The moves the Miami Dolphins made the past two weeks — trading away two veterans, restructuring a contract, and signing three players to extensions — could buy South Florida’s NFL team some cap relief for the upcoming coming season.
While Zach Sieler and Alec Ingold’s contract extensions taxed the $13.6 million Miami had in cap space when training camp began, reducing it to $4.6 million, their extensions, and the one long snapper Blake Ferguson received Wednesday, could potentially help alleviate some of the financial strain the team will be under next offseason.
If the majority of Sieler, Ingold and Ferguson’s base salary in year two is turned into roster bonuses, the Dolphins potentially could avoid the cap crisis that seemed to be on the team’s horizon.
Turning base salary into roster bonuses has been Miami’s main strategy in recent years to create spending room for the offseason, and doing so with Sieler and Ingold could clear $6-8 million in cap space next offseason, depending on how the restructures are done.
It’s difficult to tell how much financial relief restructuring Ferguson’s new deal can create until we learn the details of his extension. But based on long-snapper salaries, which usually are close to the NFL minimum, the savings might be minimal.
Next year the Dolphins are projected to have a cap deficit of $26.5 million, which decreased from $32 million because Cedrick Wilson’s contract was reworked last week and eliminated his 2024 salary.
Restructured deals could save additional money
Applying the potential savings of $6-8 million, restructuring these new deals could create should drop Miami’s deficit to under $20 million.
Pair that with the almost inevitable release of pass rusher Emmanuel Ogbah next season — which will create $15.8 million in cap relief if he’s designated a post-June 1 cut — and the Dolphins will be close to baseline when it comes to cap space for 2024.
And Miami has other avenues to use — like transforming a couple more base salaries into roster bonuses for upper-echelon players like Tyreek Hill, Bradley Chubb and Jalen Ramsey — so the Dolphins potentially could create the cap space needed to re-sign a couple of the team’s impending free agents, starting-caliber players Christian Wilkins, Robert Hunt and Connor Williams, just to name a few.
Grier is not worried about cap crisis
“Where we are today and where we are in March is always dramatically different. As you watch every team around the league, there’s some teams $100 million over and all of a sudden, they find a way to get under,” General Manager Chris Grier said when discussing Miami’s bookkeeping last week. “So I’m not worried about that.”
Grier was referring to Miami’s cap deficit in 2024, which also happens to be an offseason when key players like quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, and safety Jevon Holland will be seeking multi-year extensions.
“We have a lot of good players coming available, not just Christian,” Grier said, referring to Wilkins, whose contract extension has seemingly been tabled because both sides weren’t close to getting a deal done. “We have a lot of guys in the pipeline here over the next couple of years that are going to be expensive players.”
The best way to address the rising cost of a roster is to trim the fat now, and Miami did some of that last week, restructuring Wilson, reducing his salary by $2 million, and voiding the final year of the deal, trading backup offensive lineman Dan Feeney to Chicago for a 2024 sixth-round pick, and swapping cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, and his guaranteed contract, for Kelvin Joseph, in a trade with Dallas.
A detailed look at the deals
All three of those moves created cap space that helped Miami get deals for Sieler, Ingold and Ferguson done.
Sieler’s new contract will pay him $34 million over the next four years if he plays in every contest, and $17.72 million of the deal was fully guaranteed.
Ingold’s new deal will pay him just under $16 million for the next four seasons if he plays in every contest.
Oddly, Ingold’s new deal only features one year (2023) of guaranteed salary, so every season that follows this one is an option year where his salary must match his contribution level.
For instance, the Dolphins will either pay Ingold a base salary of $3.2 million for the 2024 season or release him and create $2 million in cap space.
But as previously stated, Ingold’s contract can be reworked to create cap space as needed.
That’s part of the value of getting deals done now, strengthening the foundation of the roster with players around whom Miami intends to build the franchis, signing them to contracts that potentially could create additional cap relief in a year.
