Last month, when Jason La Canfora of CBS reported that the Dolphins were trying to trade Mike Wallace, the Dolphins denied it. But the report isn’t going away.
La Canfora reported today that the Dolphins have renewed their attempts to trade Wallace during the league meetings, and that some interested teams are doing their homework on Wallace. La Canfora even floats the possibility of a trade between the Dolphins and Eagles, sending DeSean Jackson to Miami and Wallace to Philadelphia.
However, Wallace’s contract makes him a tough player to trade. The Dolphins would take an immediate cap charge of $8.8 million if they trade him before June 1. And more importantly, any team that trades for Wallace would be taking on his fully guaranteed salary of $15 million this season. Does anyone seriously believe any other team is going to pay Wallace $15 million, fully guaranteed, this season?
By trying to trade Wallace, new Dolphins G.M. Dennis Hickey is acknowledging that he thinks former Dolphins G.M. Jeff Ireland wasted a lot of Stephen Ross’s money and a lot of the team’s cap space when he signed Wallace to a five-year, $60 million contract this season. It’s highly unlikely that any other team would be willing to trade for that contract.