Dolphins cutting Kyle Van Noy is team either playing checkers (bad) or chess (exciting)

So what exactly are the Miami Dolphins doing that they would cut a player they signed to a big contract only a year ago, a player coach Brian Flores knew intimately from working with him over numerous successful seasons, a player who performed at basically the same level he had in the past, and a team captain no less?

What in the heck is going on here?

The Dolphins may provide cogent answers to those questions at their next press conference.

Later this month or early next month, perhaps.

But, in the meantime, you’re going to have to settle for information based on anonymous sourcing and from piecing together moves -- like a puzzle -- to build a picture of what’s happening and what’s likely to happen next.

So let’s get to that.

The imminent release of linebacker Kyle Van Noy was so surprising it took even him by surprise.

(The Dolphins, by the way, will try to trade Van Noy but likely fail because no one will want to inherit the contract the Dolphins gave the player last year, which averaged $12.75 million on an annual basis. So Miami will be forced to simply release Van Noy before the third day of the new league year because that’s the day the deal called for his 2021 base salary to become guaranteed.)

The Dolphins did not try to cut Van Noy’s salary so as to save cap space and still keep the player, as colleague Barry Jackson correctly noted. And the club showed no interest in restructuring Van Noy’s deal by cutting his base salary to the veteran minimum and converting the remaining portion to signing bonus that pro-rates over the remaining years.

The Dolphins could have saved $7,616,667 in 2021 cap space by restructing Van Noy’s deal.

Instead the Dolphins save $9.8 million assuming a pre-June 1 cut and $12.5 million if they designate him a post June 1 cut, but that savings won’t be available until, of course, after June 1.

The point?

The Dolphins believed it a better deal to save $9.8 million and swallow $4.125 million in dead money and be without Van Noy, than saving $7.6 million and saving him.

So the Dolphins clearly had buyer’s remorse on their 2020 Van Noy deal that was written for four years and $51 million.

And, yes, the club has an emerging Andrew Van Ginkel who is cheap ($928 thousand against the cap this year) on the roster. And Van Ginkel had 5.5 sacks in 480 defensive snaps compared to 6 sacks for Van Noy in 811 defensive snaps.

But the two played different positions. Van Noy played inside. Outside. As an edge rusher. He was asked to do a lot of things.

Van Ginkel was mostly an edge player.

The Dolphins must believe the third-year player is ready to make a jump and can handle both an added and more versatile workload or they’re going to need to add a linebacker, likely a cheaper one, to play inside.

One more thing on Van Noy: Somebody -- either Flores who was supposed to know him best, or general manager Chris Grier who signed him, or the co-directors of player personnel who evaluated him before free agency last year, or the salary cap guy who gave him that big contract -- apparently got it wrong.

Maybe it was more than one guy’s misstep. Maybe it was a collaboration of wrong.

Because Van Noy delivered for the Dolphins more or less what he delivered for the Patriots before that. He was good against the run, he was bad in pass coverage, his pass rush was off some games and definitely on in other games.

He was Kyle Van Noy.

And the team that paid Van Noy handsomely to be Van Noy one year later didn’t want Van Noy anymore.

That doesn’t speak well for having a vision.

And, no, the plan was never to sign Van Noy to a four-year deal that was really a one-year, $15 million deal. That’s just a weak rationalization for poor long-term planning.

So what about going forward?

There’s two possibilities..

Possibility 1: The Dolphins made a mistake, decided to quickly correct, the pain is bearable and will get no insightful reaction from the team. This possibility suggests no bigtime grand plan that includes multiple other genius moves.

I call this the checkers possibility because it would be made by an average checker player trying to survive long enough to make another move.

Possibility 2: The cap savings is the first step of multiple cap-saving moves that will grow the Dolphins space for the March 15 start of free agency’s legal tampering period and the March 17 start of the new league year so that significant acquisitions can be made.

These acquisitions, likley after some more cap-saving moves, would obviously involve some players the Dolphins believe to be quite accomplished. You don’t cut guys you signed to a big contract a year ago to simply sign a middling free agent.

One source has indicated the Dolphins like the idea of signing a veteran wide receiver to go with the one they’re expecting to draft.

Perhaps the Dolphins make a run at a pass rusher, or a running back, or both, along with the veteran receiver.

And, of course, perhaps the Dolphins are giving themselves operating room for the possibility quarterback Deshaun Watson is made available in trade by the Houston Texans -- a chase that would require considerable cap room to complete.

The second possibility is about playing chess.

Yes, possibility No. 2 includes backtracking on some previous decisions. But it would all be in the name of making important (better?) decisions this offseason.

The Dolphins better be playing chess. For their sakes.