The Dolphins Salary Cap Move We Haven't Considered — But Need To

Amid the Dolphins' salary cap decisions in the coming months, one critical decision we haven't considered may be a major key to 2024 flexibility and threading the needle of Miami's big picture goals.

Player cuts. Contract extensions. Potential trades. These are the things that serve as the foundation of the Miami Dolphins’ upcoming offseason. The days, weeks and months ahead will see Brandon Shore, Chris Grier, Mike McDaniel and the rest of the Dolphins’ braintrust pour over the numbers, the tape and the phones to find the right buttons to push entering a critical 2024 season.

These Dolphins are good. But the historical expectation of this franchise and the vision sold to ownership when tearing the roster down to the studs in 2019 didn’t promise ‘good’. It is expected to be great.

Miami will be different in 2024 in many key spots. The salary cap constraints will surely see to that. Defensive tackle Christian Wilkins is looking for a monster payday. The wide receiver room behind stars Tyreek Hill & Jaylen Waddle needs to be reconstructed. Long-time defensive standout cornerback Xavien Howard is on the wrong side of 30 and showing signs of decline as a high-priced veteran. And the interior offensive line is in need of decisions across the board.

One name that likely WILL be a constant for another season? Veteran offensive tackle Terron Armstead. That is, of course, unless he decides he’s done with the game and rides off into the sunset of retirement. Armstead has left the door open for retirement in recent weeks but sounds like someone who is going make a decision sooner rather than later on his future. In one month’s time, he will have 13,250,000 fully guaranteed reasons to suit up in 2024.

That’s Armstead’s salary figure for this season. $5 million of it is currently fully guaranteed, while the remaining $8.25 million guarantees on March 16th; which will make the prospect of cutting Armstead, even post-June 1st, an unattractive cost cutting measure. So as Miami looks to optimize their opportunities this offseason, what can they realistically do here?

There are two sound options for how to proceed with Armstead assuming he commits to playing this upcoming season: