Don’t worry about it.

That’s our take.   Don’t worry,   It will all work out.

If there’s a player we really really want/need, we’ll find the money to make it work.  If there’s a player who is expendable, he’ll be gone.  The money has less to do with it than you think.

I remember really really wanting to keep Paul Solai a few years back.  The Dolphins let him walk, ostensibly because of salary cap demands.   But in retrospect, the Dolphins let him walk because his best days were behind him.   This has been proven over the past two years, as Solai has remained a very stable and average player, nothing more.

The Dolphins knew they could jettison an average player.  The move had little to do with money.  And that happens more than you think.

A “salary cap casualty” is just a made-up term for the team saying, “We don’t want this fella on our team no more.”    Pretending you can’t afford him is a nicer way of saying he’s unwanted.

Last year, the Dolphins hired a guy named Suh.   The contract was worth $115 million.   The NFL salary cap last year was only about $145 million.   That means Miami had only $30 million to pay 52 other players, right?  An average of only $540,000 per player, right?

Nope, not at all.   $115 million was Suh’s deferred salary over several years, not one year.   Accountants are geniuses at burying this stuff, to defer money here and there, back-ending money until well in the future.  The bottom line:  If the Dolphins want a player that they cannot afford, the accountants can make it happen.

For all my critiques of the team, the one thing I don’t criticize them for is losing guys over money.  It doesn’t happen.    I lambaste the organization for getting rid of All Pros like Vontae Davis and Reggie Bush, for example, but those guys were let go for Joe Philbin’s stupid control issues, not for money.

No, luckily, we rarely lose a guy over money.

Not many people remember Deion Sanders as a 49er, but he was.   The year the 49ers signed him, they were millions and millions of dollars OVER the cap.   They were higher over the cap than any other team before they signed him.   But they still signed him.

Sure, there were probably shenanigans involved, but they made the deal.   The most expensive free agent ever (at that point) went to the team that was the most broke.   It’s all due to the magic of creative financing.

So when other reporters and websites tell you that there is NO WAY the the Dolphins can afford to keep Wake AND Vernon AND Shelby, I want you to cry foul!

The Dolphins probably won’t keep all three; that part is true.   But the reason is that Vernon became somewhat of a liability with his stupid penalties and inconsistent play.   Wake may not be ready for the season (remember, a torn achilles takes a full year to heal), and if the Dolphins don’t think he’ll be ready for 2016, they may cut him due to lack of 2016 productivity, not lack of 2016 money.

Another reason not to worry about money–and this reason is snide but true–is that player quality is far more important than player salary.   What I mean is that say there were no salary cap at all…a team could sign whoever they wanted at any salary they wanted…the Dolphins would still find a way to muck it up.

We don’t miss out on good players because of money.   We miss out on good players because our executives have poor judgment.

Would you rather have Jeff Ireland and Mike Tannebaum spend $500 million for you?   Or have Bill Polian and Ron Wolf spend $5 million for you?   We’ll take the latter, please.

Money isn’t everything.

 

60 Comments

  1. Speaking of salary cap. rumor is Dawn Aponte is leaving Miami and going to Detroit. Supposedly Tenenbaum has something to do with it.

    1. Author

      Dawn Aponte is a baffling rumor. I can’t get it confirmed or denied. And although there are many many speculations out there, we’ve never been certain how much power she has. Some say she is just an accountant. Others say she has as much power as Tannenbaum.

  2. Tannepuke needs to give back the money he is STEALING from the Dolphins so they can use it elsewhwere to improve the team.

  3. Ross is famous for making huge blunders in pay. He low balled Matt Flynn, Vonta Leach, and Peyton Manning or we might have been in the SB. And he grossly overpays for Tannehill and Suh.

    1. Matt Flynn-LOL! Manning was NEVER doming here.

  4. Great article admin. I agree with everything. However i got a problem with the end. I would take Wolf in a heartbeat but Polian seems washed out. Historically maverick Gms tend to wash out. I.E. Joe Thomas, Bobby Beathard, Gil Brandt. Ireland and Hickey were always washed out.

    Let’s hope Grier is a good one because if you don’t bring good players, you are doomed.

    1. Author

      Palo….maybe not Polian right here right now, but over the course of his long career, he’s proven himself to be better than anyone Miami has ever had!

      1. Better than Joe Thomas who built not only the Dolphins ONLY Superbowl champs plus the Vikings of the late 60’s and early-middle 70’s and the middle 70’s Colts? Eventually, like most of these personnel gurus, he burned out with the niners.

    1. But I fully agree w/the sentiments, its back to making fun of Fin’s again!

    2. Hi PhinsUp – Thanks for posting the article.

      FYI, the updates at the end say that Dawn Aponte is staying in Miami.

  5. How many years will the Dolphins waste with crap QB’s? Was it 4 with Henne and next year will be 5 with Tannepuke? 9 years wasted?? And counting?? YIKES!!

  6. What about Fiedler, A J Feely, Frerotte, Harrington, Culpepper, Lemon, Green, Beck, Moore? A parade of boobs!

  7. Fiedler, Ferotte,Moore, and Pennington weren’t bad at least better than Henne and Tannebust.

    1. Dolphins qbs are so bad that people rate high the bad ones v. the worst ones. All of these guys were bums! How many SB did they reach? ZERO!

      1. Fiedler’s stint with the Miami Dolphins featured three 10+ win seasons in four years, two 11–5 seasons in 2000 and 2001, an AFC East title, and two postseason appearances including a victory for the Miami Dolphins.

        1. Fiedler a good qb? Are you serious? Lay off the pipe man.

          You are “massaging the facts”. You should have added that fins had these winning seasons because they had 6-8 pro-bowl players in the team, Fiedler not one of them. His lonely playoff win against the colts was not because of his passing, as he threw 3 interceptions. It was due to Lamar Smith 40 runs for 209 yards giving the fins 43 m TOP and keeping the bombastic megalomaniac in the bench.

          Furthermore, in 2004, as Dolphins talent was dwindling, HE WAS 1-6 AS A STARTER, BENCHED AND REPLACED BY ANOTHER BUM, A J FEELY!

          In addition, he was released by the fins the next year and only the stinking jests brought him in where he played in 2 games, throwing a total of 13 passes before released for good.

          Nobody in the NFL ever expressed an interest in this bum.

          Needless to say, he never even smelled the SB. He did not even smell the CC either.

          Look, I know that this team had become so bad that
          many dolphans would be satisfied with a winning record/playoff appearance.

          I won’t be satisfied until the dolphins become a SB contender.

          1. He wasn’t a franchise QB but Feidler was a good QB and a great athlete. A decathlon champion. Hey, Marino didn’t win a SB either.

            1. A good qb with a 77.1 lifetime rating?

              A decathlon champion that never even made the Olympic team?

              Give me a break!

              Fiedler was and is a loser, a game manager that could not even manage the game.

              1. The only stat that matters is the W’s and Feidler got those. He was a winner.

                1. Honestly, and hate me if you wish, but I seriously believe that if Fiedler wasn’t injured in 2002, the Dolphins would have at least made the AFC title game that year. With Ricky Williams and that D in their prime (and Fiedler’s 84 qb rating that year) I think they would have done some damage in the playoffs. Instead we got Mr. fumbles Ray Lucas.

                  1. Author

                    Yep, Fieldler’s injury and Chad Pennington injuries–ruined a few promising seasons.

                  2. I agree Feidler was an above average QB. He won games with his legs and scrambling ability and was very athletic.

            2. Gee,I wonder how many “good athletes” don’t play? WTH hell does “good athlete” have anything to do with anything?

    1. Bokamper imtercepts Theisman’s tipped pass and scores, Redskins would fall behind, the diesel would not have been a factor and Dolphins win SB. Every player should expect 1-2 big plays coming his way every game. They execute it, their team usually wins.

      1. Author

        Palo brings up painful memories.
        A little effort from Bokamper, and we were Super Bowl champions. Instead, Kimmy waited and waited and waited for the ball to come down, instead of jumping up and snatching it. Meanwhile, Joe Thiesmann is about a foot shorter than Bokamper, and he easily reached up to swat it away.
        That play should be required viewing for all pro athletes…do NOT just sit there and wait for ball/puck to come to you. Reach out and take it. Bokamper cost us badly.

        1. Kind of like that sissy Leb Ron Newton who didn’t make any attempt to recover his fumble.

          1. Author

            Actually, what Newton did was WORSE than make no effort. He literally jumped backwards. Even if he stood around and watched…that would have been better than jumping away from the ball like he did.

            1. Marino always ran the other way after a fumble or INT.

    2. To echo the sentiment of others for the past few weeks…

      Coach Gase looks like a guy that doesn’t know what to do with his hands. I know I can’t judge a man based on a pic (and also a press conference, etc.), but also a picture is worth a thousand words.

      In this picture Coach Shula seems to dwarf Gase in a lot of intangibles. Confidence would certainly be up there. Shula also looks like the kind of person who will “get in there” and get his hands dirty; despite that fact that he’s almost 90 years old. Gase…not so much.

      Once again, I hope his actions on in the offseason and on the field prove me wrong!

      1. Bah – meant to post this reply to the picture I uploaded…not the Super Bowl story…oh well…

        1. Even when Shula was Gase’s age he looked tough had a commanding exterior. Even if inside he was weak , his stern look would convince you otherwise. Gase looks way too young, polished, and appears more suited to working in an office corporate structure than being the leader of men. Then again Joe Robbie once said about himself “Im the idiot who hired all the geniuses. ” So maybe Gase doesn’t need to be like Shula so much as he needs to surround himself with talented assistants to make up for his deficiencies. Im still wondering why in the hell our team is obsessed with rookie head coaches. When was the last time this team hired a head coach with previous NFL HC experience? You know the ole definition of insanity?
          Chew on this thought. Dave Wannstedt was the last HC hired with previous HC experience. Yeah its been that long.

          1. And Wannstedt was the last HC with a winning record in Miami.

          2. Wanstach had HC experience destroying the bears and he also destroyed the dolphins. He’s been fired from every HC job he had, NFL and college.

            1. Wannstedt won a Coach of the Year honor with the Bears had a winning record with the Dolphins and had 3 SB titles albeit as an assistant. He also had 94 NFL wins. Quite a resume’. I’d take him back in a heartbeat over the last 6 Dolphin coaches.

              1. Evidently, you fail to see that the longer Wanstache’s HC with the dolphins and bears, the worst these teams did, that’s why he was fired.

                If he is so hot, how come no team wants anything to do with this repulsive bum?

                Why don’t you start a campaign rehire Wanstache if you honestly believe he’ll take the fins to the SB?

            2. Under Wannstedt, the Dolphins regular season record was 42-31, with playoff appearances in his first two seasons.

              1. You need to check your stats. According to pro-football-reference that com his overall record is 82-87, a pathetic 48.5% and 2-3 in the playoffs, an even worst record. Obviously, he never made it past the divisional playoff.

                Is he a shoo-in to the PFHOF?

                I cannot understand your fascination with this worthless repulsive loser that has the charisma of a loaf of bread and an IQ not higher than room temperature.

        2. Author

          I understand that our executivesa wanted a youngish, exciting offensive coordinator. Then why not wait a few weeks and hire Mike Shula…His offenses are running up scores on the best defenses in the league. 70+ points in two playoff games?

      2. Don Shula could probably still outcoach Gass.

    1. See my comment about this pic above…I posted it accidentally in the anniversary of Super Bowl XVII slideshow…

  8. Clearly Tannenbaum made a huge blunder giving Tannebust that contract and hired a yes man HC that will keep Tannebust and put off recognizing his gigantic mistake. Kicking the can down the road at the team and fans expense.

    1. You can only kick the can down the road so far. Eventually, he’ll catch up to it and he’ll be gone.

    2. Yeah, hiring and firing all these coaches to try and improve Tannehill is indeed kicking the can down the road. Its laughable.

  9. I think some of the incoming coaches will be disappointed in what is between Tannyhill’s ears! It isn’t much! Some will be surprised at his ability to stand like a statue until he is tackled! Some will be surprised at his ability to see only one receiver per play!

    1. During RT’s physical with the dolphins they lit a flashlight on his left ear and the light came out of the right ear.

  10. At the very bottom of Tannehill’s contact it said

    sign here :

    and Tannehill wrote LEO!!

  11. @Admin

    “Don’t worry about it. That’s our take. ”

    Who is OUR?? You and your wife? Daughter? LOL
    You mean YOUR take? YES?

  12. Author

    “Our” is the entire Dolphins Truth team.
    Our take is rarely wrong either,so we reiterate that there’s no need to worry about cap space.

    1. @Admin
      Ok, so whom is the Dolphins truth team? You and your wife? LOL

  13. @Admin

    I mean… whom do you claim you’re speaking for? Enlighten us. LOL

  14. Author

    Our new defensive coordinator is the guy who most recently was in charge of Adam Pacman Jones…the guy who cost the Bengals a sure playoff win.
    Wow. We could be in trouble.

    1. You need to check your stats. According to pro-football-reference that com his overall record is 82-87, a pathetic 48.5% and 2-3 in the playoffs, an even worst record. Obviously, he never made it past the divisional playoff.

      Is he a shoo-in to the PFHOF?

      I cannot understand your fascination with this worthless repulsive loser that has the charisma of a loaf of bread and an IQ not higher than room temperature.

    2. I don’t think we’ll have to worry he’ll be coaching in the playoffs.

  15. Sorry about the repeat comments. A couple of pops of Mephisto and box comments start moving all over the board.

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