Dolphins Free Agents

[masterfins]

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.

Not sure what your point is, but the three QB's you mentioned all won playoff games and Super Bowls (BTW Peyton did win multiple SB's), not Tua after four years.  The best thing Miami can do right now (after the exodus of players and starting next season with multiple starters on the IR) is to Trade Tua now and get some 1st round draft picks.

[Pappy13]

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.

Not by himself he won't. Not even with Tyreek, Waddle and a terrific offensive line he won't. Grier better start plucking out defensive pro-bowlers in the draft or at the very least 3 or 4 solid defensive players over the next couple of years. I'm starting to fear that Mike McDaniel might be a better offensive coordinator than head coach.

[Spider-Dan]

Not sure what your point is, but the three QB's you mentioned all won playoff games and Super Bowls (BTW Peyton did win multiple SB's), not Tua after four years.

In point of fact:

- Peyton Manning lost his first 3 playoff games in IND and didn't win his first playoff game until year 6.  IND won 1 SB in Peyton's 9th season.
- DEN won 1 SB in Peyton's 18th and final season.
- Aaron Rodgers lost his first playoff game in year 5.  GB won 1 SB in Rodgers' 6th season.
- Drew Brees lost his first playoff game in year 4 with SD and won his first playoff game in year 6 with NO.  NO won 1 SB in Brees' 9th season.

[Pappy13]

The best defense is still a good offense...

Not sure this is true. KC, San Francisco and Baltimore had 3 of the best defenses in the NFL last year. Yeah they had good offenses, but the Dolphins had a good offense last year and they didn't win a single playoff game. The best defense is a good defense. It was only a year ago that people were singing the praises of Vic Fangio and speculating how good the Dolphins were gonna be in 2023 because of a much improved defense. Now that they have gutted the defensive side of the ball, it doesn't matter anymore? Whatever.

[Spider-Dan]

I think people expected the defense to be better than it was under Fangio.  The defense was embarrassingly bad at the start of the year and fell apart at the end of the year.

[CF DolFan]

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.

It was the only quick Google return for "during the season" but it was inline to what happened with PFF and others. Joe Rose and Omar Kelly used to debate this and the reasons behind it every single week.

[CF DolFan]

I think people expected the defense to be better than it was under Fangio.  The defense was embarrassingly bad at the start of the year and fell apart at the end of the year.

C'mon ... they had an unusual amount of injuries the their star players at the end of the year. At some point injuries are an excuse especially when you have retired guys starting after one week of practice.

With that said when the division was on the line against Buffalo at the end it was the defense that kept us in the game.

[Spider-Dan]

The TEN and BAL games are the games I was referring to.  Total debacles on defense.

And no one cares about who was injured on offense all year long; you either get it done or you don't.

[Pappy13]

I think people expected the defense to be better than it was under Fangio.  The defense was embarrassingly bad at the start of the year and fell apart at the end of the year.

Which just goes to show you how important a good defense is, even if you have a good offense. If they were bad last year, it's quite possible they will be worse this year. Not sure how you can view it any other way.

[Downunder Dolphan]

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.

McDaniel ain't a cleanskin in all this. He told Grier to "trade everything" to get Hill. He underused Mike Gesicki when we franchised him and let him walk - because he obviously undervalues the tight end position. Last years draft was apparently awash with quality at that position, and we did not draft one - well, we did draft WR and potential TE Elijah Higgins, and then cut him after training camp - for him to be picked up by Arizona.

This year is going to be prove it or lose it for McDaniel. We've invested a lot in his run and gun offense (in my eyes, it still looks like the old run and shoot from the 1990s) and next season it will have to put up a truckload of points every week to have a chance of winning, because we will basically have a shell of a defense compared to the last few seasons. I saw this stuff back in the late 1980s, and Dan's magic arm on its own could not get a playoff slot between 1986-1989. Shula's worst ever season was during that period, also going winless against the rest of the AFC East. Gulp.

[Dave Gray]

^

I fully disagree about Gesicki.  He isn't gone because he was misused.  He was gone because 1) he's not a good fit for our system and 2) he's just not worth the money.  It's good for us that he's not here.

Do you really want all this speed on the field, running RPO with Hill, Waddle, Moestart, etc.  ...and then you want designed plays for Gesicki?  Why would you do that?  Additionally, we need an extra blocker to help with the scheme, so we need to prioritize a blocking TE.  Gesicki simply isn't a good blocking TE.  He's a pass catcher.  ...but on this team, he's your 4th option AT BEST.

And all that said, Gesicki's numbers went down a lot anyway.

In his last year with the Phins, where we were apparently not using him to his potential, he had 32 recetions for 362 yards, 11.3 avg, with 5 TDs.
Last year with the Pats, he was 29 receptions for 244 yards, 8.4 avg, with only 2 TDs.

He simply isn't worth what his market value at the time was.

[masterfins]

^

I fully disagree about Gesicki.  He isn't gone because he was misused.  He was gone because 1) he's not a good fit for our system and 2) he's just not worth the money.  It's good for us that he's not here.

Do you really want all this speed on the field, running RPO with Hill, Waddle, Moestart, etc.  ...and then you want designed plays for Gesicki?  Why would you do that?  Additionally, we need an extra blocker to help with the scheme, so we need to prioritize a blocking TE.  Gesicki simply isn't a good blocking TE.  He's a pass catcher.  ...but on this team, he's your 4th option AT BEST.

And all that said, Gesicki's numbers went down a lot anyway.

In his last year with the Phins, where we were apparently not using him to his potential, he had 32 recetions for 362 yards, 11.3 avg, with 5 TDs.
Last year with the Pats, he was 29 receptions for 244 yards, 8.4 avg, with only 2 TDs.

He simply isn't worth what his market value at the time was.

I think "misused" and "not a good fit for our system" are the same thing when it comes to Gesicki.  McDaniel didn't do much of any play calling for Gesicki, so I agree it was good he was gone because Miami wasn't going to use him to his potential.  But to be fair Gesicki's numbers went down a lot due to the fact his targets went way down (I posted the numbers before and am not going to bother looking them up again).  As for what happened in NE I'm not going to waste time looking up how he was used, NE was a bad team with a bad QB last year.  I agree he wasn't worth his VALUE TO MIAMI because he wasn't going to be used to his potential.

[Pappy13]

Seems like the Dolphins are going for Quantity over Quality. The have signed a lot of players. Maybe they thought that plugging several holes with players that will cost loss was a better option than keeping some very productive players that would have been more costly. I can at least see some reason to that, I just hope it works as we lost a lot of very good players off a defensive squad that wasn't great but at times played pretty good last year on top of getting a new coordinator. I'm keeping my fingers crossed but they are gonna have to prove it. I'm trying to keep an open mind.

[CF DolFan]

Was listening to Drew Rosenhaus this morning and he said that he's signed several of the free agents to Miami this year and most of them have taken less money to play in Miami. Either they are here because they like McDaniel and company or they heard about Fangio's partying comments. I know he represents Robert Jones, Shaq Barret, Jonnu Smith, Anthony Walker, and Jordon Poyer but not sure who else.

[Dave Gray]

Fangio's partying comments

Can you elaborate?  I must have missed this.