{"id":817889,"date":"2026-03-17T21:59:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/817889\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T21:59:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:59:19","slug":"dolphins-have-175-million-in-dead-cap-charges-after-jaylen-waddle-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/817889\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins have $175 million in dead cap charges after Jaylen Waddle trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Dolphins\u2019 Venmo account is going to be on lockdown.<\/p>\n<p>As of Tuesday, Miami\u2019s dead money for the 2026 season is over a staggering $175 million.<\/p>\n<p>It all began last week when the Dolphins released Tua Tagovailoa, who was eventually picked up by the Falcons during free agency. It led to the team eating $99 million in dead money over the next two seasons \u2014 over $56 million of that will come when he is officially cut on June 1.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38808681\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2264310926.jpg\" alt=\"General manager Jon-Eric Sullivan of the Miami Dolphins speaks to the media during the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 24, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana.\" class=\"wp-image-38808681\"  \/>General manager Jon-Eric Sullivan of the Miami Dolphins speaks to the media during the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 24, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>In the days that followed, the team added even more to its total, culminating in Tuesday\u2019s trade of <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/17\/sports\/broncos-land-dolphins-star-receiver-jaylen-waddle-in-blockbuster-nfl-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Jaylen Waddle to the Broncos<\/a> for a 2026 first-round, third-round and fourth-round picks, a move that adds over $26 million to their dead money next season.<\/p>\n<p>Tagovailoa\u2019s hit is particularly notable as it surpassed Russell Wilson\u2019s divorce from the Broncos as the highest ever, costing then $85 million spread over the 2022 and 2023 seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Other contributors to the big hit to the Dolphins\u2019 wallet were Tyreek Hill, who was released in February and is costing the team $28.2 million, Jalen Ramsey ($20.9 million), Minkah Fitzpatrick ($13 million), Bradley Chubb ($10.9 million), Terron Armstead $10.7 million), James Daniels ($4.8 million) and Zach Wilson ($3.8 million) are also included.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.70800781;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38810777\" width=\"418\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/dolphins-wide-receiver-jaylen-waddle-116941599.jpg\" alt=\"Dolphins wide receiver Jaylen Waddle (17) scores a touchdown during a game against the Jets.\" class=\"wp-image-38810777\"  \/>Dolphins wide receiver Jaylen Waddle (17) scores a touchdown during the first quarter in the Jets and Miami Dolphins game in East Rutherford, NJ.  Bill Kostroun\/New York Post<\/p>\n<p>If there is any positive to take from this for the Dolphins, Denver made the playoffs in 2024 for the first time since 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, out of the five teams with the biggest dead money trouble in 2023, four made the playoffs, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6281048\/2025\/04\/17\/nfl-teams-dead-cap-money-navigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">per The Athletic<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The Dolphins are now one of five teams with two picks in the first round of this year\u2019s draft (Nos. 11 and 30). They join the Jets\u00a0(Nos. 2, 16),\u00a0Browns\u00a0(6, 24),\u00a0Chiefs\u00a0(9, 29) and\u00a0Cowboys\u00a0(12, 20).<\/p>\n<p>In total, Miami has 11 selections in next month\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dolphins\u2019 Venmo account is going to be on lockdown. As of Tuesday, Miami\u2019s dead money for the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2049],"tags":[217,7,14706,216,251,2087,6,9,3452],"class_list":{"0":"post-817889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-dolphins","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jaylen-waddle","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-dolphins","13":"tag-miamidolphins","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tua-tagovailoa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116246771404835891","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}