The legal tampering period for NFL Free Agency starts on Monday at noon Eastern time. Currently, the Miami Dolphins are roughly $9 million under the salary cap, due in large part to Terron Armstead’s re-working of his contract and acceptance of the vet minimum.
That $9 million under the cap puts Miami currently at the 7th worst salary cap position league-wide at the time I am writing this. This means only six teams have less money to work with at this moment.
Yes, Chris Grier can restructure some contracts to open up cap space, but nothing would dramatically change Miami’s financial situation.
The Dolphins can release Bradley Chubb, which will give them $19 million in cap space. However, they wouldn’t be able to use it now; they would have to wait until June 1st when the majority of the “good” free agents have long signed with new teams.
The Dolphins do have an ace up their sleeve, though, that can give them salary cap relief right now, in March, and let them be more aggressive next week.
Restructure the contract of starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
If Miami gives Tua the max restructure, it opens up around $19 million of salary cap space right now. Add that to the roughly $9 million of cap space they already have, and you’re at close to $30 million in cap space. Do a few of those other small restructures, and Miami is sitting pretty and can be flush with cash to help repair this very damaged roster.
However, there is a risk involved in doing this.
Tua hasn’t even played one snap on his new contract that you would be restructuring. By restructuring it, you are essentially moving money around and kicking some (or a large chunk of it) down the road to future years.
Do you want to do that with an injury-prone quarterback who has a propensity for concussions?
Do you want to do that with a quarterback who struggles to beat good teams and teams with a winning record?
Do you want to do that with a quarterback who, in big moments, has come up small year after year?
Right now, with the way Tua’s contract is set up, Miami can move on from him after the 2026 season. It will be painful but not impossible. They can really move on from him after the 2027 season, and it is not that bad from a salary cap perspective.
If you restructure his deal now to open up that $19 million of cap space, you are going to be tied to Tua beyond 2027 on your cap, and if you want to move on from him in the next season or two, it becomes really painful.
I know some of you are saying, well, who cares, because if Miami doesn’t win in 2025, Chris Grier and Mike McDaniel will be fired, and that will be the problem of the next head coach and general manager. Well, yeah, but what quality head coach and general manager will want this job in Miami when you have just handcuffed them with this horrible salary cap situation?
Stephen Ross (or someone else) needs to be the adult in the room and really think about the long-term ramifications of restructuring Tua’s deal now to open up that $19 million because a misstep here may put the Dolphins in NFL purgatory for the rest of the decade.
Now, on the flip side, if they don’t restructure his deal, what would a free agency period look like for Miami?
Last offseason Miami wasn’t flush with cash and cap space to make many moves, and they signed Aaron Brewer, Jonnu Smith, and Jordyn Brooks. I would say three under the radar signings that paid off for Miami.
To fill out their roster, they had to sign old men on one-year deals like Odell Beckham Jr., Jordan Poyer, and Shaq Barrett. They had to settle for and re-sign Isaiah Wynn instead of looking to upgrade the offensive line, and well, that didn’t pan out too well.
Then he went and signed five or six (I literally lost count) defensive linemen to replace Christian Wilkins, and all except one was cut by the end of training camp. And the one they kept, Benito Jones, wasn’t any good last season.
So, if Miami decides not to restructure Tua, expect a couple of low-key free-agent signings, no big names or big splash moves.
Then, expect Grier to return to the aging vets who are on the brink of retirement and sign them to cheap one-year deals.
Let’s hope he has better success this time than he did with Beckham, Barrett, and Poyer and that long list of defensive linemen that amounted to nothing.
So, while free agency will begin in less than a week, it is natural for Dolphins fans to be excited. But unless they re-do Tua’s contract, keep expectations in check on what Miami may actually do.
