Tyreek Hill seemed to indicate that he is unhappy with the state of the Dolphins after the team failed to make the playoffs and he suffered his worst year since he was a rookie. Hill apparently made himself unavailable late in the loss against the Jets which could possibly void guarantee’s in his contract but let’s assume that does not happen and take a look at what it would really cost Miami to move Hill.

Miami signed Hill to new three year, $90 million contract in early August when Hill was unhappy that his contract had been surpassed by so many others in the league. The numbers, however, sound bigger then they really are. Miami was going to pay Hill $22.935 million in 2024 and the new deal gave him a raise of just $3.315 million this year. They did, however, guarantee $27.7 million for 2025 when his prior contract had no guarantees in 2025.

The structure of the contract was unusual for a star player extension and indicated that Miami’s front office understood that this could be more of a one and done scenario. While the guarantee is large for 2025, the salary itself is somewhat reasonable, ranking 5th among receivers in the NFL which makes it tradeable. Miami did not include a large roster bonus in 2025 as part of the deal and they lowered his salary cap charge through the use of an option bonus worth $15.85 million, but with a date that is basically tied to the start of the regular season. Normally such bonuses would be paid in March when used early in a contract. That option date gives Miami a long time to work out a trade for Hill while keeping him at a cap number under $28M and forcing all of his guarantee onto a trade partner. Hill has no injury protection for 2026.

Cutting Hill outright is not feasible for Miami unless he gives up his guaranteed salary. The cost to cut Hill would be $55.95 million on the salary cap if Hill was a straight release. They could opt for a post June 1 cut but the dead money next year would be either $40.4 million if they did not exercise the option or $27.7 million if they did. Exercising the option would reduce the ability for Miami to offset that guarantee when Hill signed elsewhere.

Trading Hill would be reasonable as the dead money is just $28.3 million, which is about his current cap number. If they waited until the summer to execute a trade the number would drop to only having to account for $15.9 million in 2025 and the rest of it in 2026. That might give the Dolphins whatever cap room they need to function for the 2025 year since they have a bad salary cap situation where they project to be around $11 million over the salary cap.

For all of the grief that Miami gets about their contract decisions and what they have done with their cap their last few years, this is one where Miami left themselves a lot of opportunity to get out of a contract if things went sideways. Now we will see if they take advantage of the situation they created for themselves.