Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that the Dolphins remain “genuinely uncertain” about whether they’ll keep WR Mike Wallace.
According to Jackson, there is still some support for keeping him another year.
However, his cap hit is still an issue, and with the talk that Miami could be players for free agent DT Ndamukong Suh, it would be difficult to keep him around at his current price and fit Suh into their cap.
Jackson mentions that the Dolphins have discussed the idea of signing free agent receivers such as : Cecil Shorts, Eddie Royal, Nate Washington and Hakeem Nicks.
Previous reports have said that Wallace isn’t willing to take a pay cut and would instead prefer to test the free agent market.
If Miami were to go the route of releasing Wallace, they would have to do it by March 10, when $3 million of his scheduled $9.85 million salary becomes guarantee.
The problem for the Dolphins is that they would likely have to designate him as a post-June 1 release, seeing as they wouldn’t free up much cap space to use in free agency if they were to release him outright.
Wallace, 28, signed a five-year, $60 million contract that included $30 million guaranteed with Miami back in 2013, so it clearly disappointing that this is something being talked about just a few years into this agreement.
According to OverTheCap.com, releasing Wallace outright would free up $2.5 million in cap space next year, but would also create $9.6 million in dead money.
A June 1 release improves the Dolphins’ cap savings to $6.9 million and $5.2 million dead money.
However, trading Wallace would boost their cap saving to $5.5 million and reduce the dead money to $6.6 million, according to OTC’s cap calculator.
This season, Wallace caught 67 passses for 862 yards receiving and 10 touchdowns over the course of 16 games. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the N0. 53 receiver out of 110 qualifying players.
We’ll have more regarding Wallace and the Dolphins as the news is available.
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