How 6 moves from the Dolphins freed up $53.7 million in cap space

A week ago, the Miami Dolphins were $19 million over their 2018 salary cap. With five moves at the start of the NFL’s new league year Wednesday, created roughly $46.7 million in cap space. On Thursday, veteran center Mike Pouncey requested, and was granted, his release, freeing up $7 million more.

That makes the Dolphins plenty capable of being active in free agency.

The numbers come from Omar Kelly of the Sun Sentinel, who says it’s “impossible to tell” how much cap space the Dolphins actually have given new deals and what’s set aside for the incoming rookie draft class. Also, the fact Ndamukong Suh will be designated a post-June 1 release will tie portions of that money up until then.

The mic drop GIFin the tweet above is probably in reference to the fact teams always find a way to manipulate the salary cap, and being in “cap trouble” as the Dolphins were just in a week ago, is rarely that big of a deal. Most contracts signed in the NFL are team-friendly and worse for players than those earned by top players in other sports, especially in the area of guarantees.

The Dolphins have been, rather infamously, bad at free agency over the years, with significant overpayments and bad contracts on the books. While it’s a good thing the Dolphins are purging the bad deals, there’s a lot to consider here. The biggest is that getting themselves in this position to begin with was pretty bad.

Let’s walk through the six moves Miami made and how those figures were reached.

By releasing Suh, the Dolphins freed up $17 million in cap space this offseason, but as he’s designated a post-June 1 cut, not all of that is available right away. This comes after three years of his original six-year, $114 million contract, and after the team paid him $60 million over those three years. Their built-in “out” for the contract doesn’t come until 2020, so they are taking some dead money ($9.1 million in 2018 and 2019, and $4 million in 2020) in a deal that was widely considered an overpayment at the time, and especially so after his lack of production. This was a bad signing overall, and finding a way to salvage some aspects of it are certainly a positive for Miami, but hardly worthy of praise.

After career years with the Denver Broncos from 2013-2015, Thomas was signed to a five-year, $46 million deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He struggled there, and was traded to the Dolphins, who signed him to a new two-year deal. This past year, he continued to struggle, with just 41 receptions for 388 yards and three touchdowns. Releasing him frees up $6.6 million in cap space with no dead money. They could have done a lot worse, so this was probably the most logical move they’ve made.

Timmons did the Dolphins a huge favor by not showing up to the team’s season-opener against the Los Angeles Chargers. His $5.475 million salary for 2018 was guaranteed until he did that, allowing the team to release him and save that much against the 2018 salary cap. Timmons was an alright player in 14 games last season, but the Dolphins let go of an aging veteran for a lot less than they initially thought they might have to.

The quarterback who may or may not actually be the franchise player in Miami for much longer had his deal restructured to convert most of his 2018 base salary ($17.475 million) into a signing bonus worth approximately $16.7 million. Some of that spreads over ensuing years, but the big deal is that the Dolphins created $11 million in cap space for 2018. As a result of this, Tannehill’s cap number goes up by about $5 million in 2019, and by about $6 million in 2020, so it’s helpful now, but potentially problematic later.

Similar to Tannehill, Jones had his $9.375 million base salary for 2018 lowered, and earned a $4.05 million signing bonus that the team will be able to spread over the next four years, including 2018. But like Tannehill, his immediate post-2018 numbers are going up, with a cap hit of (roughly) $17 million in 2019, $15.5 million in 2020, and $14.4 million in 2021. Again, it’s a move that helps the team now, but Jones isn’t getting quite as much up front as Tannehill is. The move frees up, for 2018, about $6.6 million in cap space.

Pouncey has been with the Dolphins since 2011, when they drafted him with the No. 15 overall pick. The 28-year-old asked for, and was given, the release, telling Joe Schad of the Palm Beach Post that the Dolphins weren’t willing to work out a long-term deal with him. Pouncey had three years left on his current contract, and the move saves an addition $7 million in 2018 for a team that has moved on from several familiar faces this offseason.