More money couldn’t solve the Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill situation.
The salary cap is expected to jump past $300 million in 2026, with the exact figure to be determined some time before March 12, when the league year begins. Miami — like all other teams — is expected to add at least $22 million each in cap space, invaluable flexibility for free agency and contract extensions. Yet some players are still not worth their cap hits, so our beat reporters shared a potential cap casualty for each of the 32 teams.
Other than Kirk Cousins, who’ll be 38 this season, the two biggest names might be receivers. And just minutes before we pressed send on this newsletter, news broke that the Dolphins are indeed cutting Tyreek Hill, per multiple NFL reporters (dollar figures per Over The Cap):
- Hill was owed $36 million. With none of his salary guaranteed, the nearly 32-year-old receiver was a potential cut after a brutal knee injury in September ruined his trade value. With Hill, there are also legal concerns.
- The Colts would save $24 million if they chose to cut Michael Pittman Jr. Also without any guaranteed money, the 28-year-old is entering the final year of his contract with a $29 million cap hit. He was outplayed last season by teammate Alec Pierce, a younger option entering free agency.
Did you notice that Pittman’s cap figure ($29 million) is different from the potential savings ($24 million)? That’s because signing bonuses are spread across the life of a contract. His $15 million bonus was spread equally across the cap hits of his three-year contract, hence the $5 million difference in 2026.
Our full story has a cut candidate for each team. Onward.
Inside: Inside John Harbaugh’s frantic first month and why you might never see an NFLPA report card again.
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John Harbaugh’s busy month
Coaching in the NFL has its upsides. Obviously.
For most, it’s the culmination of a lifelong dream, accompanied by prestige and varying levels of power. The money’s great too, with guaranteed contracts that could net you millions not to coach (just ask former Raiders coaches).
John Harbaugh has all the above. In January, he signed a five-year contract worth over $100 million to lead a historic New York franchise. The former Ravens coach has near-full control, reporting directly to Giants ownership — not general manager Joe Schoen — and getting to hire a new VP, Dawn Aponte, to handle analytics, salary-cap management and player contract negotiations. She reports to the coach, not the GM.
Still, he also gets everything else. Twenty-hour work days. Sleepless nights. One look into Harbaugh’s schedule makes clear the sacrifices that accompany coaching, as the 63-year-old has almost literally hit the ground running:
In his first month, the elder Harbaugh brother lived out of a team-supplied apartment, but was rarely there, arriving to the team’s facility at 4 a.m. and staying until at least 8 p.m.
His days included early morning workouts, followed by countless meetings to assemble his staff of 31 coaches, bigger than the typical unit of roughly a couple dozen. It includes two former NFL head coaches in Matt Nagy and Brian Callahan, plus former college head coaches Willie Taggart and Mike Bloomgren.
For most people, settling into a new job is a process typically measured in months. But this isn’t a typical job, and Harbaugh’s not your typical coach. NFL insiders voted him as the runaway top hire of this cycle, a list led by Mike Vrabel and Ben Johnson last year.
It’s been less than a month since his January 17 signing, but his tireless effort has the Giants as a trendy bounce-back pick. He’s set expectations high, aiming for a 2026 playoff appearance with a team that just finished 4-13.
Coaching isn’t the only upgrade in New York, where the locker and training rooms are among a series of planned upgrades, thanks in part to the Giants’ poor showing in the NFLPA’s 2025 report cards. Those might be the last we ever see. Let me explain.
League bans report cards? Sort of
“We can’t handle the truth!” That’s how I’d spin Jack Nicholson’s iconic 1992 line to align with the recent actions of the NFL.
In 2023, the NFLPA began conducting anonymous player surveys to publicize the working conditions of various teams, assigning letter grades on categories ranging from treatment of players’ families to weight room facilities.
They led to better working conditions for players. For example, after a woeful 2024 grade, Commanders owner Josh Harris said, “I’m not an F-minus guy,” and quickly upgraded Washington’s facilities and player accommodations.
Differences among teams remain stark, but the league as a whole was improving. The anonymous and public nature allowed us all to glimpse how players truly viewed their teams.
No one was harmed by the publishing of these surveys, though the egos of billionaire owners took hits.
They pushed back, and late last week, the league won a grievance against the players’ union to prohibit the publication of these report cards. It’s a timely verdict for the NFL, as the 2026 edition was likely to be released to the public next week.
So what happened? An arbitrator, jointly appointed and paid by the NFL and NFLPA, decided that sharing the report cards publicly was disparaging toward clubs and individuals, and thus in violation of the collective bargaining agreement.
While the NFLPA insists the surveys will continue, and informed players that 2026 report cards will be shared with them soon, they are prohibited from sharing the results with us. We also can’t handle the truth, apparently.
Extra Points
👀 Klint Kubiak’s offense. What does the former Seahawks coordinator bring to Las Vegas? Ted Nguyen breaks down how Kubiak could fix the Raiders. Expect plenty of Ashton Jeanty.
📓 Meet the QBs. Nick Baumgardner scouted the top three passers on Dane Brugler’s draft board — Fernando Mendoza, Ty Simpson and Garrett Nussmeier, in that order — to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each. Insightful read.
🎙 Kyle Hamilton breaks it down. The star Baltimore safety joined “The Athletic Football Show” to unpack his thinking on sacking Shedeur Sanders. Watch that clip here.
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