Wallace Clears Air

[Spider-Dan]

FYO- look back at the 2nd half of 2011. The last 8 games were a drastic drop off of his previous production. He hasn't been the same player since. I don't know what happened there, but the numbers don't lie. He had ~800 receiving yards and 5 TDs in the first half of that year, and ~400 and 2 TDs in the second half.

I mean, yeah, Adrian Peterson ran for almost 2100 yards last year, but what about weeks 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, where he ran for less than 90 yards each game?  He ran for only 60 yards in a loss against the Colts.

Not sure why he won MVP when nearly a third of his games were decidedly below average...

[EKnight]

You mean aside from the fact that his coaches purposely limited his workload because his knee was completely destroyed?

It's one thing for a player to start slow or have a bad game or two. Wallace has had a string of bad games that started in the second half of 2011 and then continued all of last year. That's no longer a game or two- it's a trend, and if it was any player in the league NOT a Dolphin, I feel like your perspective would be different. Out of curiosity, do you feel Dwayne Bowe is a nearly $60 million dollar guy? -EK

[Spider-Dan]

Oh, are we taking excuses for poor performances now?  Like "PIT's offense stopped targeting Wallace, arguably for reasons related to his contract"?

The stats are what they are.  You can cherry pick any player's stats and "but how many sacks did he have in weeks 3-9?"  They play 16 games for a reason.

[EKnight]

No one is denying that. 16 games last year he was not good. Debate that. What? Nothing?

My point is that the poor production didn't just start out of nowhere last year. It was a problem that began halfway through 2011 and continued all of last year. Nothing is being cherry picked there. -EK

[MikeO]

No one is denying that. 16 games last year he was not good. Debate that. What? Nothing?

My point is that the poor production didn't just start out of nowhere last year. It was a problem that began halfway through 2011 and continued all of last year. Nothing is being cherry picked there. -EK

OK, let's clarify something on this "Poor Production" nonsense. Last year Wallace still scored 8 TD's and had over 800 yards after missing all of camp...that is a"down year" for him....but NOT poor production at all for an NFL WR. Not even close

Wallace had monster 2010 and 2011 seasons. Coming off those 2 years last year he had a "down year" FOR HIM...but wasn't poor by any means. That is foolish nonsense talk.

[EKnight]

34th in the league in receiving yards; 34th in receptions; 15th in TDs. That's not poor production for a wide out who received that kind of money? You can put whatever soon you want on it- he hasn't been the same guy for quite a while now. Money poorly spent. -EK

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

34th in the league in receiving yards; 34th in receptions; 15th in TDs.

Makes him a very good but not elite receiver. 

However, as the fourth highest paid WR in the league should be elite, not just very good. 

[MikeO]

34th in the league in receiving yards; 34th in receptions; 15th in TDs. That's not poor production for a wide out who received that kind of money? You can put whatever soon you want on it- he hasn't been the same guy for quite a while now. Money poorly spent. -EK

That was just 1 year and Miami is paying for the collective 2010, 2011, and 2012 players production in total. Not just buying based off one years stats. Thought was kinda obvious, guess not

[EKnight]

34th in the league in receiving yards; 34th in receptions; 15th in TDs.

Makes him a very good but not elite receiver. 

However, as the fourth highest paid WR in the league should be elite, not just very good. 

^^this.

@MikeO- they're paying for a player who got worse with each of the past three years that you mentioned. Player has an amazing year THREE YEARS AGO, then steadily declines production with each year, so you give him absurd money anyway. Got it. Why didn't I think of that? -EK

[MikeO]

^^this.

@MikeO- they're paying for a player who got worse with each of the past three years that you mentioned. Player has an amazing year THREE YEARS AGO, then steadily declines production with each year, so you give him absurd money anyway. Got it. Why didn't I think of that? -EK

he was amazing 3 years ago and 2 years ago, and had a down year "FOR HIM" last year which was still good.  But whatever, he's signed, he's here now. He isn't going anywhere. Learn to live with it!

[Pappy13]

If at the end of the year, Wallace has between 750-800 yards receiving, and Hartline finishes as a 1000 yard guy, where's the return on investment?

IF the Dolphins have 10 wins instead of 7, that's 60 million well spent.

[EKnight]

IF the Dolphins have 10 wins instead of 7, that's 60 million well spent.

Absolutely agree- that IS why they brought him there. If they finish 7-9 or even 8-8, then not so much. I don't personally believe they win 10 games, but it's early. While they could win one or two of the next 4, I wouldn't be surprised to see them at 1-4 heading into the bye. Not a lot of 10 win season after a start like that. 3 of those 4 teams were playoff teams last year, and the 4th...I just don't see Miami beating the Saints. They can't cover a pretty good TE in Cleveland, which leads me to believe an elite one like Graham is going to have a field day. Let's see how the season plays out. Right now, they're a middle of the pack team, with all of the next four opponents evaluated much higher than them in every power ranking I've seen. I also don't believe that Wallace can keep his mouth shut for the rest of the year. Let's not forget this is the SECOND time he's been in the press as a Dolphin for not keeping his mouth shut, and he's only been a Phin for a few months.

I think I may not be explaining myself cleary, since only Hoodie seems to get my point. He's the 4th highest paid player in the league at his position, but he's even in his "amazing" year of 2011, he wasn't even a top 10 performer- and that was with a QB significantly better than RT. I don't have any concept of how a guy gets more money than Andre Johnson, Marshall, Vincent Jackson, Victor Cruz, Roddy White, Wes Welker, etc. when he hasn't done anything in three years to warrant that kind of payday. -EK

[MikeO]

IF the Dolphins have 10 wins instead of 7, that's 60 million well spent.

Yep, if the team wins and he opens things up for Hartline, Gibson, and Clay to have BIG years and the offense is improved its money well spent.

And let's also clear this up because the $60 mill number is total BS as he won't see that number. Mike Wallace is on a 3-year $37 million deal. After that its a year-year team option deal in reality since cutting him would have a very very minor cap hit. So after year 3 Miami can cut him if they want to and have a very minimal cap hit because of the way the contract was structured. No player sees the back-end money of their deals. They are either cut or the deals are restructured.  Wallace got a 3 year $37 mill deal, that's his contract!

[Brian Fein]

Last year, everyone complained that the Dolphins don't have a #1 WR and no deep threat and no weapons for Tannehill.

They went out and got Mike Wallace.  They gave him a salary that he accepted.  If they didn't give it to him he would have gone elsewhere and got it.

Now you are complaining that they overpaid for him.

Literally, Jeff Ireland can not win.  Had they said "you're only worth 40 million" and let him sign with Greeen Bay or ANYWHERE else (see Vontae Leach), you'd all be whining about how the WR position was unaddressed in the offseason and how Ireland missed on Wallace.

Damn it, people.  Quit bitching about EVERYTHING!

[Pappy13]

I think I may not be explaining myself cleary, since only Hoodie seems to get my point. He's the 4th highest paid player in the league at his position, but he's even in his "amazing" year of 2011, he wasn't even a top 10 performer- and that was with a QB significantly better than RT.

Let's leave RT out of this discussion for now. That's a different discussion and one that almost everyone here disagrees with you on to some degree.

I don't have any concept of how a guy gets more money than Andre Johnson, Marshall, Vincent Jackson, Victor Cruz, Roddy White, Wes Welker, etc. when he hasn't done anything in three years to warrant that kind of payday. -EK

Because he just got his big payday. Next year someone will be making more then Wallace and probably one or more of these guys will be making more than Wallace in the next 5 years. It's all about timing. No one actually believes that Joe Flacco is the best QB in the league right now do they?

Edit: According to the following site, Marshall, Roddy White and Andre Johnson's base salary for 2013 is higher than Wallace' anyway. http://www.spotrac.com/rankings/nfl/wide-receiver/