Like it or not, the Miami Dolphins are constantly drawing inspiration from the New England Patriots. With Brian Flores’ extended experience with the Patriots, general manager Chris Grier seems to have embraced the philosophies we’ve seen bear so much fruit for New England.
From the coaching staff, the compensatory pick emphasis, the multiple defense ideology, passive free agent approach and more, Miami morphs more and more into “South New England” seemingly by the day.
So in the spirit of copying the Patriots, what can the current payroll structure of New England’s salary cap tell us about Miami’s future?
New England has four clear cornerstone players: quarterback Tom Brady ($27M in cap in 2019), safety Devin McCourty ($13.45M), ILB Dont’a Hightower ($10.95M) and cornerback Stephon Gilmore ($9.17M).
No other player accounts for more than $8M against the salary cap in 2019 — the only two that account for more than $6.5M are offensive linemen Marcus Cannon ($7.46M) and Shaq Mason ($7.28M).
Now consider Miami’s roster. The team has two clearly defined cornerstone players — CB Xavien Howard and LT Laremy Tunsil, both on rookie contracts. Howard will command between $13M and $15M per year on his new contract and Tunsil will likely command the same when his time comes. Remember, the Dolphins have an extra year of control on Tunsil’s contract courtesy of his 5th-year team option as a first round pick.
Candidates for additional cornerstone players do exist, most notably safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and ILB Raekwon McMillan. But here are the important details: Miami has several years of control on these young players. Two more seasons for McMillan and four more for Fitzpatrick.
And, most importantly, Miami doesn’t have a quarterback at all. And even when they find one, they’ll get five years of a rookie contract for a rookie quarterback, meaning the Dolphins’ cap allocation is going to look significantly different than the New England Patriots for years to come.
