Miami Dolphins Salary Cap Outlook Slightly Improves
The Miami Dolphins’ salary-cap situation is looking a little bit better, thanks to some unexpected good news.
The NFL has informed teams before they head to the scouting combine next week to expect the 2025 salary cap to be between $277.5 million and $281.5 million, according to Dan Graziano of ESPN.
The salary cap last year was $255.4 million, so we’re looking at an increase of somewhere between $22.1 million and $26.1 million. The salary cap jumped $30.6 million from 2023 to 2024.
The cap number, higher than the $272 million projection by overthecap.com, is good news for every team in the NFL, but particularly those with tight cap situations, and that clearly includes the Dolphins.
Using the figure exactly in the middle of the cap range reported, $279.5 million, the Dolphins now are on the positive side with $1.6 million of cap space, per overthecap.com, though they’re $6.7 million over when the rookie class is factored in.
The Dolphins are in the sixth-worst position when it comes to getting to the cap limit by the start of the league year March 12. The five teams in worse shape are the Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns and, as usual, New Orleans Saints.
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THE DOLPHINS STILL HAVE WORK TO DO
The Dolphins began creating cap space last week when they terminated the contracts of veterans Raheem Mostert, Kendall Fuller and Durham Smythe, and they’re not done yet.
The Dolphins not only have to get under the cap with their top 51 cap numbers by March 12, they also need to create additional to sign players, which is of significance considering they have only 46 players under contract for 2025 at this time and 25 impending unrestricted free agents.
The Dolphins have nine players with a current 2025 cap numbers exceeding $10 million, topped by Tua Tagovaialoa’s $39.2 million. The others are OLB Bradley Chubb ($28.7M), WR Tyreek Hill ($27.7M), T Terron Armstead ($22.8M), CB Jalen Ramsey ($16.7M), T Austin Jackson ($13.5M), OLB Jaelan Phillips ($13.3M), DT Zach Sieler ($12.4M) and LB Jordyn Brooks ($11M).
Any number of those contracts could be restructured or extended to create additional space.
Whatever they do with that extra cap space, the Dolphins’ offseason cap maneuvering got easier, even if just a ittle.
