2022 Dolphins cap space – Syndication Server

How much cap space do the Dolphins have after Mike Gesicki’s franchise tag

They still have plenty of room to get their deals done.

The Miami Dolphins entered the 2022 offseason with the most cap space in the league with over $63 million to spend, according to Over the Cap. They’re able to use this money to re-sign/extend their own players, sign new ones, and pay their draft picks.

Now, after the Dolphins used the franchise tag on tight end Mike Gesicki Tuesday morning, where do they sit?

At this point, Gesicki’s franchise tag as a tight end is worth $10.93 million guaranteed this season, so that all counts against the cap. This leaves the Dolphins with $52.94 million, the third-most in the league behind the Los Angeles Chargers and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Gesicki’s cap hit could change this offseason if he fights to be viewed as a wide receiver, and he has a case based on the number of reps he saw out wide. If the 26-year-old were to win that argument, his cap hit would increase to $18.42 million in 2022, leaving them with just $44.91 million.

However, there’s still a chance that Miami works out a long-term deal with the tight end or trades him to at least get something for losing him.

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Mike McDaniel had an interesting analogy for the Dolphins’ cap situation

The coach knows they have to be calculated.

The Miami Dolphins are expected to go into the start of the 2022 league year with $60.2 million in cap space, according to Over the Cap, which is the most of any team in the NFL. This will be beneficial for a team that’s really trying to break through and reach the playoffs after five years without making an appearance.

New head coach Mike McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier will be working collaboratively on building the roster for the 2022 season and beyond, and they’ll have a lot of decisions to make with all of that money to spend. However, the coach knows admits they will have to be smart with their decision-making, and he acknowledged it using his familiar charm.

“It’s not like mom’s allowance she just gave you, that you’re like, ‘Hey, we have some money. Let’s go spend it,’” McDaniel said during an interview that the team produced, transcribed by the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Flexibility, for sure, that matters, but then that doesn’t always mean, you have money, you can spend it. Which is why I rely on [Grier] so much, because he — ‘Mike, now, let’s think about it.’ And that’s a huge part of the process that coaches can be short-sighted, at times, so you need proper balance when talking through anything, especially salary cap, spending limits.”

McDaniel’s personality may make the idea seem nonchalant, but this is important for the Dolphins in 2022. There can’t be contracts just thrown around because they have money to do so. It will require more thinking and more deliberation before throwing larger contracts at a player like Miami did with Will Fuller in 2021, a move that was a big risk even before he got injured just a few weeks into the season.

If McDaniel and Grier can be smart with the money, they can bring in some impact players and pay some of their own free agents as well and potentially build toward a postseason appearance for the first time since 2016.

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Dolphins expect to carry over roughly $2.2 million in cap space into 2022

The Dolphins should have a ton to spend in the offseason.

The Miami Dolphins are expected to carry over a portion of the 2021 salary cap space that they had remaining into the 2022 NFL season.

According to the Over the Cap, the Dolphins had $11.1 million in cap space remaining this season. That number may not be exactly accurate because not all contract details are made public, but it should be pretty close. ESPN’s Field Yates is reporting that the Dolphins have elected to carry over $2.2 million of that to next year.

That number will likely be adjusted with incentives and bonuses yet to be completely determined, but that’s a nice little bump to a team that was already expected to have over $70 million in salary cap space to work with.

Miami has 28 players who are set to become free agents this offseason, including key contributors like defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah and tight end Mike Gesicki, so any extra cap space they can get will be useful.

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