The Miami Dolphins will enter the 2021 NFL offseason with top 10 salary cap space across the NFL — but the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has whittled away much of the flexibility the Dolphins positioned themselves to have with their strategic rebuild starting in 2019. The fallout doesn’t have to be catastrophic for the Dolphins, but it does mean Miami may have less patience with underperforming contracts or players that will not be a long-term piece of the puzzle.
And if that is the case, Miami will face some tough decisions this offseason. Tough, but necessary, departures to a team that is still trying to secure and finalize their foundation will afford Miami with more flexibility for this critical 2021 season? That’s a hard place to be. But it’s better to maneuver the cap ahead of bad contracts and backlogged guaranteed money piling up, which is how the Dolphins of old would handle this situation.
What are some of those tough decisions and what kind of cap space could be manufactured if they’re carried out?
Here’s one not often discussed:
Trade OL Ereck Flowers
2021 Cap Savings: $8M
Flowers just got here in 2020 and signed a 3-year, $30M contract to play for Miami after the Dolphins saw the tide of the 2020 free agent class of offensive linemen start to turn against them.
This is the ugly side of doing business in free agency — as Flowers was a positive leader for the Dolphins and a constant presence up front for Miami, but his price point will continue to be a hard sell for a team that desperately needs to get better up front along the offensive line.
Including at left guard, where Flowers currently plays.
The challenge for Miami in a potential trade of Flowers is the guaranteed money. The Dolphins can’t simply cut Flowers because he has a fully guaranteed base salary of $8.975M for 2021 (plus a $25k workout bonus). The team would need to trade that contract, along with Flowers, to another team. But trading a player of Flowers’ caliber to another team would offer very little in the way of compensation — and Miami may have to resort to pairing Flowers with a mid-round pick just to get a late round pick in return.
Miami was on the other side of this type of move when they traded for Aqib Talib back in 2019. That deal saw Miami send a 7th-round pick to Los Angeles for Talib and a 5th.
If the Dolphins can get a bite here, this would be a big win for Miami in transitioning to a more high-ceiling, long-term answer at left guard. And, of course, saving some cash along the way — as that’s what Miami would be motivated by with making such a drastic change 12 months into Flowers’ career in Miami.