NFL teams have an idea of the salary cap they will work with in 2026. The league informed clubs on Friday that it is projecting a 2026 salary cap in the range of $301.2 million to $305.7 million per team, Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports. That would represent another significant jump from this year’s $279.2 million cap number, and nearly $100 million more than the $208.2 million cap in 2022. The cap was $34.6 million in 1994, the first year of the cap, and went over $100 million for the first time in 2006 at $102 million. The Titans, Raiders and Chargers are projected to have the most cap room this offseason.
I don’t see Tua being released. I don’t see anyone trading for him either, not with the contract he has. Sure, the bump in the cap will be a help, but we’re still going to be in cap hell until Tua is ultimately dealt with one way or the other.
I'm all for just completely bailing on being competitive in 2026 and eating all of the dead money immediately. Take the poison, accept that the team is going to be very bad, and then actually start over in 2027.
It is the ONLY way. We've done half measures for like a quarter of a century, trying to avoid the actual full rebuild. We need to just embrace it.
See, this is where I completely disagree. You can’t build a winner off of failure. Winning begets winning. Now I don’t expect the 2026 Dolphins to be a winner at all. I fully expect a dismal season but at the same time, those players and coaches should be making every possible effort to win every possible game they play. If the Dolphins start the season 0-7 then go on a 7-3 run and finish the season 7-10, everyone should be ecstatic! The team is finally melding and building a foundation to continue building upon. New GM, new HC, new coaching staff band aided roster and the team still goes on that run? Some folks here are unfortunately short sighted and all they see is “needing a high draft pick”. Well if your team only has 2 or 3 wins, you suck so badly that ONE high draft pick ain’t gonna fix anything! The secret to the draft is making the RIGHT pick, not where you pick. How many teams in the 1983 draft would have given anything in hindsight to draft Marino rather than the other 28 players they drafted ahead of him? Marino benefited from not only being drafted by the greatest head coach in history and on a Super Bowl appearing team. Would Marino as a New York Jet made their TEAM any better? I highly doubt it. The same concept applies here. It’s not WHERE you draft, it’s WHO you draft.
Dude.. Marino would have made ANY team without a great QB better, especially the bad teams. There are many examples of a great QB going to a bad team and suddenly making the team into a winner. Also, having higher picks is obviously better because you have more prospects to choose from, especially near the top of the draft. As much of a crap shoot the draft is, it's still true that you tend to land better players near the top of the draft.
Disagree. You can't build a consistent winner with subpar talent, as compared to your competition. Yes of course, there are cases where teams are far better at it than Miami, look at NE, for instance. But if you don't have a great front office, and you get mired in mediocrity for a quarter century, at that point, you have got to wipe the slate clean, and start over.
I don't think 2026 is lost by any means. We have some pretty good run blockers up front, we have the best RB in the league, and we have a few speedy receivers that can make plays with a competent QB. So you run the ball, you pass off play-action, and you focus on building a defense that can keep you in games. Do we need 15+ pieces to be a Super Bowl contender? Yes. And with NE + Buffalo being pretty dominant right now, it's going to be tough to get a wildcard spot. At the same time though, I don't think a winning record is too far outside the realm of possibility. Run the ball and play defense, let the other team make a mistake or two. That's a recipe we can employ right now with the current roster. As far as eating all the dead cap money, that's a tough call and it limits who we can bring in through free agency. That's fine though, stick to the script and worry about free agency in 2027. I don't think the season depends on cut/keep Tua at this point no matter what. He will regain the starter role or he won't, and I'm okay with either path. It's not hurting us to keep him on the roster; if anything it helps with cap space to sign rookies and UFDAs. So we do what we have to do. Now, if someone offered a trade and would take a portion of that cap hit, that's an entirely different conversation. Bye Felicia! People think that's impossible, but look at the resurgence of "washed up QBs" in recent years. One is playing in the Super Bowl this week. Another is balling out in Tampa...there's examples everywhere how a change in environment and coaching can make all the difference. And there's also a trend of older has-been QBs are not performing with new teams, that's good for our situation since Tua is not in the "old guy" category. So if you're going to take a chance on a younger QB who's struggled recently, Tua has to be towards the top of that list. That's the best possible answer for everyone- send him to Arizona or Cleveland or NY.
NE was 4-13 the last two years and went 14-3 this year and is now in the SB (hopefully to lose). Impressive turnarounds do occasionally happen, and NE did it without adding a big-name free agent QB. 2026 is not lost by any means. The expectation of course is we won't do much better than we did this year, but there's a huge variance around that expectation and no reason to assume 2026 is just lost.
The difference is that they started that position with a huge amount of cap space, while the Dolphins are now at the extreme opposite end of the spectrum. And they also drafted the best QB to come out of college in five years or so, while this year's draft class sucks and we won't be doing that.
Statistically, is NE good this year? How do they compare to the typical Super Bowl team from the AFC?
