Pre-Free-Agency Salary-Cap Update for Miami Dolphins

Can you believe we're only four days away from free agency? 

For the last two years, the start of free agency, March 10, has played out like the Miami Dolphins' Super Bowl. 

By that I mean, it has been the best day of the year for Dolphins fans, as the obscene amount of money spent by the organization on the first day of free agency the last two years has led to high hopes going into the upcoming season. 

The cost of "winning" the first day of free agency? Two 8-8 seasons, and the prospect of facing salary-cap hell in 2015. 

Salary-cap hell would turn out to serve only as a temporary home to the Dolphins, though, as they are now $9,524,826 under their salary cap of $152,365,377 (per NFL.com's Ian Rapoport, the official NFL salary cap is projected at $143 million; the extra money in Miami's cap room is the rollover cap room from 2014). 

Releasing Brandon Gibson and Brian Hartline (per Omar Kelly of The Sun-Sentinel) as well as Nate Garner and Cortland Finnegan (per MiamiDolphins.com), helped clear a total of $13,835,000 off the books. 

There's still more money to come off the books for the Dolphins before free agency starts in five days. 

Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

Linebackers Dannell Ellerbe and Philip Wheeler are expected to be released, and how the players are released will play a big role in how much money the Dolphins will have available. 

If Ellerbe is a pre-June 1 release, the Dolphins will have $5.6 million cleared off the books. If they can wait for June 1, though, they will clear $8.45 million. 

The same factor will affect Philip Wheeler, whose release pre-June 1 only clears $200,000; yet after that magical date it will be $3 million cleared off the books. 

Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

Also factoring into Miami's cap room: the transition tag that Adam Schefter of ESPN reports has been applied to Charles Clay. The tag guarantees Clay $7 million in 2015; however, he might want to forgo the full amount in exchange for future security, so look for him and the Dolphins to agree to a new contract. 

Center Mike Pouncey is in a similar situation, as he's in the final year of his contract, one that will pay him $7.438 million in 2015. I look for him to also forgo the full amount in exchange for the greater security of a long-term deal, and in fact, the Dolphins and Pouncey were working on a new contract as of last month. 

Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

Finally there's the curious case of Mike Wallace, a player whom the Dolphins are attempting to trade (per NFL.com's Ian Rapoport, h/t Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald), won't re-structure his deal (per Omar Kelly of The Sun-Sentinel), and who, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports, the team feels "genuinely uncertain" about keeping, with Jackson adding "There is front-office support for keeping him, but the cap hit is an issue."

I don't like the idea of Wallace being cut or traded, but if either were to happen, the Dolphins would save $5.5 million if Wallace is traded, $2.5 million if he's released now, or $6.9 million if he's a post-June 1 cut. 

The Dolphins have a decent, but not huge amount of cap space, yet with a few moves, they could clear enough to become free-agent players again, like what we saw in 2013 and 2014. 

Then the question will be whether the Dolphins will find more success in 2015 than they did in either of the previous two seasons. 

Time will tell. 

Salary-cap information provided by OverTheCap.com unless otherwise noted. 

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