Tag: Dolphins cap space

Where Dolphins rank in spending at each position: Miami has four in the top 10

One position is the highest-paid on any team.

In recent years, the Miami Dolphins have put forth a concerted effort to spend money on talented players to increase their chances of winning a Super Bowl in the near future.

While that’s nothing new, they’ve also done a great job of giving themselves flexibility to get out of contracts and restructure others during that time to give them more cap space when they need it.

At this point, the Dolphins don’t have much cap space left for 2023, but they’ll free up more on June 1 when cornerback Byron Jones’ cap relief goes through.

Using Over the Cap’s positional spending table, we take a look at the Dolphins’ spending at each spot. For many rooms, they are near the middle of the league or below due to players on inexpensive rookie deals. For others, they’re near the top of the league.

How much cap space do the Dolphins have after first wave of free agency?

Two contracts are still unknown, at the moment.

We’re just about two weeks past the start of the NFL’s legal tampering period, and the Miami Dolphins have a made a number of impactful moves that will certainly help them in the upcoming season.

Miami signed eight players that spent 2022 elsewhere – quarterback Mike White, linebackers David Long and Malik Reed, safety DeShon Elliott, tight end Eric Saubert, offensive lineman Dan Feeney, wide receiver Braxton Berrios and punter Jake Bailey.

They also retained 12 of their own free agents – running backs Raheem Mostert, Jeff Wilson, Myles Gaskin and Salvon Ahmed, offensive tackles Kendall Lamm and Geron Christian, linebackers Duke Riley and Andrew Van Ginkel, cornerbacks Nik Needham and Justin Bethel, wide receiver River Cracraft and fullback John Lovett.

At this moment, the terms of Van Ginkel and Bethel’s contracts are unknown. Before those signings, Miami had roughly $3.96 million in cap space, according to Spotrac.

It’s likely that those two contracts could take up most of that remaining space, but the Dolphins could make space in other ways, including extending Christian Wilkins or Connor Williams or trading Cedrick Wilson.

Miami will also get more cap space freed up on June 1 when the cap relief from Byron Jones’ release comes ingo effect.

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Dolphins’ cap space update after NFL officially sets 2023 cap

The salary cap is taking another large leap.

While there are still two teams remaining in the NFL playoffs, the other 30 have begun their preparations for an offseason full of work.

For the Miami Dolphins, that work began with firing defensive coordinator Josh Boyer and three of his positional coaches and reportedly replacing him with Philadelphia Eagles defensive consultant Vic Fangio.

When it comes to things on the field, the first domino to fall is the league announcing what the salary cap will officially be for the new season, and they did so on Monday.

The NFL has set their 2023 salary cap at $224.8 million. That’s a $16.6 million increase from 2022.

At this point, the Dolphins are carrying over $2.16 million and are still projected to be $12.78 million over the cap, according to Spotrac.

While there are a number of things that Miami can do to create space, general manager Chris Grier and senior vice president of football and business administration Brandon Shore will have to comb over every option to optimize their roster and spending to push for a championship in 2023.

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Dolphins salary cap update: How much space does Miami have left in 2022?

Chris Grier has put them in a solid position, financially.

The Miami Dolphins have been fantastic when working with the salary cap this offseason, as they entered the period with more space than anyone and still have a fair amount to use.

For general manager Chris Grier to have his team in these circumstances, despite acquiring a lot of talent this offseason, he deserves a lot more credit than he’s been receiving, which is a far cry from where he was last year.

Miami will have some much higher cap hits in the future that will absolutely take some expert managing, later on, the Dolphins are in great shape right now.

Here’s an update on their current salary cap situation, including their current cap space, biggest cap hits and remaining dead money. All amounts are via Over The Cap.

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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