The NFL is a cutthroat business, and the Miami Dolphins are likely to make some tough choices when the 2026 off-season rolls around.
The Dolphins could be heading in a new direction in 2026, with a new general manager and potentially a new head coach ushering in a new era for the team.
With this comes a potential overhaul of the playing roster.
Tua Tagovailoa is heavily talked about, particularly after being benched for Quinn Ewers to end the 2025 season, and it looks likely that he could find himself on a new team for 2026.
While Tagovailoa is the most logical player for the Dolphins to move on for, coming with an extremely high financial cost regardless of whether he is on the roster or not, other players could be prime candidates to be cut.
The financial situation is a difficult one for the Dolphins, who currently project to be around $12.5 million over the salary cap as things stand with the players under contract for next year.
Moves need to be made, and two prime candidates to be cut to help the team free up some space and work at strengthening the roster are Tyreek Hill and Bradley Chubb.
Two Miami Dolphins Most Likely To Be Cut
Tyreek Hill
Hill has been sidelined for most of this season after suffering a torn ACL against the New York Jets in Week Four, and it’s almost guaranteed that that was the last time he stepped on the field as a Miami Dolphins player.
His cap hit jumps from just under $28 million this season to nearly $52 million in 2027, which is far too much for the Dolphins to stomach when plenty of areas across the roster need to be bulked up and improved.
A post-June 1st designated cut makes the most sense for the Dolphins with the one-time Super Bowl champion, as while it would carry nearly $16 million in dead money, it would, in fact, free up a much-needed $36 million in cap space as a result.
Hill has had a couple of excellent seasons with the Dolphins, eclipsing 1700 receiving yards in 2022 and 2023, but a decline in production in 2024 and missing most of 2025 has made him an expensive asset that looks bound to join Tagovailoa on the list of players no longer on the team come the start of the 2026 season.
Bradley Chubb
Alongside him is a player well despite missing all of 2024 through injury. Chubb hit 11 sacks in his first full season with the Dolphins in 2023, but couldn’t help the team after a torn ACL the following campaign.
In 2025, Chubb has 8.5 sacks to his name, which leads the team, and he remains an important player on the roster.
The problem, however, is that his cap hit jumps from $13.7 million to $31.2 million.
The Dolphins desperately need to make savings and address multiple areas across the roster, both in the Draft and free agency, and offloading expensive players is the way to do it at this stage.
Chubb looks like an ideal post-June 1st cut candidate, as it once again saves the team plenty of cap space that could be put to good use. It carries a $10.97 million dead money, but would save the team $20.23 million in cap savings.
The Dolphins could save the same amount of money if they were to trade Chubb post-June 1st, which might be something that interests the team, as it could see them acquire a valuable asset, most likely a draft pick, that could double up with the financial savings.
Impact of the Cuts on the Miami Dolphins
Regardless of how it’s done, combining Chubb and Hill’s cap savings together would see the Dolphins have around $43.5 million of space available to sign the team’s rookie class and bring in more veteran players that can strengthen multiple positions across the team.
This could also cover for Tagovailoa potentially being cut in a post-June 1st designation, as that would see the Dolphins take on an additional $11 million hit in dead money, leaving around $32.5 million in space if all three players are cut.
While the Dolphins would likely prefer to keep a player of Chubb’s calibre, unless a restructuring is on the cards, it seems most likely that the team will lose all three big-name players and enter the 2026 season with a significantly altered roster.
Main Photo: [Gregory Fisher] – Imagn Images