Tua Tagovailoa missed five games due to injury last season, yet the Miami Dolphins still managed to finish with an 8-9 record. It’s the first time they’ve missed the playoffs since Mike McDaniel became the team’s head coach in 2022.
While injuries certainly played a factor, now the Dolphins get to spend the offseason hunting for upgrades that can help Miami return to the postseason. To do so, they may have to create salary cap space to cut ties with some talented players.
Related: 1 bold prediction for every NFL team this offseason, including the Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins predicted to cut former All-Pro kicker Jason Sanders
The Miami Dolphins have already begun clearing salary cap space in anticipation of the 2025 NFL offseason kicking off, releasing Raheem Mostert, Durham Smythe and Kendall Fuller. However, the Dolphins might not be done.
Recently, The Athletic’s Jim Ayello predicted the Dolphins’ most likely cap casualty this offseason, and in doing so, he named former All-Pro kicker Jason Sanders.
“The Dolphins’ salary cap is in rough shape, and unfortunately for them, they don’t have many easy outs to free up space. For the biggest impact, they may wind up restructuring or extending contracts for big-money players such as LT Terron Armstead and LB Bradley Chubb — cutting them would incur huge dead-cap hits ($32.7 million for Armstead and $27.3 million for Chubb) — and push more of their money into the future. Sanders is a good kicker and fairly compensated with a cap hit of $4.7 million in 2025. But the Dolphins need cap space, and cutting him would save $3.3 million.”
The Athletic on Miami Dolphins/Jason Sanders
As noted, Sanders was still effective last season, connecting on 90.2% of his field goal attempts. He also drilled 92.9% of his extra points. While his lone All-Pro season came back in 2020, he’s still just 29, so Sanders likely won’t be slowing down any time soon.
Related: Miami Dolphins could move on from 5x Pro Bowl talent this offseason
