Armstead Addresses His Pay Cut and Decision-Making Process

Terron Armstead helped the Miami Dolphins’ cap situation a couple of weeks ago by taking a pay cut, but if he’s still undecided when it comes to whether he’ll want to help them on the field in 2025.

Armstead addressed his new salary, but more importantly his playing status Monday during an appearance on the Ross Tucker Podcast.

With the Dolphins over the cap at the time, Armstead agreed to chop his base salary for 2025 from $13.3 million to the veteran minimum of $1.2 million to give the team some maneuverability at the start of camp.

“It was actually a great mutual situation for me and the Dolphins,” Armstead told Tucker. “I can’t say enough about how I feel about the organization and the front office and how they have taken care of me and helped me through these past three years, for sure. This situation where I was able to take my projected salary down to minimum — it allows the Dolphins, right now, to use the cap space and get active and improve the team, honestly, which I’m all for. And it gives myself more time to make a decision on what I need to do or what I want to do.”

And as for the situation with his contract should Armstead return to the Dolphins?

“Ultimately, if I decide ‘hey, I’m coming back, let’s do this thing again in Miami,’ we can have another conversation about the actual contract I will be playing on, but we’re not there yet.” … Actually, Jason Kelce – this might go down as the Jason Kelce deal. He did a similar situation for Philly I think two years in a row. So, he may be the inventor of this situation.”

Before signing off, Tucker noted the obvious reasons a player wouldn’t want to play, like the rigors of putting your body through a proper offseason to get ready for the full-year grind. But he asked the five-time Pro Bowl selection why he would want to come back and play again.

“I’m 33,” Armstead said. “Twenty-eight years straight. Never missed a year playing this game. It’s a game I know inside and out. I know it, I love it, I respect the game. It’s that man – that desire to compete. For me to play in year 12, the way I play, especially when I felt good – I love it. I love the opportunity to compete. Some games I felt really good. I’m nice. I’m game. I’m nice. You know what I’m saying. That part man – it’s fun to find ways to win when things aren’t what they used to be … it’s fun to me. I get excited about it … And then that pursuit for a ring, man. I got really close in New Orleans and we feel like it was taken away from us in 2018 … that piece of void right there will forever exist. So just that pursuit of a championship, that would snap everything for me. Those are my reasons.”

ARMSTEAD DESCRIBES TOLL OF 2024 SEASON

A former NFL offensive lineman, Tucker was on the call for FOX for the Dolphins’ November 17 home game against the Las Vegas Raiders, a 34-19 Miami win.

As a member of the broadcast team, he was in attendance for the Friday practice when announcers are able to watch some of practice typically closed to media, as well as conduct interviews both to be televised and for their own background information.

That week, Armstead happened to be particularly struggling to get back into form due to trouble with his knee and did not join the team for practice that Friday.

Armstead was listed as questionable for the game but ended up playing despite not practicing Friday.

“For the most part, I did (practice) pretty much every Friday that I played,” Armstead said. “This year was challenging man and I have had to deal with injuries throughout my career -- dealing with injuries and trying to manage the injuries. The Dolphins were as graceful and as gracious as I could ever hope for. They wanted me to be in the most optimal situation possible come Sunday and whatever we needed to do to reach that situation, that’s what we did.”

He went on to spell out what a week typically looks like compared to that one.

“I never really went out there on a Wednesday,” he said. “On a Thursday, I could probably do walk-thru and maybe one team period. And then Friday, I would usually do the whole practice. So on that Friday (of Raiders week), I get in early. I do training and rehab before meetings and then after meetings when all of the guys are getting ready to go outside, I’m back in the training room.”

Tucker mentioned that as a broadcaster if you see a player missing on Friday, you typically assume they won’t play and have to start looking at different game matchups. But Armstead eventually started and as he described, “played well” against the Raiders.

“It’s never an ideal situation when you don’t get to practice and you’re going to go up against a monster like Maxx Crosby,” said Armstead. “I probably have more experience than most … playing in a game with limited reps or no reps in practice. But I am a huge practice guy. I’m a believer in the fundamentals and perfecting my craft doing it over and over and over. Practice takes the guessing out of it … For me, I have to bank reps and I have to do more film study than a normal week because I don’t have the physical reps that I normally have.”

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