The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Pouncey hinted about it today and it's rumored that he will play guard when he returns.  Keep Satele at center.  It gets the Fins their 5 best o-linemen on the field cause Dallas Thomas and Shelly Smith suck.. We shall see if this ends up being true

That would probably work out the best. Damn, we may actually have an above average Offensive Line.

I can't remember who, ( I think Armando?) but one of the writers had posted something along these lines a few weeks ago. Seemed kind of out there at the time but could be good for us if it happens.

I saw it weeks ago also and thought it made sense. Like MikeO said, it puts the best five guys on the field. I think someone here mentioned Satele playing guard but that seemed so out of place to me since I don't know that he has experience there.

He doesn't, and Pouncey does.  Pouncey was a great guard at UF playing alongside his twin brother who was the center. 

Also why I wanted the phins to get Alex Mack when he was available.

Interesting idea.  I had completely forgotten about Pouncey playing Guard when he was at Florida. 

I don't think that would have been cap feasible.

The Dolphins are projected to be over the 2015 cap by $15-$20 million.

Can't they roll over this year's cap room to offset some of that, if not all of it?

Back to Pouncey.  He played at RG on Sunday and did reasonably well.

Nope, the cap room we had left was already rolled over from 2013. You can't roll over from year to year.

Restructuring a few contracts can accomplish that.

Pouncey did really well at guard. His position when he played at Florida. Now Miami need to pry Nick Mangold from the Jets  ;D

It's always easy to say restructure a few contracts, but players have to want to do it. Keep in mind, we're that far over the cap and have some decisions to make on expiring contracts as well.

Sure, players have to be willing to do it, but in this case, it would involve giving them more of the money they were going to earn anyway SOONER. I doubt many players would have a problem with that.

So who do we restructure?

Again it's easy to say restructure, but opening up cap space now by pushing money into the future doesn't make the problem go away.

We're $15-20 million over the cap for 2015, based on the projection that the cap will not increase too much from 2014. We can't roll over cap space because what we have left was already rolled over from 2013.

We have decisions to make on key players like Jared Odrick and Charles Clay. Keeping Odrick won't be cheap. Clay is driving down his price a bit given his play this season, but he still is going to want more money and there is no tight end to replace him on this roster. You don't have the cap space to franchise those guys and you wouldn't want to anyway. Shelby is an RFA, what are you going to do with him?

You can restructure Wallace, but $3 million of his base salary is guaranteed for 2015. You can't restructure Albert because his entire base salary is guaranteed. Most of Grimes base salary is guaranteed.

You're going to have to cut some big contracts such as Ellerbe and Wheeler in an attempt to get under the cap, but cutting them leaves a lot of dead cap.

So back to the original point...

Alex Mack has double digit cap numbers as far as the eye can see. We're projected to be well over the cap. There are some tough decisions to make with a couple of key players as well as some big contracts. The biggest cap numbers are tough to restructure because of guaranteed base salaries.

I just don't see how the Dolphins could have made that move. They will probably not be big players in free agency next season so they better start getting their heads out of their asses when it comes to drafting quality talent if this team is going to get better in 2015.

I'm not sure this is correct from what I have read a couple times.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1956430-the-art-of-navigating-the-nfl-salary-cap

Let's say a team chooses to spend exactly 89 percent of its share of the salary cap over each of the next four years, rolling over the surplus each time.

That statement makes it appear that a team can roll over four years in a row. Not sure there is a limit.

This article specifically mentions the Dolphins as being able to roll over cap space.

http://www.thephinsider.com/2014/3/23/5538366/dolphins-free-agent-rumors-salary-cap-space-update

Subtract the roughly $4.5 million the team will have to spend on the drafted rookies this year, and Miami has around $14.7 million to spend on free agents, or roll into the 2015 salary cap.

Can a team carry excess/unused cap space into the next year?
Yes. Unused cap space from a team's previous year cap can be added to the following year. The team must notify the league of their intent to rollover cap money at least 14 days prior to the start of the next season's league year.

Does it continue to rollover like cellphone minutes?
No. Rollover money from 2012 into 2013 is treated as "adjusted cap". Any unused "adjusted" money in 2013 cannot be rolled over again into 2014.

http://www.spotrac.com/terms/nfl/can-a-team-carry-excessunused-cap-space-into-the-next-year-295/

^^^ Yea, I didn't expect a continual rollover. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you though. It seemed your point was Miami could not rollover any space they may have this year because they rolled over last year. That does not appear to be correct if that was your point.

Now if you are saying that any cap space available now is all from 2013 I get it. I'm no expert so I don't know how this stuff works. How would you know the current space is from 2013? Wouldn't the money genius work it so that the 2013 money was eaten up first if it is possible? The article I posted clearly states rolling over cap space to next year is an option though.

The Dolphins used $141 million in cap space in 2014. The NFL Salary Cap was $133 million.

Therefore, the Dolphins do not have any cap to roll over.