The Miami Dolphins have enjoyed the same front office structure for over a year now. But how this team decided to handle and manage the salary cap was a big mystery — the Dolphins had anything but salary cap in the 2019 offseason. As a matter of fact, the Dolphins were eating salary cap just to find value in their veterans during the great roster purge of 2019. But this time around, the Dolphins had ample cash at their disposal.
And they haven’t been afraid to use it.
That, of course, has raised questions of whether or not these are the “same old Dolphins” — an aggressive bunch in free agency that tries to win the offseason but will fail to see it materialize on the field. It’s hard to say whether or not the team comes together and gels quickly on the field at this point, but we can definitely say that these are not the “same old Dolphins” in how they’re choosing to spend their money.
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald is reporting Miami’s current salary cap figure is $24.6M in space. That’s a far cry from the nearly $100M the team entered free agency with just a week and a half ago, and even less than what many cap related sites across the internet had the Dolphins listed at — but that spending indeed comes with a purpose. According to Jackson, the Dolphins front-loaded contracts were intentionally structured via roster bonuses to ensure their new players get their guarantees up front. The end result? The Dolphins are bloating their 2020 cap intentionally with their free agent signings so that in 2021, they’ll have another bountiful cap bubble to work with — as much as $80M in cap.
This is such a different approach than what Miami endured under Mike Tannenbaum, which was to sign big contract, squeeze yourself up against the cap and then in 12 months look for veteran contracts to restructure and create more cap space — deferring those guarantees into future seasons. The Dolphins’ commitment and willingness to bite the bullet and spend big piles of cash to ensure their long-term cap status remains flexible and spacious is a wise change. It’s also one that will probably keep the Dolphins from making any more big splashes this season.
But that provides Miami with the chance to reassess once again in 2021 and make big splashes if the opportunity is right once more and not worry about long-term ramifications and restrictions.