“The curious decision of the Dolphins to pay $5 million of his salary in order to get a seventh-round pick and a future fourth round pick for Tannehill and a sixth-round pick increases the cap charge to a whopping $18.423 million.”
So the Dolphins essentially bought a 2020 fourth-round pick from Tennessee by contributing $5M to traded quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s 2019 salary with the Titans. And Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio isn’t a fan of the move.
“While some are skewing reality to heap false praise on the Dolphins…the bottom line is that the Dolphins were trying to make chicken salad.”
Well, yeah. Tannehill’s contract was among the most egregious in all of football. And whether the Dolphins chose to cut him after June 1st to diminish his dead cap salary to $13.423M or traded him and paid the extra $5M dollars, getting something in return is always better than getting nothing.
And, spoiler alert, the Dolphins do not care one iota about the $5M they’re sending to Tennessee. Because the Dolphins are not going to be up against the salary cap in 2019. It’s a luxury buy, allowing Miami added flexibility to ensure they can move up the draft board as much as necessary to target players.
And the Dolphins can afford that luxury because their entire philosophy this offseason is shedding bad payroll. So if there’s criticism to dish out to the Dolphins, it’s that they gave Tannehill the contract in the first place.
But that shouldn’t be an invitation to critique Miami doing what is necessary to shed the player, concede unneeded cash and get a future draft selection of note in return.
