Breaking Down the Miami Dolphins' Options with Mike Wallace

When the Miami Dolphins went on their free-agent shopping spree in 2013, they did a fantastic job of arranging the contracts in such a way that they had the flexibility to spend more in 2014 and to move on from the 2013 free-agent class in 2015 if need be.

When the Dolphins signed Mike Wallace to his five-year, $60 million contract that offseason, the 2015 season was clearly in the back of their minds. 

In fact, $3 million of Wallace's 2015 base salary will become guaranteed on March 14, according to sports contracts website Spotrac. His total salary-cap hit is $12.1 million, but if the Dolphins move on from him this year, they would gain $5.5 million in cap space and would lose the other $6.6 million to dead money. 

Wallace has played well since joining the Dolphins, but he has not lived up to the massive hype. His $12.1 million cap hit is the sixth-highest in the NFL for a wide receiver this year, despite the fact that Wallace's 67 receptions and 862 yards were both outside the top 30 wide receivers in the NFL, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com. 

Never mind (or mind it, if you wish) the fact that Wallace has reportedly quit on the team several times, according to Armando Salguero of The Miami Herald, the Dolphins are essentially getting Range Rover value with Wallace—paying a lot of money for not a lot of mileage.

But it doesn't have to be this way. Here are the Dolphins' options for Wallace.

Keep Him At His Current Salary

The Dolphins have a lot of talent at wide receiver, but there are a lot of question marks.

Player	Team	Cap hit
Larry Fitzgerald	Cardinals	$23,600,000
Calvin Johnson	Lions	$20,558,000
Andre Johnson	Texans	$16,144,583
Dwayne Bowe	Chiefs	$14,000,000
Vincent Jackson	Buccaneers	$12,209,777
Mike Wallace	Dolphins	$12,100,000
Greg Jennings	Vikings	$11,000,000
Percy Harvin	Jets	$10,500,000
Julio Jones	Falcons	$10,176,000
A.J. Green	Bengals	$10,176,000

Brian Hartline was phased out of Miami's offense a bit last year, with comparably low marks in targets (63), receptions (39) and yards (474), all of which were lower than what he had logged the previous two seasons. Brandon Gibson appeared headed for a big role in the offense in 2013 before he shredded his knee and ended his season; then, when he came back, rookie Jarvis Landry was nestled into his spot.

Will Hartline be with the team for the long haul? Will Gibson? Is Landry capable of reprising his role as the Dolphins' leading receiver next year and for years to come? 

Long story short, it may not behoove them to unload Wallace's salary just yet.

Cut

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press/Associated Press

Things were looking up for Wallace when Bill Lazor became the Dolphins offensive coordinator. He was with the Philadelphia Eagles when DeSean Jackson led the team in receptions, yards and touchdowns. Jackson and Wallace share a similar skill set, so it didn't seem too far-fetched to predict big things for Wallace in the new offense.

He finished as the team's second-leading receiver, but that's not quite what you expect out of a multimillion dollar investment. As mentioned in the introduction, the Dolphins would save $5.5 million by cutting Wallace before the start of the 2015 league year. The question is, would that savings be worth the loss of Wallace?

After all, Wallace led the team in touchdowns (10) in 2014, and while his numbers weren't among the league's best, he was the second-leading receiver on the team in nearly every other category.

Restructure

This seems like the best-case scenario, and not just because it's been reported by Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald as a consideration. 

It's fair to wonder, however, whether Wallace would accept a restructured contract. On one hand, he would get more guaranteed money up front. On the other hand, if he doesn't accept a restructure, he gets a chance to hit the open market and see his value.

That being said, this season's free-agent wide receiver class is shaping up to be a big one, with Demaryius Thomas (Denver Broncos), Dez Bryant (Dallas Cowboys) and Jeremy Maclin (Philadelphia Eagles) among a long list of big names headed for the open market.

If the Dolphins could get Wallace to agree to a deal that would cost roughly $8 million on the cap, it would be worth it.