The Miami Dolphins made a somewhat surprising decision to release Pro Bowl safety Reshad Jones on Wednesday, and the move will give the team even more money to spend this offseason.
Jones was set to count more than $15 million against the salary cap in 2020, and the Dolphins will save a portion of that now. Cutting Jones frees up just over $5 million in cap space for Miami.
Can confirm the Dolphins are cutting Reshad Jones, who was set to count $15.6 million against the cap. He will carry a $10.2 million dead cap charge now.
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) March 11, 2020
The Dolphins already had more cap space than any other team in the NFL before they released Jones. Now, they will have more than $90 million.
The salary cap for 2020 will be around $200 million, which means the Dolphins have nearly 50 percent of it left to spend. Obviously, they can sign any free agent they want with that type of money. They could make a run at top free agent quarterbacks like Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Jameis Winston and Teddy Bridgewater, or they could draft the quarterback many believe they have an eye on and spend money elsewhere.
Should they choose to wait until next season to have a spending spree, the Dolphins can do that, too. The bottom line is they have more flexibility than any team in football. If they don’t spend a significant amount of that money, the tanking talk will come right back to the forefront.
