- NFL. Key part of Fernando Mendoza's playing style set to be unleashed by Klint Kubiak in rookie Raiders season
- NFL. 49ers' Brandon Aiyuk drama takes a turn: George Kittle reveals more information about fallout
It has been an extremely hectic offseason for the Miami Dolphins. While it seemed at first that head coach Mike McDaniel would be retained, owner Stephen Ross decided it was time for a full reset.
In came head coach Jeff Hafley, shortly after the hiring of general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan to replace much-maligned GM Chris Grier. Once free agency rolled around, Sullivan began imploding Miami's roster. Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Minkah Fitzpatrick and more are gone.
Miami Dolphins have an unprecedented amount of dead cap space
While one would expect that getting rid of stars should open up a ton of cap space for the Dolphins, that isn't the case at all. In fact, it's the complete opposite since Miami decided to cut their contracts with said players short. All in all, the Dolphins will go through the 2026 season with over $175 million of dead cap.
"Dead money" is essentially cash that goes towards a team's salary cap number for a player that isn't on the roster. That means that the Dolphins are paying almost the entire amount of a low-level roster for players who won't contribute to their team in 2026.
While this concept seems insane for any professional sports team to employ, Miami is in an exceptional position. Nothing they did over the past few years worked, so the front office had to get to work quickly in order to blow everything up. While many expected them to stretch this rebuild out over a couple of seasons, the new regime is diving into the deep end from day one.
Hafley is clearly in for a rough first season, but good results aren't expected by anyone at this point in time. This is clearly a complete rebuild that will take years to come to fruition. Sullivan has a vision, and fans will need to exercise a lot of patience before the franchise can turn its fortunes around.