If anyone is interested. I'd estimate Dolphins cap space to be a shade under $20m... as follows (bolded are estimates) (as of 3.12.17): 1 Ryan Tannehill $20,300,000 2 Ndamukong Suh $19,100,000 3 Mike Pouncey $8,975,000 4 Byron Maxwell $8,500,000 5 Reshad Jones $8,037,938 6 Cameron Wake $7,500,000 7 Julius Thomas $6,000,000 8 Lawrence Timmons $6,000,000 9 Andre Branch $5,000,000 10 Koa Misi $4,778,000 11 Kiko Alonso $3,910,000 12 Kenny Stills $3,750,000 13 Nate Allen $3,250,000 14 Dion Jordan $3,225,313 15 DeVante Parker $2,966,329 16 Laremy Tunsil $2,831,284 17 Ja\’Wuan James $2,681,763 18 Matt Moore $2,150,000 19 Michael Thomas $1,797,000 20 Damien Williams $1,797,000 21 Anthony Fasano $1,500,000 22 Xavien Howard $1,392,736 23 Kraig Urbik $1,375,000 24 Ted Larsen $1,391,667 25 Jordan Phillips $1,189,884 26 Jarvis Landry $1,105,652 27 Sam Young $1,050,000 28 John Denney $1,000,000 29 MarQueis Gray $925,000 30 Kenyan Drake $800,315 31 Walt Aikens $793,977 32 Leonte Carroo $735,097 33 Terrence Fede $703,988 34 Bobby McCain $672,072 35 Jay Ajayi $670,203 36 Tony Lippett $668,691 37 Matt Darr $615,334 38 Neville Hewitt $615,334 39 Trevor Reilly $615,000 40 Andrew Franks $615,000 41 Chris Pantale $615,000 42 Lamin Barrow $615,000 43 Brandon Watts $615,000 44 Mike Hull $615,000 45 Anthony Steen $615,000 46 Jakeem Grant $575,095 47 Jordan Lucas $569,991 48 Rashawn Scott $540,000 49 Lafayette Pitts $540,000 50 Jake Brendel $540,000 51 Storm Johnson $540,000 Total $147,364,663 Dead Money $8,201,161 Total $155,565,824 Adjusted Cap $175,363,708 Cap Space $19,797,884* *This doesn't include their draft pool, the cap allocated to their current draft picks... which is in the $6m range.
So, after cutting Jordan, we should now have about 22-23 million. If we don't make any more large signings this offseason, then between our carryover, the expected increase in the cap itself, and several expected cuts, we could go into next offseason with 50-60 million to spend, and only Landry and James to really worry about resigning.
Over the Cap estimates the current cap space to be $19,040,773 https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/miami-dolphins But this includes cap hits from players signed for training camp.
Charles Harris' cap hits should be very similar to DeVante Parker's contract. Spotrac pegs him at a cap number of about 1.9m this coming season. He should have number of around 2.5m, 3.0m and 3.5m in the rest of his deal, and then will be eligible for the 5th year option after that. Good prices for him should be become a starting DE as expected. Contrast that with Dion Jordan, who's rookie cap number was 3.7m, higher than Harris' 4th year will be. Jordan would have counted over 7m in year four, had he not run afoul of the league off the field. Harris is quite the deal. The Fins remaining picks, should they not trade up or down, or gain any others, combine for a value of about 3m, so the total of 5m that was projected for the draft class should be right. Of course, most of the rest of those are pretty close to league minimum anyways.
As of today, July 7th, the Fins have the 8th most cap room in the NFL, at 17.33 million. There are only five clubs with more than 1.5m more than Miami, led by the Browns at 53.7m. The space could raise a little (a net total of less than 1m) if players like Nick Williams and Sam Young are beaten out by cheaper alternatives.
I find it interesting that the Fins are basically right up against the wall with almost no cap room, even though they also have virtually zero dead money. A total of $131,020 right now, which is pocket change for the cap. As always, I'm hopeful for no "June first" cuts, which push dead money into the future. Just pay the bill year to year, and don't screw over next year's team to try and get ahead right now.
It seems to be not that bad as it is at the moment. Timmons, James, Thomas will be cut and estimate lots of cap space. Some restructures/convertions are also possible (Kiko, Branch, Suh, RT). The situation with Pouncey? Don't know but cutting him will be an option. Miami will have 40M of salary. Enough to fix most of the needs via Draft and free agency
I don't think that anyone is going to be extended to be restructured this offseason. RT has the injury issue of course, and pushing money into the future only makes the problem worse with Suh. Branch and Alonso have questions where they might not even be on the team a year from now. All of those things are pretty much going to be as they are.
Looks like I was wrong about a lot of what I said in February! LOL, oh well. Looking ahead to next offseason, I think that RT will be either extended or released, one or the other. He likely won't go into 2020 as a lame duck, unless the team were to spend a high pick on a QB next April and have him redshirt the 2019 season. I found it interesting that Danny Amendola has zero dead money in 2019 should he be released. So he's basically on a one year, prove-it contract. The team can step away with no hit if they want to a year from now. Similar, though not as extreme with Sitton. He could be released with a 2m dead hit. Or extended of course, to lower his number from the 7m cap hit that it currently is. Hopefully, others play well enough that Ted Larsen can be released with a dead hit of only around 400k. It will be interesting to see if James is extended before next season. I imagine that the team wants to see how his body is doing and how he looks in camp first. If he's healthy, extending him now would mean one less thing to worry about next offseason. Should he play well, the number is only going to go up. Andre Branch could be cut with a 2m dead money hit too, instead of the 9m number he's slotted for. Given all of the other DEs that we have, I seriously doubt he'll play beyond 2018 with the Fins. If our young LBs step up, Alonso could be released with a 3.5m dead money hit. Thats a little high, but less expensive than his 8.2m number if he's on the roster, especially if he were a backup. They could make him a June 1 cut and spread it out a bit. Robert Quinn will be interesting. He'll be 28 in 2019, and have a cap number of just under 13m with zero dead money if the team lets him go. He's certainly playing for a new contract this coming season. If he plays great, then he'll probably get a big new deal with a number much lower than 13m for 2019. If he sucks, then he'll be gone. All in all, though the team doesn't look to be in bad shape in regards to the cap next offseason, it could look a lot better depending on how things swing as well.
