The Miami Dolphins released four players on Monday, effectively putting them in the green for their cap space, but the cuts are likely to keep going.
The new era of Miami Dolphins football began on Monday, as general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan made good on his promises to start rebuilding through the draft.
Four players were released: pass rusher Bradley Chubb, wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, and offensive lineman James Daniels. With those four players out, the Dolphins have now erased their previous $16 million cap space deficit, and there are likely to be more cuts happening in the coming days and weeks.
The releases of Chubb and Hill were predicted long ago, simply due to their bloated contracts. The latter of which suffered a significant leg injury and could be out for the 2026 season.
With the multiple cuts, the Dolphins have already jumped up in effective cap space, sitting at $3 million over the threshold, according to overthecap.com.
Now that Sullivan and the front office have helped propel the Dolphins above the red line for the cap, this is likely just the beginning of the team's rebuild.
Cutting Chubb, Hill, Westbrook-Ikhine, and Daniels further demonstrates that the team is hitting the reset button and looking towards a better 2027 and beyond.
There is also one bigger contract the Dolphins have yet to figure out, and that is of Tua Tagovailoa. The preferred method of shedding the $54 million guaranteed is to trade the quarterback, but that will likely take Miami paying a decent amount of the money and sweetening the deal with draft compensation.
Additional players that may be cut are offensive lineman Austin Jackson and kicker Jason Sanders.
Jackson was hurt throughout most of the 2025 season and has not been able to stay on the field. The Dolphins would save around $11 if the team designates him as a post-June 1 cut, but the team only has two of those.
Considering the Dolphins may have to cut Tagovailoa, one post-June 1 cut could be withheld for that situation. The other could be to use on Jackson, though that would eat up both those cuts for the front office.
Sanders can save the Dolphins nearly all of his owed $4.6 million by moving on. With Riley Patterson stealing the kicking job away, it would make sense for Sullivan to make the decision on Sanders very soon.
The issue with the major cuts going on is that the Dolphins are now thin at multiple positions. Granted, they do have a multitude of draft picks to work with, but the team's depth is becoming razor-thin.
Sullivan's plan was to reset, and that is exactly what is happening. The Dolphins may not be competitive in 2026, but they are looking to be a new team with a new direction in 2027.