INDIANAPOLIS — Unless we count Xavien Howard, whose departure from the Miami Dolphins will become official March 13, Jerome Baker now holds the distinction of having the most starts for the team of anybody on the roster.
But how long Baker will hold that distinction is one of the big mysteries of this offseason for the Dolphins, in large part because of his salary and the team's sticky cap situation.
In his chat with the South Florida media contingent at the NFL scouting combine, Grier expressed his support for Baker — as he would with any player mentioned — but certainly left open the possibility that Baker's 82nd career start last season might have been his last for the Dolphins.
“We’d love to have Baker here," Grier said. "I think the big thing for us was to have the new defensive staff come in, spend time watching the team, watching the defense as a staff together. Once we have those discussions with the defensive staff, Mike (McDaniel) will get together and then we’ll make that decision here in the next couple of weeks.”
POTENTIAL OPTIONS WITH BAKER
As with a lot of things these days, Baker's job security is tied to his 2024 cap number, which currently stands at $14.8 million, per overthecap.com.
The Dolphins can shave almost $10 million off that number by releasing Baker before he hits the final year of his contract extension (minus two void years), and he would then count about $5 million against the cap but no longer be on the roster.
Another option would be to sign Baker to another extension to lower his cap hit or maybe even approach him with an offer of taking a pay cut or seeing what he can get on the open market.
This ultimately could come down to what new defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver sees in Baker and his vision him in his scheme.
Baker has been a solid starter for the Dolphins, reaching 100 tackles in three of his six seasons, and he's been durable, having never missed a game before he was sidelined twice in 2023 (first by a knee injury and then by his wrist injury in the season finale against the Buffalo Bills when he continued playing for a while despite having suffered a broken bone).
Baker's status might not even be in question if not for the Dolphins' cap situation — they stood at almost $38 million over in effective cap space as of Thursday morning, according to Over The Cap — but that's Miami's reality this offseason.
Tough decisions will have to be made to become cap-compliant, and it could that Baker becomes one of those tough decisions.
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