The Miami Dolphins pitched a new philosophy in late February when the team introduced Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. The Dolphins want to build a “sustainable winner” in South Florida after 10 years of throwing free agent dollars at big names to try to patch up the roster and make a push for the postseason. In the 10 years under Stephen Ross, this philosophy has worked once for the Miami Dolphins — so with the shift in mentality comes a more frugal approach, right?
Well — not exactly. The Dolphins all but announced they plan to spend this spring when general manager Chris Grier took the podium in the aftermath of the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade — and that’s okay.
Why? There are two primary reasons why the Dolphins should invest heavily into the free agent market in 2020.
First and foremost, the Dolphins aren’t expected to face significant losses in the free agent pool off their own team, meaning the Dolphins can spend freely without the fear of costing themselves any compensatory picks for the 2021 NFL Draft.
But more importantly, the Dolphins need to kickstart a turnaround and be a much better team in 2020. Job security depends on it. Player development depends on it. And with how the Dolphins have constructed their payroll, they’ve afforded themselves the flexibility of avoiding the mistakes of Mike Tannenbaum’s Dolphins. The Dolphins of old would spend aggressively, see things not pan out and then proceed to restructure contracts, pushing guaranteed money owed to players on the roster into future years in hopes of signing another big name.
The Dolphins can spend freely in 2020 — if they avoid that mistake. Instead of financing guaranteed money, the Dolphins would be wise to pay it in bulk! Front loading big money contracts ensures that if a player doesn’t materialize, the team has the flexibility to cut ties and walk away with all of the cap space and can pivot their personnel decisions. Take cornerback Xavien Howard’s contract as an example:
Miami signed Howard to a 5-year, $75M contract this offseason — a monster deal. But Miami put all of Howard’s guarantees in the first two years of the contract, meaning if Howard were to fall off with his play or suffer an injury to rob him of his explosiveness, Miami could cut Howard and walk away as early as the 2021 offseason in two years with just $4.2M in dead cap.
Miami’s going to spend, but make no mistake — this is a new program with a new mentality. And that’s exactly how it should be.
