The Miami Dolphins have made sure that they’ve kept big parts of their defense together so far this offseason. Despite bringing in a new head coach in Mike McDaniel, Miami retained defensive coordinator Josh Boyer to run the same defense that saw success down the stretch during 2021.
Then, right before the start of the legal tampering period, the Dolphins did more of the same, this time retaining defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah on a four-year deal worth $65.4 million.
Before the signing, many were concerned that re-signing Ogbah would put a big dent into their cap space for 2022, but it doesn’t appear that will be the case.
According to Over the Cap, Ogbah’s signing bonus is just $13 million ($3.25 million per season) and his salary is just $4 million in 2022. Add in his roster bonus, and Ogbah’s cap hit for this upcoming year is just $7.6 million.
In 2023, Ogbah will get $15 million in guaranteed salary, bringing his cap hit to $18.6 million. In 2024, $4 million of his $14.93 million salary is guaranteed against injury. And, in the final year of his contract, Ogbah will have a cap hit of $20.15 million.
The structure of this contract allows the Dolphins to take advantage of the money that they have to use this offseason as well as prepare for the future when the salary cap jumps again in a few years.
Obviously, the $16.3 million average annual value is a ton of money for Miami to allocate to the defensive end, but this contract could like a lot more reasonable when more television money and gambling money bring more money to the league’s revenue and the salary cap, in turn.
Even if Ogbah doesn’t live up to the contract, they could cut him after the first two years and only incur $6.5 million in dead cap.