Dolphins freeing up a total of around 50 million in cap.

[Sam Bam Cunningham]

Its not a cheap issue.
Its about passive versus aggressive efforts to acquiring necessary talent to be competitive.
They may have a very good draft and sign a few good UFAs. Todays NFL requires top end offensive talent and in most cases an elite QB.
I think Bill’s approach to roster building is a bit obsolete in today’s pass happy NFL

 

[mike_usagisan]

Its not a cheap issue.
Its about passive versus aggressive efforts to acquiring necessary talent to be competitive.
They may have a very good draft and sign a few good UFAs. Todays NFL requires top end offensive talent and in most cases an elite QB.
I think Bill’s approach to roster building is a bit obsolete in today’s pass happy NFL

I don’t disagree with you, but until we know what we have in Mac, I don’t think it makes sense to go all in. If he’s not the guy and you make these moves, now you have to get a big FA to take advantage before your window closes. Then when it closes, you have to rebuild but with fewer picks and less cap.

2023 is let’s get better but really see what we have.

 

[Ring 6]

I don’t disagree with you, but until we know what we have in Mac, I don’t think it makes sense to go all in. If he’s not the guy and you make these moves, now you have to get a big FA to take advantage before your window closes. Then when it closes, you have to rebuild but with fewer picks and less cap.

2023 is let’s get better but really see what we have.

Just the opposite. When you have a cheap QB you have to build a strong team around him. Qb play and team success depends as much on who the 52 are as who the qb is

 

[Hammer of Thor]

NFL Salary Cap Space | Over The Cap

NFL salary cap space estimates for all 32 teams

overthecap.com

Miami is still scheduled to have $12m in cap space at the start of the 2024 offseason!…..3rd lowest, with only 29 players under contract at the point.

Part of the Patriots issue is that we only have 29 players under contract for 2024 as well. And unlike this year where DMac, J Jones and Meyers are our only big name free agents, next year we have quite a few: Dugger and Onwenu leading the list, followed by Uche, Henry, Parker, Bourne, Bentley, and T. Brown. A huge chunk of our $159m cap space in 2024 will wind up covering the guys we get this offseason with backloaded contracts, plus eventual extensions/replacements for the above guys. Better than having only $12m available, but I’d feel a ton better if we knew Mac really can be the guy going forward. We really don’t know that yet.

The Dolphins biggest issue will be Tua. If he can make it through this season healthy and playing decently, they’ll be able to squeeze enough cap space in 2024 and 2025 before paying for Tua’s big deal. Likely won’t be able to add much more talent than they already have, but won’t need to cut anyone either. If he can’t, I expect they’ll be hosed as they won’t have the cap space or draft picks for another QB, and may view themselves in 2024 like the Rams view themselves this year.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

Yep. Worth mentioning that the Patriots currently have:

#8 most cap space in 2023 (this year)
#4 most cap space in 2024
#1 most cap space in 2025
#1 most cap space in 2026

That’s generally what happens when you don’t have much proven talent on your team.

It will be different if Mac is any good and we’ll have to pay him 45M a year. Or If we resign Uche, Barmore to market deal if they continue to play well.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

That’s generally what happens when you don’t have much proven talent on your team.

It will be different if Mac is any good and we’ll have to pay him 45M a year. Or If we resign Uche, Barmore to market deal if they continue to play well.

Once you get to 2025 and 2026, it comes down to 1 thing. Top 9 teams in cap space in 2025: Patriots, Texans, Bengals, Bears, Lions, Panthers, Jets, Falcons, Commanders. None of them have their starting QB under contract in 2025. Bengals will be off this list once Burrow is extended. All the others - it’s debatable if their starting QB is the long term solution (Patriots, Bears, Lions), or they definitely don’t (all the others).

 

[Fubby]

Like, I’m glad that you aren’t the GM of the Pats.

why is that? Did you apply for the job?

 

[Marko]

yeah? what are the dolphins winning? You think that they are going to leapfrog to the the top of the AFC by clearing the cap? They dont even know if they have a healthy qb...

and pushing all the chips to the center of the table has helped exactly who? the 2021 Rams you say? who else? who does this and actually wins it all besides the one off rams squad?

Dan Snyder……oh….. I guess your right

 

[Marko]

Building through free agency can work, but there needs to be some luck in the timing. If you get your money for the spending spree but there’s only used Hondas out there, you might pay Porsche prices for a used Honda.

 

[StrawHatPatriot]

Its not a cheap issue.
Its about passive versus aggressive efforts to acquiring necessary talent to be competitive.
They may have a very good draft and sign a few good UFAs. Todays NFL requires top end offensive talent and in most cases an elite QB.
I think Bill’s approach to roster building is a bit obsolete in today’s pass happy NFL

It's always required that, actually. There's just certain windows where a couple teams can get by without it (mid-to-late 80s, early 2000, early 2010s)

 

[Ian]

Nah not chicken little just predicting/analyzing. So far Dolphins got better let's see what we do

That bolded part should be where all of us are. We'll have at least have some information to process once we see what transpires. Right now, people are freaking out because they think the exact same team we saw in 2022 is going to be lining up six months from now, and that's clearly not going to be the case.

 

[Guts]

That bolded part should be where all of us are. We'll have at least have some information to process once we see what transpires. Right now, people are freaking out because they think the exact same team we saw in 2022 is going to be lining up six months from now, and that's clearly not going to be the case.

Yes sir. It's also okay to say as of now the LOLfins got better that doesn't make me a chicken little. Plenty of time to make our own moves though

 

[Water Boy]

I just don’t understand the obsession with cap space in future years. Like I’m sorry, is the plan to win this coming season (year 4 of the rebuild by the way) or is the plan to win in 2024 or 25 or 26…2030 is looking great from a cap perspective! You can question if the Chargers have enough to win it all to make it worth it but they do have actual blue chippers that gives them a fighting chance and it’s been shown that getting out of cap hell isn’t some decade long endeavor. 1-2 seasons and you can be back to competing again.

There maybe select times when you should push all your chips to the middle of the table. It worked for the Rams, but they are a mess now.

Curran and Phil Perry did a great interview with Andrew Brandt talking about cap management. I highly recommend googling it. He was the GM of the Packers during the Farve and Rodgers transition years.

He was all about structuring balanced contracts to not pushing out large cap hits to future years. I believe he cited the Eagles at being pretty good at it.

He was able to trade Farve with almost no dead money against the cap.

 

[Ivan]

Exactly. Time to free up more cap space to fix the team

To spend on who? Jakobi Meyers was considered a top free agent. Ok player, but if that’s the top of the market then it’s a really weak market. I don’t disagree that they need to make a significant move, but you can only do that when it’s there to make.