Breaking News: A mutual arrangement with the Pittsburgh Steelers has led the Miami Dolphins to suggest cutting a $72 million player in the offseason. However…

Miami Dolphins Suggested To Cut $72 Million Player in Offseason

Last season, the Miami Dolphins were unable to break their playoff losing streak when they were eliminated in the wild card round by the Kansas City Chiefs. This offseason, Jason Sanders might be cut to make improvements to the roster possible.

After the regular season, the Dolphins rose to second place in the AFC East division with an 11-6 record, just behind the Buffalo Bills. This positioning in the said division also meant that 2008 was the last year Miami won AFC East

During the playoffs, the Dolphins matched up against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, the eventual winner of this year’s Super Bowl LVIII. In that particular game, Miami got decimated with a score of  26-7.

At the same time, the Detroit Lions advanced to the next round by defeating the Los Angeles Rams. This meant that the Dolphins still retained the longest active playoff drought in the NFL.

If Miami wants to end that drought, certain moves will have to be made in the offseason. Unfortunately, one of those moves will have to involve Jason Sanders, a kicker who once received a $22 million contract from the team.

Why the Miami Dolphins Could Cut Jason Sanders in the Offseason

As it stands, Sanders is one of the few guys Miami can let go in the offseason. Aaron Schatz explains more about in his article for ESPN:

“His 2020 All-Pro season stands out, but he has has hit only 80% of his field goals in the three seasons since. The Dolphins are about $52 million over the cap, and they need cut candidates to whittle that down. That means going past the obvious cuts such as Emmanuel Ogbah and Jerome Baker.

A post-June 1 cut of Sanders would save $3.8 million on the cap with just under $750,000 in dead money. Then the Dolphins can find a kicker near the end of the draft or even on the college free agent market who would command a much smaller contract,” Schatz wrote.

Using that logic, the Dolphins can become better by taking Sanders away from the equation. Using that move, Miami can retain its key players while adding a new kicker who won’t cost that much. In any case, it’d be interesting to see how the team will manuever this situation in the coming months.