Wake Me Up When The Draft Is Here
The Miami Dolphins have already begun cutting players from their roster to get cap compliant with the NFL offseason officially starting next Monday, when teams can start to legally tamper with free agents.
The problem for the Dolphins is that they have more moves to make, but won’t be active unless they decide to restructure some contracts or give out unnecessary contract extensions to free up cap space to sign free agents. However, that would push money into future years and would create problems down the road.
If the Dolphins were to go this route, it would go against everything new GM John Eric Sullivan has been talking about since being hired less than two months ago. Sully has a plan to build through the draft and fix the salary cap to put this franchise in a healthy financial state.
If he doesn’t make a real effort to fix it this offseason, he would contradict everything his plan is about.
The Dolphins can’t afford to be pushing money into future years and cutting corners to create money to bring in players, because at some point, the bill is due on the credit card. For the Dolphins, that’s this year.
Look, this happens to every NFL team every few years. They are loaded with money for a couple of years, and then they must straighten out their finances. If you draft good players and have a good quarterback, then you can get away with the cap issues. The problem is the Dolphins don’t have a quarterback, had the fewest draft picks of any team from 2022 to 2024, and many of the players drafted aren’t on the roster.
I was trying to think when the last time was the Dolphins were in this type of situation.
Then it occurred to me that it happened in 1996. The year Jimmy Johnson got here was because the Dolphins’ cap was so bad from bad signings by Don Shula the previous years that the Dolphins didn’t have money to sign any free agents or resign some of their players hitting the market in their prime, like Troy Vincent, Marco Coleman, and Bryan Cox. Johnson had a mess to clean up.
Now, in 1996, the salary cap was in its infancy stage, if you will, because the NFL adopted free agency and a hard salary cap in 1993. Teams were learning how to use the salary cap and spend on players. There were a lot of growing pains for some, and in the Dolphins’ case, that’s when they had to stop.
Johnson was good at drafting players during his time with the Dallas Cowboys from 1989 to 1993. I remember watching his first draft in 1996. He took Daryl Gardener in the first round, but then things got interesting.
He used his second pick to trade down, then traded back again, out of the second round, to acquire more picks. As a fan, I didn’t understand at the time and was frustrated, but the reason Johnson did it was to acquire more picks, and drafting players is cheaper than signing free agents, as outside of the first round, there is no big, guaranteed money shelled out.
Johnson had to do this for two years to get the Dolphins out of cap hell, as we call it. The only thing that saved the team from staying competitive was that the Dolphins still had Dan Marino, but he was entering the back end of his career.
Johnson built a heck of a defense in the first few drafts with Zach Thomas, Jason Taylor, Sam Madison, and Patrick Surtain. I know he didn’t draft well on offense, but that’s not the point here.
This started a rebuild in the salary cap hell from 1995 as the Dolphins got rid of older, overpriced veterans to go with younger & cheaper players so they could get their finances in order. That is exactly what I expect Sully to do this offseason, especially coming from Green Bay.
The problem is the Dolphins don’t have a Marino or a good, competent QB to keep this team competitive, so Sully is going to have to get one in the draft. The Dolphins are going to have to go through some hardships with this.
The Dolphins don’t have the money to sign any free agents or even sign a draft class right now. More moves are going to be made this week, including cuts, to create more cap space, but I don’t see the Dolphins making a play for QB Malik Willis because of this. The Dolphins are going to have big-time dead money tied to Tua Tagovailoa this year and next.
I expect Sully to do what Johnson did 30 years ago in this draft, and that is to trade down and acquire extra picks this year and beyond. The Dolphins have 8 picks in this draft, but they need more, and they need more bodies to fill the roster because this team doesn’t have enough money to cover a 53-man roster and a 16-player practice squad right now.
This is going to be a quiet offseason for the Dolphins when free agency starts, and I don’t expect any significant moves on the signing front. I expect the real roster to get started once the draft begins, because that will be the offseason for the Dolphins this year.
Wake Me Up When The Draft Is Here
Wake Me Up When The Draft Is Here
The Miami Dolphins have already begun cutting players from their roster to get cap compliant with the NFL offseason officially starting next Monday, when teams can start to legally tamper with free agents.
The problem for the Dolphins is that they have more moves to make, but won’t be active unless they decide to restructure some contracts or give out unnecessary contract extensions to free up cap space to sign free agents. However, that would push money into future years and would create problems down the road.
If the Dolphins were to go this route, it would go against everything new GM John Eric Sullivan has been talking about since being hired less than two months ago. Sully has a plan to build through the draft and fix the salary cap to put this franchise in a healthy financial state.
If he doesn’t make a real effort to fix it this offseason, he would contradict everything his plan is about.
The Dolphins can’t afford to be pushing money into future years and cutting corners to create money to bring in players, because at some point, the bill is due on the credit card. For the Dolphins, that’s this year.
Look, this happens to every NFL team every few years. They are loaded with money for a couple of years, and then they must straighten out their finances. If you draft good players and have a good quarterback, then you can get away with the cap issues. The problem is the Dolphins don’t have a quarterback, had the fewest draft picks of any team from 2022 to 2024, and many of the players drafted aren’t on the roster.
I was trying to think when the last time was the Dolphins were in this type of situation.
Then it occurred to me that it happened in 1996. The year Jimmy Johnson got here was because the Dolphins’ cap was so bad from bad signings by Don Shula the previous years that the Dolphins didn’t have money to sign any free agents or resign some of their players hitting the market in their prime, like Troy Vincent, Marco Coleman, and Bryan Cox. Johnson had a mess to clean up.
Now, in 1996, the salary cap was in its infancy stage, if you will, because the NFL adopted free agency and a hard salary cap in 1993. Teams were learning how to use the salary cap and spend on players. There were a lot of growing pains for some, and in the Dolphins’ case, that’s when they had to stop.
Johnson was good at drafting players during his time with the Dallas Cowboys from 1989 to 1993. I remember watching his first draft in 1996. He took Daryl Gardener in the first round, but then things got interesting.
He used his second pick to trade down, then traded back again, out of the second round, to acquire more picks. As a fan, I didn’t understand at the time and was frustrated, but the reason Johnson did it was to acquire more picks, and drafting players is cheaper than signing free agents, as outside of the first round, there is no big, guaranteed money shelled out.
Johnson had to do this for two years to get the Dolphins out of cap hell, as we call it. The only thing that saved the team from staying competitive was that the Dolphins still had Dan Marino, but he was entering the back end of his career.
Johnson built a heck of a defense in the first few drafts with Zach Thomas, Jason Taylor, Sam Madison, and Patrick Surtain. I know he didn’t draft well on offense, but that’s not the point here.
This started a rebuild in the salary cap hell from 1995 as the Dolphins got rid of older, overpriced veterans to go with younger & cheaper players so they could get their finances in order. That is exactly what I expect Sully to do this offseason, especially coming from Green Bay.
The problem is the Dolphins don’t have a Marino or a good, competent QB to keep this team competitive, so Sully is going to have to get one in the draft. The Dolphins are going to have to go through some hardships with this.
The Dolphins don’t have the money to sign any free agents or even sign a draft class right now. More moves are going to be made this week, including cuts, to create more cap space, but I don’t see the Dolphins making a play for QB Malik Willis because of this. The Dolphins are going to have big-time dead money tied to Tua Tagovailoa this year and next.
I expect Sully to do what Johnson did 30 years ago in this draft, and that is to trade down and acquire extra picks this year and beyond. The Dolphins have 8 picks in this draft, but they need more, and they need more bodies to fill the roster because this team doesn’t have enough money to cover a 53-man roster and a 16-player practice squad right now.
This is going to be a quiet offseason for the Dolphins when free agency starts, and I don’t expect any significant moves on the signing front. I expect the real roster to get started once the draft begins, because that will be the offseason for the Dolphins this year.
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