The Miami Dolphins can now formally turn the page on former Pro Bowl talent thanks to a key date on the NFL calendar

Plenty of the focus around June 1st on the NFL calendar is centered around player cuts. Teams can designate two cuts in any given year to proactively be filed as “Post-June 1st cuts”, which implements salary cap accounting rules and allows teams to open a roster spot in the spring before collecting salary cap savings in the summertime.

But there’s more at stake than just salary cap savings via cuts. While some teams are celebrating added cap spending power today, the Miami Dolphins can now officially bid farewell to one of their own. The formal retirement of offensive tackle Terron Armstead can be processed at any moment now.

Armstead aided the Dolphins while also buying himself some more time to make a retirement decision in the spring by negotiating his salary down to the veteran’s minimum. This allowed the Dolphins the patience to carry him on their active roster until Armstead was ready to commit one way or another. He has, of course, since decided to retire — but the Dolphins have been motivated to carry him on the roster anyway because, now, they can process his retirement Post-June 1st.

As a result, the Dolphins can split the cap charge for his past compensation between both the 2025 and 2026 books. Had Miami placed him on the Reserve/Retired list before today, they’d have been hit with both his 2025 commitments and all future commitments against this year’s cap, which would have cost the Dolphins an additional $10.73M in cap space.

The alternative would have been to cut Armstead with the Post-June 1st designation. Instead of taking that path, the team allowed Armstead to retire with grace since he was only going to occupy a little over a million dollars in extra cap space by occupying a roster spot. 

What are the specifics of what is at stake for the Dolphins with this move when it is processed? Here is a breakdown courtesy of Over The Cap:

The Dolphins will make the retirement of Terron Armstead official, which has negligible cap savings. His cap will drop from $9.1 to $7.8 million in 2025. He will count for $10.73 million on the Dolphins' 2026 salary cap.

The Terron Armstead era in Miami is over. That's been known for nearly two months. But, at least until today, it hasn’t been official by roster transaction standards. The Dolphins can close the book at any point now and minimize their salary cap restrictions as they look ahead to 2025 and the future with Patrick Paul in his place.