The Miami Dolphins are actively shopping CB Jalen Ramsey, just one year after making Ramsey the highest paid cornerback in the NFL. The salary cap cost to trade Ramsey will be hefty for Miami but they do have multiple options regarding the timing. The team essentially has one window to trade him during the draft and a second window that runs up until August 30th at which point the team would need to pay out an $18.98 million bonus to Ramsey or do some salary cap work to try to create an in-season trade market.
The cost for the Dolphins on the salary cap will be high regarding a trade. Ramsey already earned a $4 million bonus in March from Miami, bringing the number for a pre June trade up to $29.213 million. That would be a loss of about $12.55 million in cap room. Miami would also be charged an additional $3.796 million for his option bonus if they did not renounce it prior to the trade. They would receive a cap credit in 2026 for that salary but it would be difficult on Miami’s cap this year. Odds are any trade during the draft would require Miami to renegotiate another contract for cap relief.
If the team waits until after the draft until they make the trade they can split the salary cap costs between 2025 and 2026. In that scenario Miami would take on $14.541 million in charges with $3.796 being credited to Miami in 2026. The dead money in 2026 would be $18.468 million. Given that teams are more prone to trading away future draft picks rather than current ones, this scenario might make the most sense for both sides.
For a team acquiring Ramsey they would be on the hook for a virtually guaranteed $21 million for 2025, which would be the 7th highest salary in the NFL for a corner. The team would have the option to take on all of the cap charge this year or to maintain the option that exists in the contract with the Dolphins and take on a $5.826 million cap charge for this season. Ramsey has a $5 million injury guarantee on his $21 million salary in 2026 which would become fully guaranteed along with a $2 million roster bonus on the 3rd day of the 2026 league year. He has a non guaranteed $21.7 salary million for 2027, and $24 million for 2028.
The other option Miami would have is to renounce their option on Ramsey in August to delay the payment of that $18.98 million bonus. It would increase his cap charge by the $18.98 million, which the Dolphins do not have the room to absorb, but would allow them to trade him away during the season without having paid almost his entire salary for the year, perhaps getting the new team to take on a portion of his salary. Miami should have an idea pretty quickly as to how much salary a team is prepared to pay Ramsey. The Saints traded Marshon Lattimore last season after having paid nearly his entire salary for the year and the expectation may be similar around the league for Ramsey.
The situation with the Dolphins and Ramsey is just another example of teams far too often utilizing contract extensions with older player on 3rd and 4th contracts to try to manage relationships and the salary cap rather than dealing with the situation and finding a better middle ground. More often than not these are little more than band aid fixes that quickly come apart.
At least in this case Miami did not invest significantly more in Ramsey- his 2024 salary remained the same as in his prior contract- so at this point all they are in with him is an extra $4 million. However under the terms of his prior contract they could have moved on clean in 2025 for $25.033 million in dead money or used the post June 1 designation to split that. They would have avoided the $4 million roster bonus and avoided guaranteeing all of his 2025 salary. I’d say this is a lesson learned but Miami has fallen into this trap before and so do so many teams around the NFL.