Dolphins Paying the Price for 2024 Spending Spree

The decision by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross to basically run it back in 2025 with GM Chris Grier and head coach Mike McDaniel seemed like a very quick decision in light of his media statement coming the night of the regular season finale.

In reality, that decision probably was made last summer when Ross was busy signing checks on a new contract not only for McDaniel but for a core group of players — Tua Tagovailoa, Jaylen Waddle, Jalen Ramsey and Tyreek Hill.

One NFL season later, the summer of spending isn't looking very good.

What Ross and the Dolphins got in the first year for those millions and millions of dollars handed out and committed in the form of contract extensions and restructured deals was the team's first losing season since 2019 and a nasty cap situation that made retooling the roster for a return to the postseason pretty tricky.

And the likelihood now is that Ramsey won't play a second season with the Dolphins after signing his new deal, and the same might apply for Hill, who has continued to give the organization indigestion by making headlines of the wrong kind.

TUA GETS THE BIGGEST DEAL

Of course, the biggest contract decision the Dolphins made last summer was giving quarterback Tua Tagovailoa a four-year extension instead of having him play on his fifth-year option.

The Dolphins almost backed themselves into a corner of Tua or else by their public comments and their roster construction, so it seemed a given all along they would give him his big-money extension, particularly after he conducted a sit-in at the opening of training camp.

But instead of getting validation for their decision after giving Tagovailoa an extension that potentially could be worth as much as $212 million over the next four years, we got more of the same question marks we had before regarding first and foremost his durability — he wound up missing a career-high six games because of another concussion and, perhaps even more troubling, a hip injury — along with his ability to raise his game and elevate the team against high-end opponents toward the end of the season.

The Dolphins did get an advantage with the salary cap with the extension last year because Tagovailoa's cap number went from $23 million (the fifth-year option number) to $9 million. But that cap number jumps to $39 million in 2025, which is why the Dolphins find themselves some $12 million over the cap at this time.

And by being on the roster on the third day of the league year this offseason, Tua now has $54 million guaranteed for 2026. And his cap number is $39 million, and those both are pretty high figures if the Dolphins are going to be in rebuilding mode.

Of course, the Dolphins have had the option of restructuring his contract to bring down the cap number, but that also would mean adding more cap obligations in future years and being tied to him longer — which is fine if the Dolphins are making deep playoff run, though we're still waiting for those.

And the big question that needs to be asked is what kind of contract Tagovailoa would have gotten this offseason had the Dolphins not budged last year and he had become a free agent. We'll go ahead and suggest it would look more like the three-year, $100 million contract Baker Mayfield signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers than what Tagovailoa ended up getting because, well, "The market is the market."

TYREEK, RAMSEY AND THE UNNEEDED NEW DEALS

But even more troubling were the new contracts given to Hill and Ramsey.

The Dolphins already had redone Ramsey's contract after they acquired him in that trade with the Los Angeles Rams in 2023 and he had three years left on his deal, but an extension was done anyway to make him the NFL's highest-paid cornerback after Patrick Surtain II had moved to the top.

It was kind of the same situation with Hill because the Dolphins didn't have to do anything with his contract because it still had three years left on it, albeit with no guaranteed money beyond 2024. This was a case of the Dolphins rewarding a player for a job well done the previous two seasons, but probably not a wise business decision.

McDaniel also had two years left on his contract before he signed his extension, and it's not the norm for organizations to re-up their head coach in those situations.

Again, this was a case of Ross and the Dolphins rewarding two folks for a job well done, except that a year later neither McDaniel nor Ramsey look as good as they did after the 2023 season.

All it took was one year.

The biggest gripe from this end is the Dolphins handing out contracts last summer like a team needing to reward its key components, which is fine if it comes after a championship or at least a deep playoff run, but this remains a franchise without a playoff victory since December 30, 2000.

Was there really a crying need to be so generous with big-money new contracts?

The answer seems pretty obvious right now.

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