The One Contract Holding Back the Miami Dolphins

Trading former franchise cornerstones Minkah Fitzpatrick and Laremy Tunsil equipped the Miami Dolphins with the necessary assets to expedite their rebuilding efforts. Now, after just one offseason of purposeful losing, football fans outside of South Beach have grown envious of how wonderfully the Dolphins are set up for the future.

You have to think that, once Tua Tagovailoa is ready to take over the starting quarterback job, Miami will be ready to compete. Heck, we wouldn't be surprised if Brian Flores' side made noise in 2019.

However, like any team, there is one contract on the Dolphins' payroll that you can't help but scratch your head at. In our eyes, that has to be defensive end Shaq Lawson's bloated deal.

The Dolphins inked Lawson, formerly of the Buffalo Bills, to a three-year, $30 million contract this offseason to help bolster their woeful pass rush. While the 25-year-old will help cure those woes, we can't help but feel that he was overpaid.

For starters, Lawson didn't start a single game for the Bills last year. In fact, he started just 17 of the 50 games he appeared in with Buffalo over his first four seasons in the NFL. That's a player that deserves $10 million annually over three years? No way. On top of that, the former No. 19 overall pick will account for the fourth-highest cap hit on Miami ($10.33 million) in 2020.

Lawson enjoyed his best season as a pro in 2019 with 32 tackles (13 for loss), 6.5 sacks and 18 quarterback hits, but those numbers don't come close to convincing us that he was deserving of this pricey contract.

The former Clemson star could breakout in Miami, and Flores and GM Chris Grier had better hope that turns out to be the case, because his deal is nothing short of ridiculous.