The Miami Dolphins were officially eliminated from playoff contention following a Week 15 loss to the Steelers, putting an exclamation point on a rollercoaster ride of a season and positioning the focus on what could be a very loud, expensive offseason (in a bad way).<\/p>\n
The Dolphins currently stand around $1.6M over the estimated $304M league salary cap<\/a> for 2026, with 36 contracts on the books (though two, Zach Wilson<\/a> & Matt Judon<\/a>) are set to void in early March.<\/p>\n Miami holds 8 draft picks in 2026<\/a>, including three third-rounders thanks to a 2025 draft day trade, and the deadline move sending Jaelan Phillips <\/a>\u00a0to Philly.<\/p>\n Early Offseason Questions Notable Free Agents<\/p>\n (Spotrac Market Valuation)<\/p>\n CB Rasul Douglas<\/a> ($4.1M) VIEW ALL FREE AGENTS<\/a><\/p>\n Extension Candidate The 29-year-old remains one of the best defensive backs in the game, currently rated #4 among safeties by PFF at the time of this piece, and is entering a contract year in 2026, set to earn $15.6M against an $18.8M cap hit. He projects toward a 3 year, $60M extension in our system right now.<\/p>\n Bubble Candidates $16M of Hill\u2019s $36M 2026 salary is set to become fully guaranteed on March 13th, so an early March release is widely expected here. The 31-year-old holds a $51.8M cap hit next season, with $28.25M of dead cap up against it. Moving on means $23.65M of much needed cap savings for the Dolphins.<\/p>\n ED Bradley Chubb<\/a> Chubb is slated to earn $20.23M in 2026, but none of that is guaranteed until the start of the season. The 29-year-old has given Miami three strong seasons, but with turnover likely the theme of the offseason, finding a softer landing spot for Chubb (and picking up a draft pick or two) makes sense. There\u2019s $23.8M of dead cap attached to the contract right now, so an early offseason trade will only free up around $7.3M of cap space.<\/p>\n QB Tua Tagovailoa<\/a> Nothing about this contract says it\u2019s time to get out, but the Dolphins may simply have no choice this offseason. Assuming they can\u2019t find a trade partner, Miami could be primed to designate Tua a Post 6\/1 release (before another $3M vests on March 13th). There\u2019s $99,200,000 of dead cap currently attached to the deal, including $54M of fully guaranteed salary. <\/p>\n Tua\u2019s cap hit for 2026 is currently $56.4M. However that cap hit currently assumes (by default) that a $15M option bonus will be exercised this coming March. When that doesn\u2019t happen, that $15M will revert back to base salary, raising his cap hit to $68.4M (22% of the projected league cap). $67.4M of that would become dead cap per a post 6\/1 release, with another $31.8M of dead cap remaining for the 2027 season. In other words, even a Post 6\/1 release would represent a cap-loss here ($11M) for the Dolphins.<\/p>\n Now, there are ways to balance this out a little bit, including converting some of that $54M into a signing bonus prior to processing the Post 6\/1 Designation. If we assume that half ($27M) of the salary is converted, the 2026 cap hit would drop down to $46.8M (which would stay on the books into June), with $45.8M of dead cap then staying with Miami through the 2026 season. However, the 2027 dead cap hit would then rise to $53.4M.<\/p>\n Something else to keep in mind here: One of the big reasons the Denver Broncos felt forced into moving on from Russell Wilson when they did (despite $84M of dead cap; $39M of cash), was that he was set to vest ANOTHER $37M of guaranteed salary early in that offseason. That isn\u2019t the case with Tua & Miami here. Tua\u2019s contract calls for $3M of 2027 salary to become fully guaranteed on March 13th. If Miami decides to ride out this contract through 2026, that $3M guarantee only lifts the 2027 dead cap figure to $34.8M. The Dolphins will be able to move on from Tua after 2026 (without a Post 6\/1 designation), freeing up $15.6M of cap space.<\/p>\n Potential Cap Conversions<\/p>\n RT Austin Jackson<\/a> missed most of 2025 with a toe injury, and he was missed on the field. The 26-year-old is entering a contract year in 2026, set to earn $11.5M against a $15.7M cap hit. An extension could very well be in play here, but if Miami wants to slow play things a bit, a simple salary conversion (plus one more void year) can open up $8.3M of cap space.<\/p>\n If OLB Bradley Chubb<\/a> isn\u2019t traded this offseason, Miami will certainly be looking to adjust his contract for cap purposes ($31.2M cap hit currently). A full salary conversion (plus two void years) can free up over $15.2M of cap space for the Dolphins.<\/p>\n RELATED LINKS
\n
\nDoes HC Mike McDaniel continue in the role? The Dolphins are currently operating with an interim GM (Champ Kelly). It stands to reason that the next person hired will have the ability to make a decision regarding the head coaching job for 2026
\nQB Tua Tagovailoa is fully guaranteed in 2026 ($54M), but is on pace to post career-lows in 2025. Will Miami run this back for one more season, or is a Russell Wilson-like departure forthcoming?
<\/p>\n
CB Ifeatu Melifonwu<\/a> ($4.1M)
TE Darren Waller<\/a> ($2.8M)
S Ashtyn Davis<\/a> ($1.75M)
G Cole Strange<\/a> ($1.5M)<\/p>\n
\nS Minkah Fitzpatrick<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWR Tyreek Hill<\/a>
\nRelease Candidate<\/p>\n
\nTrade Candidate<\/p>\n
\nPost 6\/1 Release Candidate<\/p>\n
2026 Dolphins Salary Cap Table
<\/a>Dolphins 2026 Free Agents
<\/a>Spotrac Offseason Guides<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Miami Dolphins were officially eliminated from playoff contention following a Week 15 loss to the Steelers, putting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[46791,5268,14894,123,125,124,115,4176,7352,46792],"class_list":["post-85338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-2026-financials-miami-dolphins","tag-analysis","tag-contract","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-news","tag-report","tag-research","tag-spotrac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}