The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

There's a lot of chatter talking about the Vikings parting ways with Dalvin Cook this offseasaon.  I think he's due a pretty substantial roster bonus that may force their hand.  As such, there have been a lot of tweets and commentary stating that he wants to play for the Dolphins.  He supposedly posted this photo in his instagram stories...

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FurV7oJWwAMFIy5?format=jpg&name=medium)

Do you think the Dolphins have room on the roster for this guy?

We have absolutely no room for him. We brought back Mostert and Wilson Jr. who did a nice job last year and we just drafted Devon Achane who McDaniels loves and lobbied to get. Cook is very good and I wouldn't want him to go to Buffalo, but I don't see how we make it work. Mostert and Wilson are McDaniels guys as well, cutting them after signing them would be a dirty move.

Can we afford him would be my 1st question? Second, do teams actually use 3 RBs consistently? Rotate them to keep them fresh?

I guess we could throw the wishbone into the playbook with Cook, Mostert, and Wilson in the backfield. That would be scary with Tyreek and Waddle on the outside. Then couldn't you split them all out into a 4 or 5 WR play depending on what shell the defense is playing? I'm not up to date on the pre snap motion rules.

Have to take into account the guy we drafted also. But then again, he could sit and/or cover any injuries to starters for his first year.

I think, if you bring in Cook, he could be in a starting rotation with Mostert, who is historically injury prone.  Wilson would be in the mix too. 

I think Gaskin and Ahmed would hit the road.

The thing that i don't think the Dolphins can do is pay him.  Is he willing to take a discount to play on this roster?  We'll see.  But I can't imagine they can find a way to fit him into the cap with so many big salaries in there already.

I'm still trying to get used to free agents actually wanting to come to Miami.

What can I say, it's nice to be a destination team for the right reasons... not for players to basically take a big pay check and party on to retirement, but wanting to be part of a team to win the whole lot!

McDaniel got the ball rolling, and the players have taken it a huge step further. Getting rid of the pool room last year was a huge statement to the whole group - the party is over, they are here to win a championship, and you get your fun playing well and winning. Hill and Armstead are a huge part of that, and Tua and X are leaders too in that.

If Cook is willing to take a pay cut to fit him in, then why not? It's another sign that we're primed to take a big step to what we all want, and he will be a very valuable addition.

For the record, they didn't get rid of the pool room.  They did "get rid of" the ping-pong table... so they could replace it with a newer one (https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/tyreek-hill-says-dolphins-removed-damaged-ping-pong-table-from-locker-room-to-replace-it-with-a-new-one/).

And then removed it again prior to playing the Jets at the end of the season. I can't remember who exactly but I think it was possibly Brandon Jones who said as of last week it was not in the locker room.

They removed the ping pong table so they had more room for gurneys.

https://phinphanatic.com/posts/mike-mcdaniel-is-eating-oreos-and-basically-telling-everyone-that-the-miami-dolphins-are-signing-dalvin-cook-01h1sppxmdh3

Really looks like we are getting Dalvin Cook this week. I still don't know how this works as we re-signed our two backs from last year and drafted one that McDaniel is high on, but it certainly doesn't make us a worse team. I just think we may have to let one of Mostert or Wilson Jr. go, which may be the nice thing to do rather than not dress them for half the year.

Only weak spots this team has is the O-Line and we might address that soon because we just got the "Byron Jones Lottery Money".

Sounds like the team captains and the coach are NOT on the same page regarding ping pong ball status, if just that no biggie, but could be a sign of larger communication issues.

I agree that the team has more pressing needs but I think Cook is head and shoulders better than all the other guys on the roster, and he seems like he wants to play here.  I wonder what a roster looks like with Cook, Mostert, Wilson and Achane, maybe Gaskin and Ahmed are odd men out.  You know they like to rotate players to keep legs fresh.  Maybe Mostert or Achane find a way to contribute on kick/punt returns?  Cook is a little fragile so keeping talent at the position is required.

We can't have 6 running backs. 4 is still too many but we say that now and then Week 4 comes up and 3 of them are out with ankle issues and we're starting a rookie. I really like all 4 guys we have, but it's not fair to expect someone like Mostert to produce on 5 touches a game, if that. Pass catching helps, but Tyreek and Waddle already monopolize passes and deservedly so. I would let one of the 4 go so the other 3 can get more consistent action but it's still a good problem to have.

There is no universe in which MIA releases Mostert or Wilson while keeping Gaskin or Ahmed.  That's insanity.

I pretty clearly said Gaskin and Ahmed are "odd men out" - I never said to keep 6 RB's.

Last year, MIA had Mostert, Gaskin, Ahmed, and Edmonds/Wilson.
There's no change in roster spots to field Mostert, Wilson, Achane, and Cook.

As an FSU fan I would like to see this but I don't think it will happen. I can't see us spending that much money on a position that is that we don't put a ton of value on. Our receivers are our bread and butter of the offense. I think Cook is using Miami to get more money from Denver and others.

He's been saying he wants to go to Miami for awhile now. It's possible he just wants more money, but it won't be a lot more anywhere else. Plus, this is a Superbowl team, what is he going to do in Denver but be cold and win 6 games?

Reports are saying that Cook is looking for "significant money" this offseason. So, if he holds firm to that, he won't be a Dolphin. Truth is, I don't think he will be playing because very few teams have significant money left at this stage of the offseason and the ones who do generally are terrible.

This might be a leak from his agent to get the bidding up, his best bet is to sign the small deal with Miami, have a monster yera in our offense and then get the big contract next offseason.

The longer this goes the more it looks like he's about the money. Rumor is the Dolphins are around 5 million and he's wanting 10 million. Even if those numbers are off a little they are still worlds apart.

I don't think we even have $10 Million to give since we have to sign the draft class and no one wants to have $.49 left in Week 1 in case something comes up. Not even a matter of if we think he's worth it, just a finance game at this point. Being a June 1st cut hurts the players since rosters are mostly set and money is mostly spent, he's going To have to understand that or sign for $3 Million in Week 3 for some team with a bad offense that hurts his value going into 2024.

He's a luxury for the Dolphins and why I never felt he was ever going to be one. RBs can lose their career faster than anyone so you know he wants as much as possible. See Ezekiel Elliot.

We've signed everyone except Smith from the draft.

Is the money we saved from cutting Jones even being used to sign our draft class? Seems like those two numbers have always been mentioned separately.

Hard to get the numbers down as a few places have different ones,  but the Jones money helped sign the draft class or a few of them and we have maybe $9 Million left? Even with that, hard to upgrade at RT if one falls in our laps at the last second, especially not if we give it all to Cook.

Rumor is the Dolphins have offered him a contract and are awaiting a response.

Rumor is he has multiple offers. Until he signs something I've stopped giving it any attention.

Same. It's sad but these guys need to realize the days of paydays for running backs are over. The kid we just drafted in the 2nd round is receiving high praise already and it wouldn't be shocking if he posts similar averages to Cook this season. I will still take Cook at the right price if that's an option, but I don't think the team is sweating if he goes elsewhere. Just preferable he doesn't go to an AFC rival.

No offense but the kid we just drafted hasn't been hit once yet. I wish I had a dollar for every person who looked world class in the offseason workouts and then tanked once the season began. I laugh because even Omar said Liam Eichenberg is looking better than Conner Williams at center based off of no hitting practices.

edited to add that according to Joe Rose the other day .... Dalvin has been training with Tua and some others in South Florida. Make of it what you will as Dalvin is from there but that's the story.

I think there was a report a few weeks back that Cook was working with Tua's trainer at the time.

He clearly wants Miami, but he wants the most money now and in the future. His best shot at a Superbowl this year is with us, but with 2 capable backs and a highly touted rookie already in the mix, how many touches will he get? That will hurt his future money unless someone gets cut or injured.

He's backed off the earlier talks about getting all the carries. In his interview this week he said this before he went into how much the Dolphins are a perfect fit for him.

I want to go and be the piece that can just help somebody win and get over the hump, and whatever that situation when it comes to me taking less reps but me being in the perfect situation. To hold up that trophy, I don't mind. I just want to go somewhere. I just get the ball and just help somebody win and turn the next page.

I would like to think he means that, but the truth is our budget is limited like many teams, so our offer is what we can afford, not what we think he is worth. If he truly means all these statements, he would sign right now. What more can he squeeze from us, an extra $200k? The cap is the cap.

fundamental question:  Do incentives and bonuses count against the salary cap?

I think they do not, but that's a way they could get him into an agreement he likes, financially, while getting him paid for performing not just getting hurt and sitting on the bench.

However, I do not think he will end up here.  In the end, he has to decide if he wants the cash or the experience, and if history and other free agent RB's follows, he will choose the money.

They have to.  If they didn't, every single contract in the league would be structured as a league minimum salary, with a signing bonus and additional incentives for every game you remain on the roster.  Even if you required the incentives to be performance-based, you could sidestep the cap by giving your QB a minimum salary contract with a huge "performance-based incentive" attached to 1 successful completion.

"Tyreek Hill restructures his contract to make $9.25 an hour plus a $90 Million signing bonus."

I could be mistaken but I think a signing bonus is prorated yearly over the entire length of the contract. I'm not 100% sure

That sounds about right.

Incentives count against the cap if they are "likely to be earned", which is the case if the player met the criteria in the previous season. Pure participation criteria are, IIRC, always considered likely to be earned. (Obviously, if incentives are not "likely to be earned" and wind up being paid out anyway, they still count against the cap - just in the subsequent year - or, if you want to get really pedantic, it applies to the end-of-season cap adjustment for each team, determining the individual team cap for the following season.)

Signing bonuses are prorated across the length of the contract, so a $5 million roster bonus on a 2 year deal would count $2.5 million against the cap each year, despite being paid out on signing.

Roster bonuses are *not* prorated, but count in the year they are paid. The same applies to per-game roster bonuses.

OK, right, so how does one plan a cap scenario when you have a guy with a contract that, let's say, gets 10 million bonus for 20 TD receptions....   There's no way to know if he will reach that.  So, if he gets the 22 TD's, are we suddenly over the cap?  Or does it go against next year's number?

Who is to determine likelihood of achievement....?  Or is this just a GM's responsibility to save room under the cap for it?

https://www.fieldgulls.com/2023/2/15/23600828/how-when-contract-incentives-count-against-salary-cap-nfl-geno-smith-contract-nltbe-ltbe-per-game

I only glanced but it appears if the bonus is likely to be achieved based on last year's numbers. Likely bonus goes against the cap and unlikely does not.

fyo answered both of these:

We know Miami's offer isn't enough to get him to sign but apparently Cook has been offered at least 7 million from Minnesota. I honestly didn't see anyone doing that but I guess its true.

https://dolphinstalk.com/2023/07/esiason-cook-has-7-mill-offer-from-minnesota-using-jets-to-get-more-money-out-of-miami/
Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, on his highly rated WFAN morning radio show, stated that free agent running back Dalvin Cook currently has a $7 million contract offer from the Minnesota Vikings on the table. Even though the Vikings released him, they are interested in bringing Cook back and have sent a deal to him.

According to Boomer, Cook is using the Jets as leverage to get more money out of Miami, and Cook would like to sign with the Dolphins.

I would really like to know what our offer is and what he will take. If it's just another million, get it done. If we're offering $4 Million and he wnats $8 Million, then it looks like it won't happen.