For those who believe the Dolphins are tanking in 2026, one trend contradicts that conclusion: They’re kicking as much cap space as they can into future years. Case in point, and as first noted by Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald: The Dolphins recently restructured the contracts of running back De’Von Achane and center Aaron Brewer, lowering their cap charges for the current year. Achane is in the last year of his rookie contract, at a salary of $5.7 million. Via Spotrac.com, Miami added four void years to the deal, allowing the bulk of the contract to be paid as a signing bonus and pushing $3.6 million into future years. As to Brewer’s deal, the Dolphins converted $5.25 million into a signing bonus, creating $4.2 million in cap space. That said, the can-kicking was more necessity than luxury. Cutting Tua Tagovailoa will result in $99.2 million in dead-money charges over the next two years. For that and other reasons, the Dolphins are currently in the worst shape of all 32 franchises, as it relates to the 2026 cap. The recent trade of receiver Jaylen Waddle added to that burden, given that pre-June 1 trades trigger full acceleration of all prorated guaranteed payments. As to Achane, who is now on the books for the minimum salary of $1.145 million, it makes the price for any potential trade more expensive for his new team, since Miami has already paid the bulk of Achane’s 2026 pay. (And, yes, the team has gotten the word out that Achane is “not available.” As recently explained, however, he’s surely not among the handful of truly untradeable NFL players.) The bottom line is that the new regime in Miami inherited a mess. Both as to the roster and as to the cap. The only good news is that these dynamics push the bar even lower for the Dolphins in 2026. Neither G.M. Jon-Eric Sullivan nor coach Jeff Hafley will be facing serious scrutiny regarding the performance of the team until 2027. And if the Dolphins somehow contend for a playoff berth this year, they’ll both be regarded as heroes.
I agree, it's unlikely that we have a winning record this season. Stranger things happen every season though- just look at NE and their ultra-fast rebound. Look at Denver. It happens frequently and there's no reason why that can't be us in a season or two. My expectations this year are to see good line play, growth from our QB, and growth from our defense. I honestly don't care about the W/L record nearly as much as seeing some rookies developing and setting up this team down the road.
Good post. All I want to see this season is a team that plays hard and some evidence that Hafley is the guy. The first half of 2025 was the worst performance I have ever seen and I've been watching the NFL since the late '60s. It looked like the most unprepared team that I've ever seen. Nobody did their job on either side of the ball. I'll freely admit, I stopped watching for three or four games. I don't know how things turned around to win seven games. And then, once we were playing competitively, Tua became someone I didn't expect to see for another 10 years. Seeing how horribly the books turned out to be for the product that was delivered, Ross would be a fool to not tearing down the entire personnel structure from owner to towel boy. And the fact that he's still in control makes me enter the rebuild very skeptical that things will go right.
I'll be gobsmacked if we win 8 games this year. I'll be happy if we put (at least) six of the draft picks into the OL and DL and don't care what we do with the rest. I want starter-quality depth coming off the bench on those units. If we do that, we have a reason to look forward to what's coming next year and beyond.
That actually makes sense because if several of them aren't starting for a few seasons (but working into the rotation), then you're not looking at huge 2nd contracts a few years down the road.
We can push cap into next year because we have so little committed for next year and beyond. It just makes sense, especially to get Willis signed.
Yes. And competition spurs development. I swear, it seems like our OL has been serviceable every season for the past 20 years until ONE guy went down. Then, everything fell apart. It was wash, rinse, repeat, regardless of who the coach or GM was. Like they all believed you just needed 5 guys and 3 JAGs so you could put your money elsewhere. And the problem only exacerbated the situation when we had a QB who was made of glass. I'll bet Grier used to have an internal conversation with himself like: "Why is this thing that has never worked not working this season?" If you have a solid OL and DL, it makes all the glamour positions more effective. If you have a bottom-ten ranked line, it doesn't matter if you have a stud CB or WR.
I completely agree, that's been my signature here for over a decade. Build the trenches on both sides, the rest will fall into place.
Owes and Key, join in beating the drum I’ve been beating ever since I joined this site. It just boggles the mind how some put such a low priority on the trenches.
I've always been confused about it. I wasn't on the table shouting about it but it's always been something that irked me. When we underwent the last teardown barely half a decade ago, we had a chance to build it from the inside out. In hindsight, I look at what we accomplished and wonder if there was even a plan. The most insulting part of it is how the fans (including me) fully bought into it and were patient to finally get it right, only for Grier, Ross & Assoc. to fail to land the plane.
My epiphany on the importance of the trenches, particularly the offensive line came when I saw an ESPN breakdown of the Washington Redskins during the days of Joe Gibbs…and particularly the running of John Riggins. In this breakdown, they would freeze the film a couple of seconds after the snap and it showed how “The Hogs” had pushed the line of scrimmage 5 yards. That meant that Riggins was gaining a minimum of 5 yards just because of the offensive line play. Like everyone else, I enjoy seeing the high flying long passes. They are fun and exciting but when you have an offensive line that can absolutely dominate the line of scrimmage, you can see a running back like Achane rip off a 20-25 yard run. And with that kind of threat in the running game, due to the dominance of the OL, you can see those high flying long passes due to the defense having to show that respect to the running game. I pray to 8lb, 7oz baby Jesus this new regime will put that same level of importance on the OL that coaches like Gibbs did back in the 80’s. And we all know how that worked out for them.
I think the Dolphins accepted the fact they were biting the proverbial bullet cutting Tua,Tyreek and Ramsey. Sure, it’s $100 million dead cap for those 3 players alone but in the long run, it painfully fixes what Grier screwed up.
Every day, it's more obvious that Grier was fired when it became evident that his management of the roster was leading to this moment. No GM should get two full resets in six years. Especially when the first tear down was necessary because of his own inability to produce a winner and keep the financials viable.
Grier bet the farm on Tua from the very start. And I think the only thing that kept him here was Tua's growth under McDaniel. So while we let talented free agents walk away and lopsided the roster, Tua was still producing so the mirage of a successful path remained. Honestly, I wonder how many more games we might have won with Tyreek last season. The defense was horrid to start, so maybe it wouldn't have made much of a difference. Hill was the lipstick on the pig, so to speak, and once that was gone it became very clear what we actually had in a roster. I did love the late resurgence of a run game and good blocking up front...but there's nobody in their right mind that would credit that to Grier. He literally ran our roster into the ground with one of the worst front office strategies ever. The collapse began years earlier though, we just couldn't see it because we were looking at the lipstick on the pig and all the other gimmicks to compensate. The failure was there all along though.
I can't put my finger on why it makes sense, but we were a better team as soon as Grier left the building. Mind you, I'm not someone with a history of bashing him. But something definitely clicked after he lost the key card. Regarding the season start, I have never seen a worse effort in the NFL and I've been watching since the 60s. We looked like a team that never practiced together. The tackling, the blocking, the effort was terrible and I was ashamed of the lack of effort. I stopped watching for several weeks because my mental health is too important to be raging at a collective lack of pride every Sunday instead of relaxing and enjoying the game I love. Mind you, I stayed with the team when we went 1-15, but even then, there was bad, but competent play. When I turned it back on, I saw 21 guys playing well while my favorite guy (#1) was still playing like trash. It was another uniquely Dolphins season of dissatisfaction after having had the audacity to believe once again that we could compete. The good thing about this upcoming season is that I'm not even worried about the record, just the effort and how Hafley coaches in his first bite at the apple.
When Grier traded Tunsil in 2019 and had accumulated 11 draft picks for the 2020 draft, including 3 first round picks, that was his golden opportunity to shine and he failed miserably! He had the chance to build the team from the inside out and instead took a huge gamble on Igbinoghene which was a reach and a disaster. Jackson has been plagued with injuries and I won’t discuss Tua. That horse has been beaten to death. Here’s hoping Sullivan and Hafley bring the overall successful Green Bay formula to Miami.
