1. Jake Long, Offensive Tackle

Not exactly the kind of season you want to have in a contract year. Long battled injury and looked a long way off the elite tackle who had graced the league in his first three campaigns as a Dolphin. Missing time didn’t help, but the problems started a long way before that with Long finishing only 21st in our Pass Blocking Efficiency metric. Coupled with a negative run blocking grade, Long was never going to live up to the big cap hit.

2012 Cap Hit: $12.8m
2012 Performance Based Value: $1.2m
Value Differential: -$11.6m

2. Karlos Dansby, Linebacker

This isn’t a reflection on the play of Dansby, but rather the pay afforded to him. Indeed Dansby would finish the year our fifth-ranked middle linebacker with his work in run defense particularly impressive. But for a linebacker to be worth that kind of cap hit you really need to see them doing a lot more.

2012 Cap Hit: $11.3m
2012 Performance Based Value: $7m
Value Differential: -$4.3m

3. Reggie Bush, Running Back

Bush failed to turn his 227 carries into a 1,000 yard season and he failed to justify his big $6 million cap hit. His fumbles (four of them) were a big problem and he didn’t have the sort of impact in the passing game that would make it impossible for the Dolphins to let him hit free agency. At his core he remains the same back who goes searching for space to do his best work.

2012 Cap Hit: $6m
2012 Performance Based Value: $1.7m
Value Differential: -$4.3m

4. Tony McDaniel, DT – Cap: $4.2m, PBV: $825k, Value Differential: -$3.3m

5. Matt Moore, QB – Cap: $3.8m, PBV: $700k, Value Differential: -$3.1m

6. Richard Marshall, CB – Cap: $3.7m, PBV: $825k, Value Differential: -$2.9m

7. Jared Odrick, DE – Cap: $3.1m, PBV: $940k, Value Differential: -$2.2m

8. Paul Soliai, DT – Cap: $4.1m, PBV: $2.2m, Value Differential: -$1.9m

9. Randy Starks, DT – Cap: $5m, PBV: $3.1m, Value Differential: -$1.9m

10. Richie Incognito, OG – Cap: $4.9m, PBV: $3.8m, Value Differential: -$1.1m

(* Denotes player missed significant portion of time through injury)

Bart will be 33, when the 2013 season begins..........last year he was often taken out of 3rd down packages. I don't think he'll be a Dolphin, much less a replacement for Dansby.

..............he's been an extremely good signing

He has? What?!?

This is a silly list. Putting Matt Moore as overvalued when he's the backup quarterback is stupid in my opinion. Especially when you consider he won the only game he played in, and played pretty good. By this rational he would have been a great value had Tannehill been hurt and he played the entire season. You know what having a quality backup is, it's priceless. If you have to pay a little more than most for a guy like that, who cares, it's not like Moore is hurting our CAP number with his contract anyway.

I agree. Backup QBs aren't measured by their contributions on the field, unless the starter is hurt badly or plays that poorly.

Wow............I didn't realize there was so much resentment for Dansby on this fourm. Per Profootball, he's ranked 5th among 32 middle linebackers. How many players do we have that are ranked top 5 or even top 10 for their respective positions. I only count 7 (Dansby, Jones, Wake, Fields, Wallace, Starks and maybe Incognito).

We have a very good LB combo in Dansby and Burnett, with all our other needs we have, this isn't the year to be transitioning in a new MLB.

Funny how with Dansby when he spoke out against the staff the opinion was at that time that he has not lived up to his hype.

I will agree with this as well. He may be a top 5 linebacker, but how many Pro Bowls has he made with the Dolphins? He is very valuable as a middle linebacker for us, but he isn't the playmaking machine that he seemed to be at Arizona. And he's surrounded by some good teammates in Miami.

I think the Dolphins should eat his salary once again this year (which isn't bad since he is a top 5 linebacker) and look to the draft for a replacement in 2014.

I'm surprised by all the anti-Dansby comments when you have Reggie Bush, Tony McDaniel, Richard Marshall, and Paul Soliai (remember that we franchised him?) not performing up to their contracts by millions of dollars.

I think the Dolphins should eat his salary once again this year (which isn't bad since he is a top 5 linebacker) and look to the draft for a replacement in 2014.