The Miami Dolphins are reportedly set to release Ndamukong Suh, which is yet another move that sacrifices talent in the name of culture.
During the 2017 regular season, the Miami Dolphins stunned a great deal of the NFL world when they traded running back Jay Ajayi. Reports seemed to indicate that the trade was largely due to Ajayi’s effect on the locker room. Then came the offseason and Miami has again continued with big moves.
After placing the franchise tag on wide receiver Jarvis Landry, they then traded him to the Cleveland Browns. However, the organization isn’t done. After murmurs that they might, ESPN’s Jeff Darlington reported on Monday just before the start of the new league year on Wednesday that the team will release defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh as soon as Monday afternoon.
As Darlington notes, this is clearly a culture play for the Dolphins. All you need to do is look at Miami’s salary cap situation to justify that. Suh, if he were kept, would be the highest cap hit on the roster at $26.1 million. However, Miami saves just $3.9 million by making him a pre-June 1 cut, according to Over The Cap. Granted, he hasn’t been released yet and a post-June 1 cut would save the team $17 million. Even still, they’re taking on a substantial amount of dead money.
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Darlington also calls the trio of Ajayi, Landry and Suh the three most talented players in Miami, which isn’t far from the truth. Thus, his explanation that this is a move for the culture makes a great deal of sense. Frankly, it’s the only explanation that makes financial sense.
Now the Dolphins are left in an interesting position. To make any kind of impact in free agency, they must clear more cap room, which they could do by cutting the likes of Cameron Wake, Julius Thomas and several others. Even still, the money that they would clear would hardly land them the talent to replace the trio that they’ve shipped off.
As such, this is a franchise that will certainly look vastly different come kickoff of the 2018 season. Yes, Ryan Tannehill will be back under center. Even still, they now have substantial holes on the roster that have to be addressed and limited capital to fill those needs.
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Subsequently, it stands to reason that there are two directions for the Dolphins. Either they continue in the manner previously suggested and place enormous value on the culture of the team and how that will play out on the field, or they could be just getting started in terms of trades and even more surprising cuts. Regardless, cutting Suh puts the organization at a crossroads.