It looked bad when it happened and it apparently is bad for Miami Dolphins safety Louis Delmas.

A league source tells me the intial report on Delmas, who went down in a heap during today's joint practice between the Dolphins and Carolina Panthers, is he tore the ACL to his right knee. Delmas is having an MRI today to confirm the initial findings.

Delmas is headed to the injured reserve list, assuming the initial report is accurate. There is no cap relief for placing a veteran player on IR.

[Update: A look at the Delmas contract shows this injury is going to cost him a big chunk of money -- approximately $1.75 million. He had $750,000 coming to him in the form of per game bonuses, prorated at $46,875 per game. He will not collect any of that. The Dolphins save $140,625 against the cap there because only three of those prorated bonuses were not likely to be earned. But here's the big hit: Delmas signed a split contract because of his injury history. And so, if the Dolphins place him on injured reserve before the regular season begins, they will not owe him his full scheduled $1.475 million base salary. They will only owe him $417,000 because his injury happened in the preseason. He will not get the other $1 million or so and the team would save that $1 million in cap space. The the total savings in cap space to the Dolphins could be approximately $1.14 million. The total cost from this injury to Louis Delmas could be $1 million in base salary plus another $750,000 in bonuses for a total of $1.75 million.]

Delmas had total reconstructive surgery on the same knee in December when he tore it up in Week 14. The Dolphins, encouraged by his quick recovery, signed him to a one-year contract. Delmas was working as the starting strong safety for the team.

Now that job will fall to Walt Aikens or Michael Thomas or perhaps someone the Dolphins find elsewhere.