I’m not going to use one game stat to make any points in this article. I feel stats are utterly unnecessary, we all watched and saw how our team just looked like it didn’t belong on the same field as the Kansas City Chiefs. The fact is, this team did belong, they just don’t know how to perform like they do. I can’t lie to you, it absolutely killed me to watch QB C.J. Stroud play a whale of a game against the #1 defense in the NFL, the Cleveland Browns. Of course it matters that Stroud did this at home, and we’re also well aware that our own Miami Dolphins should have been playing at home. This team showed no urgency, no alarm, no significant worry about not maintaining the home field advantage, so much so in fact, I was kind of lulled into thinking they had some crazy game plan prepared to take down the Chiefs. No, that clearly wasn’t the case as we witnessed our offense look more like the NFL’s worst offense the Carolina Panthers instead the #1 offense, The Miami Dolphins, with 401 yards per game and 61 total TD’s, both tops in the NFL.

So who gets the blame here? I think it’s clear that mastermind Mike McDaniel has a whole lot of work to do. The best coaches adjust on the fly, if the gameplan isn’t working, they make incremental changes and figure out a way to exploit what the defense is doing. We saw nothing. I know the Chiefs have a good defense, but they’re not that good. If I didn’t see Chiefs WR Rashee Rice running wild last night, Isiah Pacheco running over, around and through our defenders, I’d think maybe it was just really poor footing, but I’m pretty sure the Chiefs were playing on the same field we were, and they had no issue. Our Head Coach, offensive genius just didn’t look so smart against any of the better NFL teams. This is a huge concern, because I think the problem is twofold. Usually, an offense is going to go as far as your QB, and while QB Tua Tagovailoa had some brilliant games this season, not one of them were against winning teams. As much confidence as HC Mike McDaniel has in Tua, he has not rewarded his coach once by really stepping up in a big game.

As I was attempting to sleep last night, all these thoughts flooded my frustrated and tortured mind. What can we do to make this offense work against better teams? What could we get in the offseason that can improve this offense? Some obvious ones are finding a LT that can stay on the field the whole season. We’re going to need an OC as well. While Liam Eichenberg filled in admirably showing tons of guts playing through his calf injury, he’s not the guy going forward. RG Robert Hunt is a Free Agent, as is OC Connor Williams. LT Terron Armstead has a $24M dead cap hit, so we’re likely going to have to live with him missing loads of playing time. Oh, did I mention we’re $42M OVER THE CAP right now? DID I mention we have a 1st RD pick and 2nd RD pick and then don’t choose again until RD 5?

Hey, by the way, did I mention that on defense, CB Xavien Howard who should be toast next season has a $27M dead cap hit? Oh, and did I mention that neither OLB Jaelan Phillips or OLB Bradley Chubb will likely be ready to play at the start of the season, and Andrew Van Ginkel is a Free Agent? DE/OLB Emmanuel Ogbah has a $17M cap hit, but only a $4M dead cap hit. Seems like an easy decision to let him go except for the fact that we have no OLB’s. Oh, hey, did I tell you that DE Christian Wilkins is a Free Agent? I know we’re going to find a way to sign him, and it’s possible we can somehow re-sign Andrew Van Ginkel as well, but the cap is going to kill us next season, so we’re going to have to be very creative finding ways to help this team

This team desperately needs a well rounded TE. We need a TE that can block, catch the ball, and have the athleticism to provide run after the catch ability. No offense to Durham Smythe, but he’s a #2 TE, he’s not that guy. You look at our receivers, WR’s and TE’s as a group, and we’re small, we’re not physical, and that needs to change. Tyreek Hill is phenomenal, Jaylen Waddle has showed he can do damage when Hill is out, but our Tyreek Centric Offense relies waaaay too much on #10. Our entire RB room is returning next season, I think we’re fine there. I’d love to see them work Chris Brooks into the offense more, but Mostert, Achane, Wilson and Brooks will all be under contract next season. Wr is a different story. We have Hill, Waddle and Wilson, after that, we’re in trouble. Only WR Erik Ezukanma returns and he has been quite a disappointment.

Back to the defense for a moment. LB Jerome Baker is still under contract, a bit of a heavy $14.87M, but our defense was better with him, and I think he’s one of the most underrated and under appreciated players on our defense. David Long was excellent, better than advertised. Duke Riley played so well when he first replaced Baker, but then teams exploited him, and he’s a 2nd string and ST’s guy, so we do need ILB help and of course, help at OLB with our injury situation. We simply cannot rely on CB Xavien Howard. I think Howard has been on the decline physically for a while now, and to add to our misfortune, our 2nd RD pick CB Cam Smith has given us no indication that he could ever be starting player. That’s a HUGE miss right there! In addition, one of my favorite guys, CB Nik Needham is not the same since his injury, and to add salt into the wound, Kader Kohou who showed so much promise last season was not up to the task this season and was exposed and picked on so often this season with great success.

I’m sure Tyreek will cooperate and restructure and get paid up front with signing bonuses to give us some cap relief, and if we do sign Tua, we can structure his 2024 salary friendly to the cap. Then there’s Ogbah and Baker, and we might have to do something for the cap with those guys, either release, or restructure. Regardless of all the cap machinations, we’re not going to be flush with money, and we have a lot of holes to fill, and some huge players that need to be re-signed, none bigger than #94 Christian Wilkins. You can’t let him go, he’s a Dolphins lifer! We drafted him in RD 1 and has been the best 1st RD pick in a long time! He’s been better every single year, and has been All Pro worthy last season and this season.

Back to Tua. It’s crazy to me that the normal thing to do here is to reward him with a $50M per year contract. There are so many signs that tell you not to. He just can’t play up to the level of the competition he faces. It’s not just occasionally, it’s EVERY-SINGLE-GAME! Please don’t throw out the 3rd game of the season in ’22 where we beat the Ravens 42-38. The Ravens had numerous injuries in the secondary and they just couldn’t match up. No, the Ravens just a few short weeks ago showed us the real Ravens defense, and Tua couldn’t compete. We have never seen a big game from him against a good team when we desperately needed one. He just can’t carry the team, and even worse, he can’t even keep us in a game we could win. He lead the NFL in passing, feasting, really feasting on an awful Broncos team early in the season. I’d bet if we played them Week 15, the game would be entirely different. They were a mess, and he had season’s worth of offense in that game. 

There are just too many instances of both our QB, and our Head Coach not being able to match up against better teams. Some feel it will happen eventually. Me, I think I consider myself a pretty realistic person. I think some guys are just built to be winners. Probably not his fault, but I think Tua has been conditioned now to make sure to live another day. I think Josh Allen would lose a limb to win. I think Joe Burrow is the same. I think the guy who so many compare to Tua as a better player, (Justin Herbert), is also NOT a winner. He may have the arm of Elway, but he doesn’t have the heart of Elway. Again, I don’t want to blame Tua for not leaving it all on the field, I think his coaches have made him this way, to preserve his health and availability, but that’s also not going to win you a lot of games either. 4th and 1 and you’re scrambling and you can dive head first for the marker and take a hit or slide a yard short, Tua is sliding my friends. Even in a playoff game.

In summation here, it’s not a bright outlook. Instead of this team growing and improving, it’s not unrealistic to see us take a step back. We don’t have enough picks, and I don’t even have confidence we hit on the ones we have, because lately, we’ve been downright awful. In 2023, we hit big on RB De’Von Achane, our 2nd of only 4 picks in this draft. The others, 2nd RD pick Cam Smith seems like a miss, and then 6th RD pick WR Elijah Higgins is gone but 7th RD pick OT Ryan Hayes is on our practice squad. In 2022, once again with only 4 picks, none of them have showed starting potential. LB Channing Tindall is a ST’s guy who has played 99% of his snaps on ST’s. That’s a 3rd RD pick! 4th RD WR Erik Ezukanma who I previously brought up has shown zero.Two 7th RD picks LB Cameron Goode who is injured and has been mostly a ST’s guy as well as QB Skylar Thompson, who has been relegated to 3rd string QB. Once again, we go in to the 2024 Draft with 6 picks, but besides our 1st and 2nd RD picks (RD 1 #23), (RD2 #56), we have to wait 100 more picks, all the way to RD 5 #156 for our next pick. Then it’s #185 in RD 6 and again at #201 in RD 6. Our last pick is #240 in RD 7. Very little draft capital thanks to trades and our fucking team owner Stephen Ross who tampered with both Sean Payton and Tom Brady so we lost our 2023 1st RD pick and our 3rd RD pick in the 2024 Draft. Grier has his work cut out for him, as does Head Coach Mike McDaniel to find a way to have this offense humming, even when we play a good team.