The Dolphins got creative with their latest maneuver to free up 2026 cap space
All you need is a little imagination.
And just like that, the Miami Dolphins are not only salary cap compliant for 2026, they’ve actually got a little bit of wiggle room.
The latest domino tapped into by the Dolphins’ brass is a little more complicated than cutting a player — but it’s just as effective in creating wiggle room for Miami as they set about targeting some role players for their roster this spring. With the league year officially starting at 4PM this afternoon, the Dolphins are locked, loaded, and ready to go. All thanks to some flexibility on the part of OT Austin Jackson. He’s taken a pay cut.
Dolphins get green-light for a pay cut from OT Austin Jackson
We went through the blueprint of this idea back at the NFL Combine, when general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan alluded to things needing to ‘work themselves out’ for Jackson to be back with the team in 2026. Sure enough, here we are. Here’s what I wrote about the possibility of an Austin Jackson pay-cut and restructuring of his contract at the time:
“The good news for Miami is there’s a precedent for this kind of thing that happened just one year ago. The Indianapolis Colts were paying their own right tackle, Braden Smith, handsomely as part of a four-year, $70 million contract extension. He’d missed 18 games in four seasons while playing on that deal before the Colts approached him about a contract renegotiation going into a contract year in 2025.
The Colts were scheduled to pay Smith $14.75 million in 2025 but slashed that number down to $3.96 million last season, plus a $2 million roster bonus and additional $2.04 million in play-time incentives — giving him a total earnings potential for the season of $8 million.
Miami, if they’re serious about slashing payroll from Jackson, could use this blueprint as precedent for discussions with Jackson and his team and let them decide if risking hitting the open market is worth the upside. Jackson’s missed 20 games in two seasons. With no guaranteed money left on his salary, it is totally valid to wonder what kind of market he could warrant; and a middle ground renegotiation that ties some of Jackson’s earnings directly into how often he plays feels like it could help everyone in 2026. The blueprint is there, thanks to the Colts and Braden Smith in 2025.”
Miami has done exactly this. Per OverTheCap, Jackson took a $4.5 million pay cut to his salary in 2026, which correlates directly to $4.5 million in cap savings. To boot, $1.5 million of Jackson’s new compensation ceiling ($7 million) is directly tied to per-game play time incentives. He’ll receive $88,235 per game played this year, meaning Miami could save even more than $4.5 million if Jackson misses games.
The vast majority of Jackson’s other money was paid as a “signing bonus” to his restructured contract, and is spread out across several years of the salary cap as a result. The end result for the Dolphins is $8.5 million in cap savings, with potentially more coming if Jackson misses extended time.
In all, Miami has somewhere between $8-10M in cap space at their disposal, depending on how they chose to structure the contracts of TE Greg Dulcich and QB Malik Willis, who agreed to terms with Miami on Monday. The work continues.
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