Interesting article explaining how the CBA rewards teams for not signing players in season: If the Dolphins were to sign a player in season, any salary cap bonus would come out of this years cap space, lowering how much the team can roll over. If Miami waits to sign players to contracts in next year's salary cap, they still get to roll over the entire unused portion from this year, which will actually work out to the team having more space next season. http://www.thephinsider.com/2013/1/12/3868038/miami-dolphins-2013-free-agents-cba-preventing-extensions
hmm...not sure about this strategy. I would rather pay a player up front and roll over too many signing bonuses. That can lead to a lot of dead money and put a team in salary cap hell. If this off season isn't handled wisely, big bucks are paid for signing bonuses Miami may pay the price 3+ years down the road. Particularly if the players signed don't work out for the long haul. A GM trying to save his job may be more inclined to give big signing bonuses and let the team deal with it several years down the road.
Ireland may be willing to be less fiscally responsible in his final contract year, as he needs to win now. Fortunately, he is very is ally responsible to begin with and I think he really deeply believes in his approach, so I think his version of a "spending spree" would be pretty tame by most standards. We certainly won't end up like the Jets IMO.
