Probably won't see much FA activity around the league at all until after the draft.

 

Ireland said they had something like 20 straight days of draft meetings planned starting the Monday after his most recent Finsiders Interview. IIRC, the start of that would've been April 1st.

 

I'd tend to doubt it, what I'd like to know is where our available cap space is compared to the rest of the league, iirc Tampa had a lot of cap and really has not spent in FA.

I do think carrying a large amount of free cap space forward to 2014 makes no sense and sort of sells fans short.

 

Yes aren't we trying to carry some of this money forward, since a lot of salaries get bumped up in year 2? I thought I saw them somewhere.

 

Why would it make no sense? It would lessen the burden of Mike Wallace's huge cap hit in 2014.

 

B/c Starks and Soliai are both up for FA, if they walk it frees up cap space anyway.

 

Then we have to replace them.

 

we'll resign one of them. My money is on soliai, and then hopefully odrick replaces one. thats the dream, anyway.

 

They could also pick Star and trade either Soliai or Stark for a pick.

 

Presumably that is the case. At least it would be illogical not to.

 

https://www.nflplayers.com/reports/RunPublicReport.aspx?report=top51

Here's the NFLPA list...Tampa, Jax, Philly, Cleveland, Cincy all at higher levels ($25M plus) rest are pretty close to 8-10M, but a few in dire straits with low numbers...

Actually, it's entirely possible that they planned on carrying x amount over to 2014, based on the 2nd yr salary hits they negotiated ?? Just a thought...

 

https://nflplayers.com/reports/RunPublicReport.aspx?report=top51

Keep in mind that Miami will have an additional $10M coming off the cap on June 1st. Essentially they have ~$18M left.

There is $300M in total cap space for all teams remaining. A number of teams with $25M+ left.

 

I think the NFL has a floor on money spent as well as the caps. Teams have to spend it.

 

Another possibility to consider is that the Dolphins might very well cut one of their expensive corners before the regular season starts. This is all contingent on the draft of course, but it remains a likely possibility.

 

Per Armando, we have about 8 million, plus another ten million on June 1 when Dansby and Burnett's contracts come off the books.

 

It can be easily manipulated. IIRC, the carried over cap space doesn't apply to the floor.

Take TB as an example. They have $26M in cap space left. But they carried over $8.5M. Their cap space available is $132M. But their salary floor is determined by the actual salary cap of $123M. So right now they're at 87.7% of the salary cap. They need to get to 89% to meet the floor.

 

Definitely. Miami does a great job of giving itself flexibility.

 

Tampa might be conserving cap space for a possible Revis trade, something to keep in mind. They are likely just trying to pressure the Jests into taking less than they want to get.

 

I think we get another 2-3M after early June. You gotta reserve like 7M for the rookies.

We will hopefully restructure Starks at some point to free up a little more. Then we have Soliai, Clemons, Keller, Bess, etc. on one year contracts or in the last year. And then we need to extend Reshad Jones before he prices himself into the stratosphere.

i.e. We should be done spending unless it's vet minimum guys.

 

Here is one of the best sites for tracking every teams cap. They are pretty much on the ball daily. Just click on the various teams and it has all the info.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/miami-dolphins/cap-hit/

 

I hope that we do indeed extend Jones. However, it also looks like Jeff has kept some built in flexibility to keep costs down with several guys on 1 year deals. Those guys are targets to not be here next year.

Think of it this way...we take one of the DT's at 12, trade up and draft Elam and then come back in round 2/3 (assuming we will probably have to part with the 2nd 3 to move up) and grab TE/Corner (no particular order on those 2). Well now you got a Soliai or Starks future replacement, Clemons replacement, the flexibility to drop one of the high $$ CB's and another step toward rebuilding the TE's.

 

It could work nicely that way, but now we face the improbable task of hitting on each of those four positions in the draft (DT, S, CB, TE). And that basically (odds wise) means telegraphing your first four or five picks rather than having more flexibility.

What probably happens in some of these one year/last year guys do better than expected and we opt to keep two or three around. I think we would like to keep all of them since they're young. I think there is a tendency among us fans to want to spend every penny and get the best possible squad, but there are good short and long term reasons why entering this season with 3-4M in cap space is a wise idea.

Winston, the only free agent I think we really remain interested in, is probably getting an offer close to the minimum or a one year rental type thing if I had to guess.

 

That was only one example. We have several guys on 1 year deals so it wouldn't really be telegraphing anything. For all we know he goes with Tavon in the first and then starts filling out 1 year deal positions. With 2 DT's having 1 year left though.....I guarantee we will hit that position in the draft. Especially with how deep the DT class is.

Heh..now I'm thinking we could get Tavon and trade back up to get Elam.....I wouldn't care what the rest of the draft consisted of...I'd be too amped over those 2 guys ;p

 

The team gets high marks from me as to how they've handled themselves thus far. As other's have said, there are multiple reasons for the team to hold for now. Along with the fact that we MAY carry over cap room into 2014 to make it easier to make another UFA splash next March, and that we will need to resign a few key players before then as well, I think that it could also be a bit of public posturing by Ireland in an attempt to squeeze someone into taking a smaller deal. If the goal is to win in 2013 while not harming 2014-on, then getting a veteran DE to sign a team friendly one year deal is an important step, IMO.

 

We could also get Jarvis Jones or Star at 1, Cyprien at 2a, Armstead at 2b, and Ryan Swope at 3a with the same draft value, which is totally what I assume you meant