The Miami Dolphins keep circling back to the same issue this year: the cap. That’s been a major part of the rebuilding blueprint for 2026, with the team trying to create as much flexibility as it can now and beyond.
Since Jon-Eric Sullivan took over as general manager in January, salary-cap management has sat near the center of nearly every decision. And the latest moves show the work still isn’t finished.
According to Spotrac, the Dolphins recently made a series of conversions to open up more room. The players involved were defensive tackle Zach Sieler, tight end Greg Dulcich, tackle Austin Jackson and cornerback JuJu Brents. In all, those moves created about $2.5 million in extra cap space by turning roster bonuses or, in Brents’ case, salary into signing bonuses.
Sieler’s adjustment barely moved the needle in comparison to the others, creating $408 of cap space and bringing his 2026 cap number down to just over $11 million. That still leaves him with the biggest cap hit on the roster. Jackson’s number dropped to $6.7 million after the Dolphins saved $1.2 million through his conversion.
Per Spotrac, Miami now sits at about $8.8 million in cap space, which ranks 21st in the NFL.
That number looks modest next to the Dolphins’ massive dead-cap burden. Miami is carrying more than $180 million in dead cap space, led by Tua Tagovailoa’s $55 million figure and spread across 90 players. There are 13 players with dead-cap numbers of at least $1 million: Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Jalen Ramsey, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Bradley Chubb, Terron Armstead, James Daniels, Zach Wilson, Alec Ingold, Jonnu Smith, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Matthew Judon.
The next name on that list is linebacker Tyrel Dodson, who still counts $768K against the Dolphins’ salary cap after being released during cutdowns to the 53-player limit.
Even so, Miami saved about $3 million by letting Dodson go rather than guaranteeing his salary as a vested veteran if he had been on the 53-man roster in Week 1. That same evaluation was apparently shared elsewhere, because Dodson started the 2026 season on the Carolina Panthers practice squad before they later signed him to their active roster.
It was not a huge cap swing, but the move fit where the Dolphins are as an organization. Dodson was not really part of their plans beyond 2026, and any unused cap space rolls over into the next year.
"He was a pro," GM Jon-Eric Sullivan said about Dodson after he was released. "He competed.
It's a very fair question, like why would you move on from T-Dot, but I think it really just highlights how we feel about the young guys on our team. There's so many factors that go into when you're cutting the 53 down, it's layered.
Both long-term and short-term, there's financial components. There's all kinds of things that go into the decisions."
That last part matters most: "financial components."
That’s clearly a driving force behind what Miami is doing with its roster in 2026, and it doesn’t look like that’s changing anytime soon.
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Johnson wasnt trying to spin it afterward, acknowledging he still has room to improve as he settles into the league. For Miami, the encouraging part was Hafleys explanation that teammates took ownership of the mistakes, a sign the rough debut may have been more about collective miscues than one young defensive back getting exposed. [Read more 🡒]