After signing Mike Wallace, Dannell Ellerbe, Philip Wheeler, resigning Chris Clemons and releasing Karlos Dansby and Kevin Burnett, the Dolphins are still roughly about $20 million under the cap. Figure about $5-6 million will go to rookies and only the top 51 contracts count against the cap.

So the Dolphins are still in good shape to spend more.

But the even better news is there are still plenty of moves the Dolphins could make to create more room under the cap.

Let's look at the 20 largest cap numbers on the roster right now and their potential cap savings if they were to be released or restructured (keep in mind restructuring lowers their cap number so the cap savings would only be a portion of what is listed).

Name Cap Cap
Number Savings
Randy Starks $8,450,000 $8,450,000
Paul Soliai $7,875,000 $6,300,000
Richard Marshall $5,766,666 $3,433,332
Richie Incognito $5,383,334 $4,300,000
Cameron Wake $5,015,000 ($9,970,000)
Dimitri Patterson $4,600,000 $4,600,000
Davone Bess $3,433,334 $2,683,334
Dan Carpenter $3,012,500 $2,700,000
Ryan Tannehill $2,879,205 ($7,528,453)
Mike Pouncey $2,525,371 ($2,946,267)
Matt Moore $2,500,000 ($1,500,000)
Brian Hartline $2,115,000 ($10,385,000)
Jared Odrick $1,939,868 ($339,873)
Brandon Fields $1,720,000 ($360,000)
John Jerry $1,537,625 $1,323,000
Reshad Jones $1,363,075 $1,323,000
Austin Spitler $1,323,000 $1,323,000
Koa Misi $1,186,905 $719,405
Jonathan Martin $1,087,333 ($959,734)
John Denney $1,013,750 $870,000
Jason Trusnik $915,000 $515,000


The Dolphins could release Richard Marshall and Dimitri Patterson right now and open up an additional $8 million in cap space. Throw in Incognito, Bess, Carpenter, Jerry and Spitler and you're looking at $19 million for a total cap space of $39 million.

Granted the Dolphins probably prefer keeping Incognito, Bess (watch out for Brandon Gibson in free agency or a faster slot receiver like Tavon Austin in the draft) and Jerry while they don't have anyone better on the roster. But you can certainly make a case for replacing Carpenter, who is earning a lot of money after an uneven season.

Looking a little further down, you have Daniel Thomas with a $455K cap savings, Nolan Carroll with $630K, and several other players at $250K - $500K that could be upgraded or released.

Name Cap Cap
Number Savings
Daniel Thomas $882,652 $455,782
Nolan Carroll $677,939 $630,000
Olivier Vernon $669,520 $190,960
Michael Egnew $652,239 $210,522
RJ Sanford $630,000 $630,000
Lamar Miller $601,500 $237,000
Charles Clay $583,000 $527,000
Jimmy Wilson $566,475 $543,525
Will Yeatman $555,000 $555,000
Kheeston Randall $495,612 $448,776
Rishard Matthews $493,403 $453,194
Derrick Shelby $483,333 $476,666
Marcus Thigpen $482,500 $477,500
Josh Kaddu $480,000 $480,000
Jonathan Freeny $480,000 $480,000
Armon Binns $480,000 $480,000
Jorvorskie Lane $480,000 $480,000
Josh Samuda $480,000 $480,000
Lee Robinson $480,000 $480,000
DeAndre Presley $480,000 $480,000
Pat Devlin $480,000 $480,000
Kyle Miller $480,000 $480,000
Kelcie McCray $408,333 $401,666
Jeff Fuller $405,000 $405,000
Jonas Gray $405,000 $405,000
Brian Tyms $405,000 $405,000
Andrew McDonald $405,000 $405,000
Chandler Burden $405,000 $405,000
Chas Alecxih $405,000 $405,000
Julian Posey $405,000 $405,000
Jeff Adams $405,000 $405,000


The Dolphins could also explore extending Starks to lower his cap number, which is the largest on the roster right now, or restructuring Soliai, who has the 2nd largest cap number. Or even restructuring Incognito or Carpenter.

Point is, there is a lot of cap flexibility right now. As the details come in for the new contracts, I'll see if I can post something regarding how 2014 is looking.

Source for the numbers is overthecap.com

This is awesome, thanks.

From a financial standpoint I'm very impressed with how Ireland set this up. Looks like they had a plan and followed it.

The obvious one we keep mentioning is Patterson. None of his salary is guaranteed, so cutting him would save the full 4.6 million.

That's such an obvious move, although I think they might be waiting to sign a CB before they cut him, just in case...

Either way, signing a CB shouldn't cost a dime against the cap this year. If anything, they'll save cap money.

They should still be able to sign 2 of the 3: CB, TE, OT. I'd prefer OT and CB, but if they wanted to leave CB to the draft a double down, that's fine too.

Another good thing with this flexibility is that the upcoming rookies, for the most part, will not have to be relied upon from Day 1 to either start or be a major contributor. Time for development is needed. Miami can sign stop gaps and draft depth/future starters.

Carp may have had an uneven year, but the truth is that most or all kickers have uneven years. He is young, a proven commodity, and not as easily replaced as some may think. I might look to restructure his deal, but no way would I cut him (not sure if that's what you were saying).

He is not worth the money he is being paid...And as we have seen that is recipe for being let go.

Actually the recipe has been being overpaid and a suitable replacement has been found.