The Miami Dolphins will need to make some moves in free agency if they want to compete with the New England Patriots and New York Jets in the AFC East next season.
One of the primary issues here is that Miami finds itself $3.9 million over the cap after placing the transition tag on Olivier Vernon earlier this week.
Needless to say, some work needs to be done here if the Dolphins are going to be viable players on the free-agent market.
As expected, the team took its first step in overcoming these cap issues by restructuring the contracts of defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and linebacker Koa Misi:
We have restructured the contracts of defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and linebacker Koa Misi.
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) March 6, 2016
Suh, the prized free-agent signing around the football world last spring, was set to count $28.6 million against the cap.
There’s no official numbers regarding Suh’s restructure, but the necessary language was built into his contract to make this an eventuality. Miami could easily push back a huge chunk of that cap hit to future years.
Regarding Misi, he was set to count $4.9 million against the cap in 2016. Any cap savings there would be significantly less than the move to restructure Suh.
With Derrick Shelby and Lamar Miller set to hit free agency, these savings could be used to re-sign these two starters. Though, Miami may not want to dole out a big deal to Shelby after handing out the $12.7 million transition tag to fellow defensive end Olivier Vernon.
* All contract information provided by spotrac