Let’s be honest. The Miami Dolphins don’t have a salary cap problem. Not anymore. The great roster purge of 2019 saw to it for certain that the Dolphins would not be committed to another season of discomfort against the salary cap; and now they reap the benefits with the league’s most plentiful cap room.
But that didn’t stop them from announcing on Wednesday that they would be cutting ties with veteran safety Reshad Jones. The news was hardly a shock — not after all the “he said, she said” back and forth that took place between Jones and the Dolphins throughout the course of last summer. And the cut of Jones? It will benefit the Dolphins’ 2020 salary cap situation, too. Jones’ departure will save Miami nearly $5.5M against the 2020 cap — bringing their projected spending power to somewhere between $95M and $98M.
Which begs the question: who is next?
This isn’t personal. It also isn’t necessarily about money at this point. But it is about business. Paying Reshad Jones nearly $12M in base salary in 2020 was bad business — and so it was time to move on. The next most obvious “bad business” decision for the Dolphins would be to cut veteran wide receiver Albert Wilson.
Yes, Wilson flashed a ton of promise early in 2018 and begun to show glimpses that his quickness might be back over the final few games of the 2019 season. But at the end of the day, Wilson is owed $9.5M in base salary and a workout bonus. The Dolphins can avoid paying all of that by moving on from Wilson. This year’s wide receiver class? It is deep. And with 14 picks at the Dolphins’ disposal, finding the opportunity to draft a wide receiver at some point throughout the draft who can create after the catch should not be a problem.
It all adds up to a seemingly easy decision. Wilson has played in 60% of his team’s snaps just once in a 6-year career (and that was back in 2015). There’s little about his game, especially after the hip injury, to command him a spot on Miami’s shifting roster — especially at this cost.
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