Cap hits: will Miami be in salary cap hell in 2014?

Miami is seemingly set with salary cap next year.

So, last week Jeff Ireland dramatically changed the Dolphins roster with a handful of key moves. Gone are veteran leaders Jake Long, Reggie Bush, Sean Smith, Karlos Dansby, and Kevin Burnett. In comes Dannell Ellerbe, Philip Wheeler, Dustin Keller, and crown jewel Mike Wallace.

Most noted in the additions is the very low 2013 cap hits they have, very quickly followed with how large of a 2014 cap hit they have (such as Wallace’s $15 mil base salary).

I’ve seen numerous fans worrying that Miami will be in salary cap hell as a result of these deals. Rather than wonder and worry, I decided to look into it for all you die hard Phin fans who are just as worried about the future of this franchise as you are 2013.

First, we have to take into account that the 2013 cap is $123 million before carry over (teams are allowed to carry over unused cap space if they choose to). 2014 should be at least that much if not more.

Second, who isMiamiprojected to lose as free agents? The current free agents are slated to be:

• Paul Soliai
• Randy Starks
• Dustin Keller
• Richie Incognito
• Chris Clemons

• Davone Bess
• Reshad Jones
• Dan Carpenter
• John Denney
• John Jerry
• Koa Misi
• Nolan Carroll

Third, with the players currently under contract, Miami’s 2014 cap hit is presently slated to be $75.57 mil plus whatever Miami signed WR Brandon Gibson to (details yet to be released). This means the Dolphins are projected to have just over $47 million in cap space (minus Gibson’s cap hit). That number could be increased dramatically by working with the deals for these players:

• Matt Moore: $4 mil. Devlin could be ready to be the back up at that point.
• Richard Marshall and Dimitri Patterson: both at $5.3 mil.

Outside of that, Miami is spending their money on Wallace, Ellerbe, Wake, Wheeler, Hartline, Fields, and Pouncey. Everyone else is making less than $1 million. In the space of two offseasons Ireland has made this a very young and cheap team that, believe it or not, has a lot of drafted players on it.

These players aren’t receiving a ton of recognition… yet. Hopefully Philbin and company can continue to coach these guys up and, with added play makers in the 2013 draft, this team will start to impress all of us again.

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Michael Miller

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