Dolphins Free Agents

[CF DolFan]

New defensive coordinator will have his hands full. Big loss today as Wilkins is signing with the Raiders 5 for 110 million, Robert hunt is signing with the Panthers for 20 million  year, AVG reunites with Flores in Minnesota for 10 million a year, and Brandon Jones is signing with Denver but details haven't been released. We did re-sign Nik Needham and Elijah Campbell so there is that.

Loses so far ...

DT Christian Wilkins
OG Robert Hunt
CB Xavian Howard
LB Andrew Van Ginkel
S Brandon Jones
LB Jerome Baker
LB Emmanuel Ogbah
CB Keion Crossen


Hoch and Crowder said today feels like being left on the Titanic. Not a good day.

[Spider-Dan]

Hunt will definitely be missed.
The rest of the losses are on defense, and the defense frankly wasn't very good.  If the defense is blown up, so be it.

[Pappy13]

Beginning of the descent for the Dolphins. My prediction for next year is 9-8 and miss the playoffs unless they hit it big in the draft unexpectedly.

[CF DolFan]

The rest of the losses are on defense, and the defense frankly wasn't very good.  If the defense is blown up, so be it.

Not sure what team you were watching but before we lost half the defense to injuries they had worked their way into a a top 5 defense. This after starting very slowly under the new regime.

It sucks because we did lose talent and brought in none except for a LBer that is hurt as much as Armstead. Oddly enough our decimated defense still outplayed our super star offense at the end of the season but that bar was set pretty low.

[CF DolFan]

Beginning of the descent for the Dolphins. My prediction for next year is 9-8 and miss the playoffs unless they hit it big in the draft unexpectedly.

If losing talent is an indicator then I don't see 9 wins available to us. It's going to be impossible to replace the talent we've lost and the schedule may not be as favorable this year.  

We are starting year 6 of a total rebuild with zero playoff wins and now purging our roster. I honestly have no idea how Chris Grier is still in charge of the circus.

[jimmythefinger]

After watching the last two minutes of the Tennessee game I cannot feel bad about losing anybody on that defense. The best defense is still a good offense and the Fins will pass or fail (no puns intended) with Tua. Our biggest priority as far as I'm concerned is Offensive Line.

[Spider-Dan]

Not sure what team you were watching but before we lost half the defense to injuries they had worked their way into a a top 5 defense. This after starting very slowly under the new regime.

And when was this, exactly?  You say they "started slowly," which seems to acknowledge that they looked absolutely terrible @LAC and @BUF.  They didn't look good @PHI either.  I'm guessing "lost half the defense" has to mean the moment Phillips went down, because anything else just doesn't make sense: they definitely didn't look like a "top 5 defense" when they gave up 15 points in three minutes to a team that finished with 6 wins, and Chubb didn't go down until BAL had already hung 49 on them.  They played well at home against the Jets though!

For the record, MIA finished #22 in points allowed.

Oddly enough our decimated defense still outplayed our super star offense at the end of the season but that bar was set pretty low.

When you give up 56 points to BAL, and allow 26 points/400+ yards of offense in -4 degree weather, you haven't outplayed anyone.  That is bottom 5-level defensive play.

And it's worth mentioning that the offense had more players out all year long.

[CF DolFan]

And when was this, exactly?  You say they "started slowly," which seems to acknowledge that they looked absolutely terrible @LAC and @BUF.  They didn't look good @PHI either.  I'm guessing "lost half the defense" has to mean the moment Phillips went down, because anything else just doesn't make sense: they definitely didn't look like a "top 5 defense" when they gave up 15 points in three minutes to a team that finished with 6 wins, and Chubb didn't go down until BAL had already hung 49 on them.  They played well at home against the Jets though!

For the record, MIA finished #22 in points allowed.
When you give up 56 points to BAL, and allow 26 points/400+ yards of offense in -4 degree weather, you haven't outplayed anyone.  That is bottom 5-level defensive play.

And it's worth mentioning that the offense had more players out all year long.

If that's how you feel then so be it. #22 for the year looks good for the negative spin but does not account for how good they became when healthy. Even old school people who say injures don't matter were looking at the Dolphins D and admitting no way they overcome them with so many key players gone.

November/December 2023 they were top 3 and top 5 respectfully.

https://www.oddschecker.com/us/insight/football/nfl/20231207-2023-nfl-team-defense-rankings-ranking-the-top-defenses-in-the-nfl-heading-into-week-14
 3. MIAMI DOLPHINS
The defense has improved in the second half since Jalen Ramsey returned to the field. That's not a coincidence.


https://www.oddschecker.com/us/insight/football/nfl/20231214-2023-nfl-team-defense-rankings-ranking-the-top-defenses-in-the-nfl-heading-into-week-15
5. MIAMI DOLPHINS
The Dolphins have 42 sacks with 12 interceptions but have improved in the last few months.

[Spider-Dan]

I've never heard of oddschecker.com before today, and it's unclear what metric they are using to rank defenses.  KC finished #2 in both points and yards allowed, yet in these rankings they are ranked #25 one week and then #12 the next.  These feel like "Defense Power Rankings" which is basically just vibes.

[Downunder Dolphan]

New defensive coordinator will have his hands full. Big loss today as Wilkins is signing with the Raiders 5 for 110 million, Robert hunt is signing with the Panthers for 20 million  year, AVG reunites with Flores in Minnesota for 10 million a year, and Brandon Jones is signing with Denver but details haven't been released. We did re-sign Nik Needham and Elijah Campbell so there is that.

Loses so far ...

DT Christian Wilkins
OG Robert Hunt
CB Xavian Howard
LB Andrew Van Ginkel
S Brandon Jones
LB Jerome Baker
LB Emmanuel Ogbah
CB Keion Crossen


Hoch and Crowder said today feels like being left on the Titanic. Not a good day.

Raekwon Davis has also left, signing a two year deal with the Colts.

I can see why Fangio wanted to leave if he knew this was on the cards - the defense has been absolutely gutted of some of its best players of the last five years.

Anthony Weaver is almost having to start again from scratch - it's no surprise now he was raving about Ramsey and Phillips during his first press conference (as there's going to be almost no one else left). There are a lot of high end draft picks that we used in the rebuild that are gone. Jevon Holland publicly campaigned for Jones to stay - is he the next one out the door?

We lost Hunt to FA, despite Armstead, Ramsey, Sieler, Smythe, and Ingold all having their contracts restructured to squeeze in under the cap. Keeping Conor Williams still has to be doubtful, even after those moves. Plus we have Tua's contract negotiations next year to look forward to.

We really did go all-in last season, and that trade for Chubb now doesn't look like such a great move. Anyone who thought our defense was poor are going to be in for a big shock next season, because it's going to be closer to non-existent now. As good as Ramsey and Phillips are, they can't play the other nine positions on the field.

It's hard to see us recovering from this.

[Downunder Dolphan]

Grier has got to be on notice. If we miss the playoffs, I can't see him surviving after it becomes crystal clear that the rebuild has been a total failure.

[masterfins]

Not sure what team you were watching but before we lost half the defense to injuries they had worked their way into a a top 5 defense. This after starting very slowly under the new regime.

It sucks because we did lose talent and brought in none except for a LBer that is hurt as much as Armstead. Oddly enough our decimated defense still outplayed our super star offense at the end of the season but that bar was set pretty low.

+1 I agree completely.  The defense had a couple bad games, but overall they were becoming a really solid unit; in spite of all the injuries.

[masterfins]

Beginning of the descent for the Dolphins. My prediction for next year is 9-8 and miss the playoffs unless they hit it big in the draft unexpectedly.

I agree, but I think they will be lucky to win 7 games.  The only thing left to happen to make things even worse is to re-sign Connor Williams (who won't be able to even attempt playing until Oct or Nov), and signing Tua to a mega cash contract that will paralyze this franchise for the next half decade.  I think Tua deserves his 5th year to try and prove himself, after which I'd be okay to signing him to long term deal.  However, IMO Tua is a Dak Prescott type - he'll put up numbers and win regular season games, but he will never win Miami a playoff game.

[masterfins]

Grier has got to be on notice. If we miss the playoffs, I can't see him surviving after it becomes crystal clear that the rebuild has been a total failure.

IMO Grier's main job this offseason should have been to re-sign Wilkins, and he failed.  Secondly, he then lost Van Ginkel who played his heart out for this team.  Instead of keeping this future talent with these guys, Miami will have to rely on signing used up guys to one year contracts.

I feel bad for Mike McDaniel he's a decent coach, and I think he would have improved as a HC, but now I see two terrible years from Miami and he will be shown the door.

[Spider-Dan]

I think there's way too much emphasis placed on the $15M difference between $40M being tied up at the QB position and $55M.  If you look at GB with Rodgers, NO with Brees, and IND/DEN with Peyton, at no times were those teams "unable to compete" because too much cap was tied up at QB.  Now, did those teams win multiple Super Bowls?  No.  But paying an extra 6% of their cap on QB salary was not the reason why.

If your QB is playing well, it doesn't matter how much you're paying him (see: KC since Mahomes signed his record contract).  And if he's not playing well, it also doesn't matter how much you're paying him!  This fixation by many fans on whether the QB is taking 15% of the cap or 20% of the cap is really missing the point.