So it appears that McDaniel has at least made it through the GM search phase.

[Pappy13]

I mean it makes sense. You can't look for a new head coach until you have the GM search resolved anyway, so you might as well wait till you have your GM to make a decision on McDaniel. I did consider just posting this in the other thread I started, but I thought this deserved it's own thread.

I read the below article today and I thought it made a lot of sense. Note that it's not really proclaiming that we should keep McDaniel, it's just stating some reasons that perhaps Ross would like to keep McDaniel. My own thought is that McDaniel deserves another year with a different GM to see if things get better or worse. 7-10 really isn't as bad as it could have been with Hill being lost for the year and with Tua regressing as much as he did. Maybe the GM was a big part of the problem. Maybe it wouldn't really matter. I don't think the Dolphins are going to challenge for the division next year anyway with the salary cap situation the way it is, but let's see what McDaniel and new GM can do. If it all goes wrong next year, fire McDaniel and do a HC search next year, if not then maybe the Dolphins can compete for the division in 2027 with their cap problems behind them.

Exploring the likely reasons the Dolphins have kept McDaniel

Either way it's going to be a very interesting draft and off season. Will they cut Hill and/or Tua? Will they draft a QB? If so are they going after a 1st round QB or try to find a 2nd tier QB? Will the Dolphins try to resign Minkah? Chubb? What about paying Achane? Lots of decisions that the new GM and HC are going to have to decide.

[Downunder Dolphan]

Either way it's going to be a very interesting draft and off season. Will they cut Hill and/or Tua? Will they draft a QB? If so are they going after a 1st round QB or try to find a 2nd tier QB? Will the Dolphins try to resign Minkah? Chubb? What about paying Achane? Lots of decisions that the new GM and HC are going to have to decide.

They will have a hell of a time just balancing the books and trying to find some cap space to start fixing things and paying the people who earned it.

Depending on the timing, moving on from Hill will save the team between $23-36M in cap space (trimming his $52M cap number down to a dead cap number of $16-29M).

Moving Tua will cost the team an additional 43M in cap space (either all in 2026, or over 2026 & 2027)

Chubb is an interesting one. A pre-June 1 cut would only save $7M, but a post-June 1 would save about $20M.

Minkah is further down the list, a pre-June 1 cut would save $6M, post-June 1 $15.6M.

With both Chubb and Minkah, part of the evaluation has to be the leadership they bring to the team - ideally we need some players with a clue coming back next season.

[Pappy13]

Minkah is further down the list, a pre-June 1 cut would save $6M, post-June 1 $15.6M.

I don't think they are going to cut Minkah, but they may want to give him a long term contract to free up some cap space in 2026. I thought he played really well for the Dolphins, they need him on the team in 2026.

[kidDyn0mite]

I don't think they are going to cut Minkah, but they may want to give him a long term contract to free up some cap space in 2026. I thought he played really well for the Dolphins, they need him on the team in 2026.

so what you are saying is that we are screwed...

we probably should just tank the next 4 seasons and stack draft picks till all these mistakes are behind us.

[Pappy13]

so what you are saying is that we are screwed...

we probably should just tank the next 4 seasons and stack draft picks till all these mistakes are behind us.

Nah, it's only 2026 that we are cap space hell. By 2027 there will be plenty of cap space available no matter what happens with Tua and all the rest of these guys. It's not as bleak as you make it out. Next year is a problem. Beyond that things will get better unless of course they try to bring in a bunch of free agents in 2027 to compete for the division or something and screw up the cap again.

[Downunder Dolphan]

Nah, it's only 2026 that we are cap space hell. By 2027 there will be plenty of cap space available no matter what happens with Tua and all the rest of these guys. It's not as bleak as you make it out. Next year is a problem. Beyond that things will get better unless of course they try to bring in a bunch of free agents in 2027 to compete for the division or something and screw up the cap again.

It will depend how much dead money will be moved into 2027 to make 2026 something remotely workable to put a team out on the field, and who we re-sign and bring in, but yeah, it should nowhere be as bad as 2026.

Assuming Tua and Tyreek are both gone (with possibly some dead money creeping in), the biggest cap hits will be Chubb ($31.5M), Waddle ($33.8M) and Seiler ($20.6M). Most importantly, none of that is guaranteed - the biggest hits in that regard are Grant & Chop for $2.8M on their ongoing rookie contracts.

Waddle has a heavily back-ended contract with another big number for 2028 ($37.2M) but not guaranteed. Seiler is the next highest number ($23.4M).

There may still be some pain in 2027, but after that, the Grier curse should be over with.

[Pappy13]

Or maybe not...