytona Fin

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Miami Dolphins
Salary cap overage: $1.515 Million

Miami's cap situation will be a little better than suspected once an adjustment for performance bonuses is made. That's because there will be a credit for almost $2.175 million primarily coming from safety Louis Delmas and linebacker Kelvin Sheppard's unearned incentives that were counting against the cap during the season.

Every bit helps, since there is speculation that the Dolphins will be aggressive in free agency once again to fix a suspect defense. The Dolphins had no qualms about releasing or trading several players last offseason that were deemed to be underperforming relative to their salaries.

Restructuring defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh's six-year, $114.375 million contract, which made him the NFL's highest-paid non-quarterback, is being seriously considered because he has the league's second-biggest 2016 cap number at $28.6 million. $18.18 million of cap space can be freed up by converting $22.725 million of Suh's $23.485 million base salary into signing bonus. Miami should be careful about going to such an extreme with a restructure because Suh's 2017 through 2020 cap numbers would each increase by $4.545 million.

Quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who signed a four-year, $77 million extension in the offseason, is another restructure candidate. $6.864 million of cap room can be gained by reducing Tannehill's base salary to $760,000 from $9.34 million in a salary conversion.
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One easy move should be releasing defensive end/outside linebacker Quinton Coples, who the Dolphins took a flier on with a waiver claim when the New York Jets cut him in November. Coples didn't record any tackles in the six games he played with the Dolphins. $7.751 million of cap space will be gained if he's gone before his 2016 salary of the same amount becomes fully guaranteed on March 9.

Miami's toughest roster decisions may come with aging veterans Brent Grimes and Cameron Wake. Grimes, who turns 33 over the summer, isn't the cornerback he was as a second-team All-Pro in 2014. It's a $6.5 million cap savings to let him go.

Retaining defensive end Olivier Vernon could cost Wake his roster spot. Vernon came on like gangbusters during the second half of the year after Wake tore his left Achilles when he had seven sacks in seven games played. Vernon's 81 quarterback pressures (combined sacks, quarterback hurries and quarterback hits) were fifth in the NFL according Pro Football Focus. Miami would pick up $8.4 million of cap space from releasing Wake, who is 34.

Vernon reportedly intended to use the maximum value of Cameron Jordan's five-year extension with the Saints, which averages $12 million per year including incentives and contains $33.469 million in guarantees, as a salary floor for a new deal prior to his stellar finish to the season. It will be $15.434 million to franchise Vernon with a $153.4 million salary cap.

Tight end Jordan Cameron was a disappointment. He made $7.5 million while catching 35 passes for 386 yards with three touchdowns. Miami would get $7.5 million of cap room by parting ways with Cameron before his $7.5 million 2016 salary becomes fully guaranteed on the March 10, the second day of the league year.

Wide receiver Greg Jennings, who was buried deep on the depth chart for most of the season, is a luxury with a $5.5 million 2016 cap number. Letting him go yields $4 million of cap space.
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http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on...-teams-facing-the-worst-salary-cap-situations
 
Didn't we already say we are releasing Coples? And OV can leave.
 
The cap is fine and they will have as much flexibility as they need come March 9th.
 
Retnuhrace said:
Nice, an article that is able to mention both Cameron Jordan and Jordan Cameron.
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Can you tell me who is who? :lol:


imgres


---------- Post added at 05:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:43 PM ----------

Obviously we know, but that was a great episode of the league lol


Edit-is that pic not working for anyone else?
 
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The title is misleading DF. We all know better or should by now. For me, this is old news and the media is as wrong as it was last year and the year before. They should avoid writing anything about the Dolphins cap space until they learn something about how the cap works. JMO
 
BlueCelicaTRD said:
Didn't we already say we are releasing Coples? And OV can leave.
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If OV leaves we have no healthy, proven pass rushers. I don't want to spend a first or second on DE but they're going to have to should Vernon leave.
 
Our cap isnt great but its far from limiting. Im more worried about the sacrificing of future seasons because of over restructuring. Its asinine to do a major restructure of Suh because it just creates two more seasons of major cap hits instead of the one and a Tannehill restructure would be among the dumbest restructures ever at this point. I think our cap will depend alot on if we resign Vernon and Miller. I personally hope we dont do any major restructuring and quit trying to do some quick fix and actually build a damn team. Putting all our eggs in the Suh basket last year did not make us a better team, in fact overall we were worse.
 
The fact that we can create cap space does not mean our cap situation is good. The article is absolutely on point, we have a ****ty cap situation and that will NEVER change until we start drafting better.

Say we sign OV this offseason, this team would have 8 guys eating up over 100 million in cap space (this does not include Jordan Cameron). Sure we can cut Wake and Grimes, but that opens up more holes that need to be filled. Sure we can restructure Suh and Tannehill (god I hope not) but you are just gonna take that bullet later. Then we still need soooo much.

All teams can manufacture cap space, taking that into consideration, Miami has one of the five worst cap situations in the NFL, probably the worst situation when you take into account all of the needs.
 
It'll be even worse after Tannenbaum mortgages the next 5 years for more cap space this year.
 
So Be said:
The title is misleading DF. We all know better or should by now. For me, this is old news and the media is as wrong as it was last year and the year before. They should avoid writing anything about the Dolphins cap space until they learn something about how the cap works. JMO
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I changed the title a bit but the message is the same. Have you investigated the other 31 teams salary caps? We may be able to get out of the hole as all teams can but it doesn't take away from that our situation is at the bottom of the league as it stands now.
 
Daytona Fin said:
I changed the title a bit but the message is the same. Have you investigated the other 31 teams salary caps? We may be able to get out of the hole as all teams can but it doesn't take away from that our situation is at the bottom of the league as it stands now.
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I did and you actually posted to the thread I put up on all team's cap space. Our being at the bottom as of now is meaningless for this team in it's current cap situation.
 
Kdawg954 said:
The fact that we can create cap space does not mean our cap situation is good. The article is absolutely on point, we have a ****ty cap situation and that will NEVER change until we start drafting better.

Say we sign OV this offseason, this team would have 8 guys eating up over 100 million in cap space (this does not include Jordan Cameron). Sure we can cut Wake and Grimes, but that opens up more holes that need to be filled. Sure we can restructure Suh and Tannehill (god I hope not) but you are just gonna take that bullet later. Then we still need soooo much.

All teams can manufacture cap space, taking that into consideration, Miami has one of the five worst cap situations in the NFL, probably the worst situation when you take into account all of the needs.
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If you can release under performing players to sign better ones you are not in cap hell.

Yes, the Fins need to draft better but they also need to resign their own.

The Fins will also be fine cap wise next year. With the cap expected to go up $10 mil again they should be able to cover the new contracts. But they definitly need to draft better. At some point the young talent needs to produce more. It will be interesting to see if the coaching change helps the learning curve.
 
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