An important note about the Miami Dolphins’ salary cap relief as savings officially come into effect

The Miami Dolphins will get the vast majority of their cap savings from the Tua Tagovailoa and Bradley Chubb releases. But not all.

Kyle Crabbs — NFL National Writer
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Dec 7, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) passes the ball against the New York Jets during the first half at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images

It’s a big day for the 2026 Miami Dolphins. It’s a $20 million day, to be exact.

The March releases of EDGE Bradley Chubb and QB Tua Tagovailoa were designated as ‘Post June-1st cuts’. That means while the players were free to go about their careers and find new landing spots, the financial accounting of both contracts would linger until June 1st. This afternoon, the cuts will formalize, allowing Miami to split the dead cap charges for those releases between 2026 and 2027. But there is another amount of cap money the Dolphins are owed. And they’ll need to wait until 2027 to see it.

The Miami Dolphins’ reimbursement of Tua Tagovailoa’s base salary will not be seen until 2027

Dec 7, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1).

The Dolphins are paying Tua Tagovailoa a whole boatload of money to play for the Atlanta Falcons in 2026. But every player on a team’s payroll must have a salary. Since the Dolphins are footing the majority of the bill for Tagovailoa in 2026, the Falcons are paying him a minimum salary of $1.215 million this season.

Thanks to something called ‘offset money’, the Dolphins will get reimbursed for this compensation to Tagovailoa. It doesn’t stack on top of his pay from Miami. Instead, the Dolphins will see the amount of funds paid to Tagovailoa returned and credited to Miami’s books. But they won’t get a chance to add those savings into the rest of the June 1st cap boost that’s come to the Dolphins. They’ll have a longer wait to see that one hit home.

Offset money is applied to a team’s salary cap the following season as a credit against the salary cap. So for the Miami Dolphins, whatever the 2027 salary cap ceiling is will see a $1.215 million credit added to that ceiling. It’s not a lot. But it’s something. And when faced with this kind of sunk cost, every little bit helps. Even if you have to wait another nine months to see it.

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