The Miami Dolphins are throwing away a lot of money in 2026. For the first time in NFL history, the salary cap is going to be above $300 million, and the Dolphins are burning more than half of that to pay players who aren’t even on their roster.
Since the start of the new league year on March 11, Miami’s first-year general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan pretty much showed us what his plan is for the 2026 season: He wants to blow things up and start over, which is why the Dolphins are pulling off, essentially, a total reset.
That became pretty clear when the team decided to cut ties with Tyreek Hill back in February in a move that came with a $28.2 million dead cap hit. The Dolphins followed that up in early March by dumping Tua Tagovailoa in a move that will cost them $99.2 million in dead cap space. Even some players who appeared to be safe — like Jaylen Waddle — won’t be returning. Miami traded Waddle to the Broncos in a move that will leave $26.3 million in dead cap space for the Dolphins.
Thanks in large part to those three moves, the Dolphins will take on an NFL-record $182.29 million in dead cap space in 2026, according to Over the Cap. That’s the highest number in NFL history. At 60.5%, it’s also the highest percentage of cap space that a team has ever had in dead money. Over the past 13 years, only one team has even used 45% of its cap space on dead money and that came in 2013 with the Raiders, who were at 47.1%. The Dolphins’ dead cap number is unprecedented.
The $99.2 million dead cap hit from Tua is the largest by any player in NFL history, but the Dolphins will catch a small break there. Since Tagovailoa is a post-June 1 cut, that means the team can spread the cap hit over two seasons, so they take a $55.4 million hit in 2026 and a $43.8 million hit in 2027.
To put the Dolphins’ $182.29 million dead cap hit into perspective, that number is more than the ENTIRE salary cap was as recently as 2018, when the cap was at $177.2 million. No other team has ever had more than $130 million in dead cap space, so the Dolphins are truly in a league of their own. Even the 2024 Broncos, who had to deal with a $53 million dead cap hit due to Russell WIlson’s contract, only had $89 million in dead cap space.
So how do you end up with nearly $200 million in dead cap space? Well, the Dolphins are taking a financial hit from a total of 16 players who won’t be on their roster this year (Numbers via Over the Cap).
The Dolphins are taking a dead cap hit of more than $10 million on seven different players, including two — Jalen Ramsey and Terron Armstead — who haven’t played a down for the team since 2024. Armstead and Ramsey both played their final game with Miami during Week 18 of the 2024 season.
Mimi fired Chris Grier as general manager back in October, which is what happens when you keep handing out contracts that don’t end up panning out.
Sullivan has done his best to fix things in his two months on the job, but when you have $180 million in dead cap space, there’s just not much you can do. That means the Dolphins only have about $120 million to spend on players this year, and in that situation, it’s hard to compete. Despite the limited cap space, the Dolphins were able to sign a quarterback in free agency in Malik Willis, who got a three-year, $67.5 million deal.
Even with the addition of Willis, the 2026 season still pretty much seems like a throwaway year for the Dolphins, which probably explains why they were at the top of our list of teams that will likely tank for Arch Manning this year.