Kelly: Dolphins Have Some Serious Belt Tightening to Do

Only one NFL teams are in a worse financial predicament than the Miami Dolphins, who are $49 million over the projected salary cap this offseason

The Miami Dolphins are on foreign ground, chartering a new course this franchise has never traveled before.

In the 15 years I’ve covered this franchise, which clearly covers the new financial era of this $19 billion-a-year sport and its annually escalating salary cap, South Florida’s NFL franchise has generally been fiscally responsible.

While owner Steve Ross loves to spend big in the offseason and views that period of the year as his opportunity to get in the game, the Dolphins have never entered a new season over the salary cap.

The books were balanced during the Nick Saban reign. Miami wasn’t capped out during the Bill Parcells era. The Dolphins were fiscally responsible during the Dawn Aponte watch, and Mike Tannenbaum managed the books better than what's been taking place recently.

There's a price to Miami's all-in approach

But as a result of the “All In” approach General Manager Chris Grier has taken the past two offseasons, routinely trading away draft assets to lure established players who required pace-setting contracts, the Dolphins franchise begins 2024 projected as $49-plus million over the salary cap.

Only the New Orleans Saints ($82 million over) have been more fiscally irresponsible than Miami, which typically always carried a surplus of roughly $8-20 million in cap space. The Buffalo Bills ($45 million over ), Los Angeles Chargers ($45 million over) and Denver Broncos ($24 million over) are the other NFL teams significantly over the projected salary cap.

Miami’s recent business practices and roster decisions have led to what equates to mounting credit card debt, and while Grier has twice played down the financial strain the team is under, this won’t be an easy problem to fix.

“We’ve had a lot of conversations. [Our capologists have] given us a lot of flexibility with multiple options of ways we can be creative, and so hats off to them just through their work and grind on things,” Grier said, referring to Brandon Shore Senior Vice President of Football & Business Administration) and Max Napolitano (Director of Football Administration and Strategy). “Mike (McDaniel), Brandon and I will have a lot of discussions. We’ll talk with Steve (Ross) as we get through [the offseason] and we’ll try and keep as many of the players here that we can.”

Dolphins need to purge and restructure

What Grier really means is the Dolphins will be roster-purging (releasing players with bloated contracts), restructuring contracts (turning base salaries into roster bonuses, likely committing to more years on deals), and extending high-priced players to create cap relief.

That all involves Grier and his staff asking Ross to write a number of massive checks in the coming weeks.

And that will merely put the Dolphins in position to make tough decisions on many of the team’s own 36 free agents, some of whom will price themselves out of what the Dolphins can afford because of their present financial state.

“At the end of the day, we have good players here,” Grier said, referring to the impending free agents like Robert Hunt, Connor Williams, Andrew Van Ginkel, Brandon Jones, Isaiah Wynn, Kendall Lamm, DeShon Elliott and Raekwon Davis. “Everyone will have a market.”

Will mega deals be put on ice?

And each decision — like whether to sign quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to a multi-year extension or have the Pro Bowl talent play on his fifth-year option for $23.2 million, or whether to place the franchise tag (worth $18.9 million) on Christian Wilkins or sign him to a $100 million contract — will have a domino effect on the roster.

And that's just keeping the roster status quo so Miami could run it back, not necessarily improving on it.

The harsh reality is, unless Miami gets ultra lucky with the 2024 draft and undrafted rookies, the majority of this roster will be formulated by veterans forced to play on one-year deals for the veteran minimum, or close to it.

And that could potentially leave more roster holes than the 2023 team had.

“We’re not really, right now, concerned about where we’ll be in March, salary cap wise,” Grier said Monday in a statement that made me chuckle because of the financial strain his decisions have placed this franchise in.

These decisions will likely lead to Grier being put on the hot seat if the checks Ross is encouraged to write doesn't improve the 2024 team because the team's business practices and belt-tightening predicament handcuffs the on-field product.

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