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I know it's still a bit early to be looking at next year's salary cap number and cap space availability but having seen many comments on the site lately that are off I figured I would do an update of where the Miami Dolphins sit cap wise going in to the 2015 off-season. Keep in mind that some of the numbers will shift slightly any time we sign someone from the practice squad or off the street to fill in for an injured player.
This season's cap number was $133 million per team. We of course had just over 18 million in cap rollover giving us right around $151 million in space for the 2014 season. The cap for league year 2015 is expected to rise between $7- and $12-million, meaning the cap will most likely sit somewhere between $140 and $145 million for the season. For caution's sake I will use the number of $140 million knowing that it could easily creep up a few million before all is said and done.
Impacting the cap number as always is dead monies from players cut the previous season. Miami did a fairly good job at this last season, leaving the team with only $280,542 in dead money for 2015. This will of course grow some when some players are cut in the offseason, because they are no longer considered worth their contract or to gain some cap room. Either way, the Dolphins did a good job with this part of managing the cap when you contrast it to a team like the Cowboys who have over $25 million in dead money for 2014 and will once again have to eat some large amounts of salary in 2015 to stay under the cap. Good luck with all that Jerry Jones, knowing that you have to re-sign both Dez and DeMarco in the off-season.
We will once again have rollover money next season, but not nearly the big amount we had in the last off-season. Miami currently sits $8,883,056 under the cap for 2014. This, as I noted earlier, will of course be affected by any signings from the practice squad or off the street to replace any injured players. This leaves us moving in to the off-season with an estimated cap spending of:
| 2015 cap number estimate | $140,000,000.00 |
| + rollover monies from 2014 | $8,883,056.00 |
| - players salaries/dead monies | $141,441,177.00 |
| current est. cap space for 2015 | $7,441,879.00 |
Even if we assume the cap goes up by $12 million thus giving us somewhere between $7.4 and $12.4 million to spend, we are much tighter than last season as far as cap space. We of course must take out the estimated monies counted against the cap for draft picks. Not knowing what that number will be will be as it will rise slightly per position over 2014 and we have no way of knowing how many picks Miami will have, nor their position in the draft, I will just use an estimate. With that in mind I will use a number near what we needed last year, $5 million. This would, of course, leave $2,441,879 and $7,441,879 million in total cap space.
Now we move on to the players that are not under contract for 2015. Sure many of them will not be re-signed but some will need to retained. Below is the list of players whose contracts expire at the end of this season.
Some of the "dead weight" will be culled from the roster because they are not living up to their contract while others will wind up as cap casualties in the effort to make space for things that are seen as bigger team needs. There is no way that they let certain players on that list above just walk away, just as it seems as if there is no way that certain players signed through 2015 survive. So with that in mind below is the full list of players under contract for 2015. Their 2015 "cap hit" is listed along with the amount of dead money charged to the cap if they are cut, the amount that is gained or lost against the cap if cut and then the same two numbers if they are either "designated a June 1st cut or are actually cut after June 1st. Each team is allowed up to two June 1st designated cuts meaning they can be cut any time after the start of the league year but will only count against the teams cap as if they were actually cut following June first.
| Name/Position | Cap Hit | Dead money | +/- Cap $ | 6/1 Cut Dead $ | 6/1 Cut +/- $ |
| Mike Wallace/WR | $12,100,000.00 | $9,600,000.00 | $2,500,000.00 | $5,200,000.00 | $6,900,000.00 |
| Branden Albert/LT | $10,725,000.00 | $15,800,000.00 | -$5,075,000.00 | $10,700,000.00 | $25,000.00 |
| Brent Grimes/CB | $10,000,000.00 | $12,025,000.00 | -$2,025,000.00 | $9,025,000.00 | $975,000.00 |
| Dannell Ellerbe/ILB | $9,850,000.00 | $4,200,000.00 | $5,650,000.00 | $1,400,000.00 | $8,450,000.00 |
| Cameron Wake/DE | $9,700,000.00 | $2,800,000.00 | $6,900,000.00 | $1,400,000.00 | $8,300,000.00 |
| Reshad Jones/S | $7,760,000.00 | $3,000,000.00 | $4,760,000.00 | $1,000,000.00 | $6,760,000.00 |
| Mike Pouncey/C/G | $7,438,000.00 | $0.00 | $7,438,000.00 | N/A | N/A |
| Brian Hartline/WR | $7,350,000.00 | $4,200,000.00 | $3,150,000.00 | $1,400,000.00 | $5,950,000.00 |
| Cortland Finnegan/CB | $6,000,000.00 | $1,000,000.00 | $5,000,000.00 | N/A | N/A |
| Randy Starks/DT | $6,000,000.00 | $1,000,000.00 | $5,000,000.00 | N/A | N/A |
| Dion Jordan/DE | $5,610,627.00 | $6,670,836.00 | -$1,060,209.00 | $3,335,418.00 | $2,275,209.00 |
| Earl Mitchell/DT | $4,500,000.00 | $1,500,000.00 | $3,000,000.00 | $0.00 | $4,500,000.00 |
| Koa Misi/OLB | $4,438,000.00 | $1,734,000.00 | $2,704,000.00 | $578,000.00 | $3,860,000.00 |
| Philip Wheeler/OLB | $4,400,000.00 | $4,200,000.00 | $200,000.00 | $1,400,000.00 | $3,000,000.00 |
| Brandon Gibson/WR | $4,260,000.00 | $1,000,000.00 | $3,260,000.00 | N/A | N/A |
| Ryan Tannehill/QB | $4,030,887.00 | $4,058,397.00 | -$27,510.00 | N/A | N/A |
| Brandon Fields/P | $3,903,000.00 | $790,000.00 | $3,113,000.00 | $395,000.00 | $3,508,000.00 |
| Shelley Smith/RG | $3,000,000.00 | $250,000.00 | $2,750,000.00 | N/A | N/A |
| Ja'Wuan James/LT | $1,915,545.00 | $6,895,000.00 | -$4,980,417.00 | N/A | N/A |
| Nate Garner/LT | $1,816,668.00 | $166,668.00 | $1,650,000.00 | N/A | N/A |
| John Denney/LS | $1,180,000.00 | $200,000.00 | $980,000.00 | $100,000.00 | $1,080,000.00 |
| Jamar Taylor/CB | $988,950.00 | $508,600.00 | $480,350.00 | $254,300.00 | $735,650.00 |
| Olivier Vernon/DE | $869,520.00 | $159,520.00 | $710,000.00 | N/A | N/A |
| Jarvis Landry/WR | $789,752.00 | $855,406.00 | -$65,654.00 | $431,803.00 | $357,950.00 |
| Lamar Miller/RB | $781,500.00 | $121,500.00 | $660,000.00 | N/A | N/A |
| Dallas Thomas/G | $761,594.00 | $303,188.00 | $458,406.00 | $151,594.00 | $610,000.00 |
| Billy Turner/T | $723,000.00 | $522,750.00 | $200,350.00 | $174,250.00 | $548,750.00 |
| Will Davis/CB | $722,800.00 | $260,600.00 | $462,200.00 | $130,300.00 | $592,500.00 |
| Jelani Jenkins/OLB | $703,172.00 | $236,344.00 | $466,828.00 | $118,172.00 | $585,000.00 |
| Dion Sims/TE | $701,888.00 | $233,776.00 | $468,112.00 | $116,888.00 | $585,000.00 |
| Rishard Matthews/WR | $673,403.00 | $13,403.00 | $660,000.00 | N/A | N/A |
| Mike Gillislee/RB | $625,700.00 | $81,400.00 | $544,300.00 | $40,700.00 | $585,000.00 |
| Caleb Sturgis/K | $621,140.00 | $72,280.00 | $548,860.00 | $36,140.00 | $585,000.00 |
| Walt Aikens/CB | $613,977.00 | $311,931.00 | $302,046.00 | $103,977.00 | $510,000.00 |
| Jordan Tripp/OLB | $550,700.00 | $122,100.00 | $428,600.00 | $40,700.00 | $510,000.00 |
| Terrence Fede/DE | $523,988.00 | $41,964.00 | $482,024.00 | $13,988.00 | $510,000.00 |
| Davonte Wallace/G | $513,333.00 | $6,667.00 | $506,666.00 | $3,333.00 | $510,000.00 |
| Kamal Johnson/DT | $510,666.00 | $1,334.00 | $509,332.00 | $666.00 | $510,000.00 |
| Damien Williams/RB | $510,000.00 | $0.00 | $510,000.00 | $0.00 | $510,000.00 |
| Sammy Seamster/CB | $510,000.00 | $0.00 | $510,000.00 | $0.00 | $510,000.00 |
| Anthony Johnson/DT | $510,000.00 | $0.00 | $510,000.00 | $0.00 | $510,000.00 |
| Harold Hoskins/TE | $510,000.00 | $0.00 | $510,000.00 | $0.00 | $510,000.00 |
| Chris McCain/LB | $510,000.00 | $0.00 | $510,000.00 | $0.00 | $510,000.00 |
| Arthur Lynch/TE | $482,825.00 | $143,475.00 | $339,350.00 | $47,825.00 | $435,000.00 |
Hopefully this post will give those that are curious a bit better idea of where we stand going in to next year.