The Dolphins finally signed one of their successful 1st RD draft picks from the last few years to an extension. We allowed two important trench players go earlier this offseason, one on the offensive side, RG Robert Hunt, and one on the defensive side, DT/DE Christian Wilkins. It seems their priority is the skill position, and now another of the WR corps is waiting for his extension, namely #10, WR Tyreek Hill. I’m glad we signed Waddle, we need to keep our own, and in my view, we sent an awful message to our current players letting Wilkins and Hunt go, so this will soften the blow of doling out big contracts to players we traded for and not rewarding the ones we drafted and developed.
I’m not convinced however, that we’re building this team right. Now that Waddle has his big extension, it’s been out there WR Tyreek Hill is also seeking a large extension. Make no mistake, Hill is our best WR, but he’s also 30 years old, and for a smaller WR who makes his money on speed, this is just about that time when he starts his decline. It’s my feeling that it wouldn’t be good for the team to be paying two WR’s a boatload of money. We have obviously made improvements on the offense. Signing TE Jonnu Smith was in my estimation the best FA signing of the offseason. He does all the things we’ve been missing here for too long. When Hill and Waddle are covered, someone on the offense needs to step up and make the defense pay, and I believe Jonnu Smith is the leading candidate for that role. Often Tua would check down to TE Durham Smythe, but Smythe is not gifted with run after catch ability, or instant acceleration after the catch.
Another important move in the offseason was drafting RB Jaylen Wright. McDaniel wanted him so badly he was willing to sacrifice next year’s 3rd RD pick, which is really the equivalent of a 4th RD pick this year, and exactly where Wright was selected, pick #120 RD 4. Wright is more durable package with very little wear on the treads. Wright at 5’11 210 has good size, and was the 2nd fastest RB in the ’24 draft, posting a 4.38 40 at the combine. He will be a nice guy to have in our RB stable along with Raheem Mostert, De’Von Achane and whoever else manages to stick on the roster, either Salvon Ahmed, Jeff Wilson Jr. or Chris Brooks. Mostert bulked up last season and it served him well, because Mostert has a lengthy injury history. We also found out De’Von Achane also has a penchant for missing time, so adding Wright will make the absence of either Mostert or Achane much more tolerable.
When I look at what we’ve done this season, I feel like we have improved this offense, especially at the skill positions, WR, TE and RB, but have we really improved the O-line? For all intents and purpose, we let one of our most consistent lineman go, and brought back many of the same question marks who missed lots of time, and added a new question mark at C, Aaron Brewer. We drafted an OT in RD 2, but the majority of opinions on OT Patrick Paul are that he’s not ready to take over for oft injured LT Terron Armstead, one of the biggest question marks. Not for his talent, but for his availability. It’s not if he’s going to miss time, it’s when, and for how long. At LG we have Isaiah Wynn who missed 10 games last season, but was promising while he was playing. RG Robert Jones played well in relief but was also injured last season. RT Austin Jackson missed only 1 game, and was the iron man of the line.
Then we look at the defense, and while the secondary has improved, mostly due to the FA signing of CB Kendall Fuller, who had a down year last season. Fuller should be a solid upgrade nonetheless, CB Xavien Howard had an awful season while still battling various leg injuries. FS Jevon Holland is another guy who wants to be paid, and we don’t have the luxury of the 5th year option as Holland was a 2nd RD pick, that only goes with first round picks. There are so many facets to the salary cap, and I’ll be the first to admit I don’t understand all the loopholes and ways to minimize cap issues, but looking ahead, there are a lot of mouths to feed very soon. QB Tua Tagovailoa likely will be the next big domino to fall, and again, that’s on the offensive side of the ball. We’ve hodge podged together a defensive line rotation of castoffs from a few different teams, none of them standouts or bona fide starters. We got quantity, Gallimore, Tart, Hand, Jones, Harris, but not a lot of quality. DC Anthony Weaver is a rookie defensive coordinator, and he will be tested. I think we dropped the ball on the defensive side. I know some of you love the Jordan Poyer signing, I would too if it was 5 years ago. I just hope he makes it through the whole season and still has enough left in the tank to help us.
I think the offense, while improved, is really no better off to win in cold climates and dominate the trenches, we’ll still be attacking with speed, which we’ve seen gets neutralized in very cold weather. Our schedule this season is chock full of potentially frigid games, starting with a Thanksgiving matchup in Wisconsin against the Green Bay Packers, at night no less. Late December, (not back in ’63), we travel to Cleveland for a December 29th matchup with the Browns, once again at night, because it might not be cold enough during the day! Finally, the season finale will be in New Jersey against our division rival NY Jets. The time for this game has yet to be determined, but rest assured, it will be flexed to a night game. Actually, either we, or the Jets would have to be legit playoff contenders to be given such an honor, so hopefully it’s us!
GO DOLPHINS!!!
Finsmob Unleashed 
Naples – Saying Anthony Weaver is better than Vic Fangio is a huge stretch. Fangio is one of the best. He may not relate to players as well as young guys, but he had that defense playing top 10 last season. We’ll see if Weaver and his tsunamis are as good soon enough. Our defense was competitive with 10 guys missing.
What worries me most about our defense is I feel we won’t see the interior disruption we got last year from Wilkins and Seiler.
If they doubled Wilkins, Seiler was busting through. If they doubled Seiler, Wilkins was busting through.
This year, if they double Seiler, ???
My fear as well Mike. It seems like they’re expecting most of the rush to come from the outside guys like Chop, Barrett, Chubb and Phillips. I guess anything they get from the interior D-line is gravy
Expect Sieler to be doubled often, leaving someone else to make the plays
With 47 IDL in camp the ones that make the 53 better stay sharp or someone from the PS will be ready to take their snaps
I’m pretty sure the team thinks more highly of the interior DL on the team than the media and fans. We’ll eventually see if they’re right or way off.
Everyone thinks what they do is right, that doesn’t mean it’s right. 🙂
Like I said we’ll see how the entire group on defense performs under Weaver. We don’t have much to go on.
Doesn’t mean it’s wrong either, just unknown
OL/DL is worse
OL staying healthy should make them better, big if of course, point is at the end of the season (against better teams) our OL wasn’t good, we can be at least what we were last year (also more weapons will help)
DL won’t have the disruption Wilkins brought, it will have help from the LBs, fresher players, and once healthy (Chubb and Phillips) to go along with the 3 new guys a dynamic passrush IMO
If it’s our year and things come together, sky is the limit
We have in place what it takes to win the SB, will we? Probably not, it won’t be because of the talent though, it’ll be what’s done on the field
It’s in the players hands
With the salary cap, -45m, going into the offseason there wasn’t anyone here, that thought we’d have a better roster, than 2023
Probably split down the middle, if we were to vote
What more could you ask for, before the games are played?
Everyone knew they would get it done. The roster they put together being in that situation is nice considering. Problem is the way they had to do it by moving a ton of that negative money down the road.
Like Shaq Barrett, bringing him in on a 2024 rental then having a 1.1 million dead cap hit the next 4 years after he is gone.
Then Kendall Fuller, signed for 2 years then a 1.35 million dead cap hit for 3 years after he is gone.
Jordyn Brooks signed for 3 years then a 1.67 million dead cap hit for 2 years after.
They did it with numerous others. We will have this problem every year and will be filling the roster with aging vets and cast offs every year.
Steve, we have some new DL, Edge, LBs and DBs with a new DC. It’s definitely unknown.
Steve – they did what they did to operate under the salary cap, not because it made the team better. Does it work anyway? Maybe. You need your QB to be consistent and competitive against all teams, at all times. If he is, we may be able to overcome some defensive shortcomings
Other than Wilkins, we lost Davis, Ogbah, Van Ginkel, Baker, X, Elliot and Jones. How many of them do you think were irreplaceable?
I’m specifically talking about Wilkins, and Hunt as well, though that’s the other side of the ball. If we don’t get any rush from the side opposite Sieler, they will neutralize Sieler too with a RB chip, or a TE
I don’t think Wilkins alone creates short comings on defense. It’s not like all the other guys on the DL are never going to do anything.
We have about 19 million in dead cap in 2028 already from all the players they signed/resigned or restructured this year. That will close to double when they have to do it next year in 2025 to rebuild the roster again after signing all the 1year rentals.
That’s why you have to draft well, find some UDFAs which we seem to do and develop them. Outside of a handful of core guys getting paid this is how things work these days. After 4-5 years lots of teams lose players they drafted, that’s when they become FAs. Teams turnover a good portion of their roster every few years and build around their core. You can’t pay everyone.
Tim Knight
says:
June 12, 2024 at 3:51 pm (Edit)
I don’t think Wilkins alone creates short comings on defense. It’s not like all the other guys on the DL are never going to do anything.
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Then we shouldn’t waste an early pick on a DT because it doesn’t matter 5th, 6th or 7th RD, it’s all about the rotation. He was basically our best DL, how do you figure it’s not going to cause shortcomings? If you don’t get a good pass rush from that side, it will absolutely make a difference. He was excellent against the run, a top 10 DL/DE.
Mike, come on one player doesn’t define a defense. Wilkins isn’t Aaron Donald or J.J. Watt. He’s a good, consistent and durable player. He’s not a dominant player that wrecks games.
If our defense isn’t as good overall and we don’t know the answer to that yet, then we could have short comings.
BTW, June is here, it’s already the 12th, where is Tua’s contract? Hmmmm
According to Tua himself, it’ll be done before TC hits.
Mike, you said not long ago you thought Tua will get a new contract in June as well.
For those who don’t already know, the Mike Tyson – Jake Paul fight will now take place on November 15th.
CAN’T WAIT!!!
The idea is to have the best player you can get at every position. With our salary cap, the upcoming contract extensions, we did the best we could, which isn’t the same as the best in the NFL. We got worse on the DL, go ahead, say it, you can do it. If you take away a top 10 DT/DE and replace them with nobodies, you got worse. I don’t know why I need to explain it. It’s why the Ravens signed Madubuike and the Chiefs signed Jones, and the Raiders gave Wilkins a big fat contract. Do you think there’s a reason why the guys we signed took one year contracts for pennies on the dollar of the contract Wilkins signed? I think it’s silly already.
As far as Tua, didn’t say we needed to wait for June, some of you said that, I debunked it, because we don’t need cap money to sign him for this season.
But you agreed with me when we were having a discussion about Tua getting a new contract in June. I thought the cap was the reason because of a Barry Jackson article about us redoing contracts after we got cap relief from X. Tua’s new contract was part of that article.
I have said that this contract is by far not a slam dunk. If they thought he was worth Goff money he’d have it. He doesn’t, because honestly, I don’t think he’s done enough to earn that. We’ll see. It could be interesting if he plays on his 5th year option. I think the team has more leverage here, he’s under contract, and a holdout or poor play this season doesn’t help him for a new contract
Annotated above… just hit play.
Mike, no we didn’t add a player as good as Wilkins to replace him. But he’s not the only guy who can play 3 technique. I’m more concerned about Edge without Phillips and Chubb because they both were playing very well before getting injured. Barrett is a savvy vet but may not be the same player anymore and the two rooks are unproven.
We’ll see what the back end looks like. I think if it’s not better it won’t be worse. Maybe even. Weaver like many other DCs said you’re in nickel most of the time. That is usually 2 DT, 2 Edge, 2 LB and 5 DB. There’s a lot teams do out of these formations to disrupt plays. Do we have enough to match 11 personnel?
To be honest, I wish we could have come away with DT Johnny Newton in April. When he fell to the 2nd round, I thought for sure we were in play to trade up for him… and perhaps we were but couldn’t get a deal done, who knows.
Newton next to Sieler on our D-Line would have been dangerously good for us. Newton would have been the perfect replacement for Christian Wilkins, IMO.
Hopefully it’s water under the bridge as our ‘tsunami waves’ destroy. Time will tell.
IMO, had Chubb and Phillips not suffered their respective injuries last season… AND if we had a 3rd round pick this last Draft, Johnny Newton would definitely been drafted as a Miami Dolphin, one way or the other.
Our Draft was compromised by injuries and not having a 3rd rounder (thanks again, Steve Ross).
He’s also an unproven rookie. You can’t look at projections as upgrades. I think Chop is closer to LT than Newton is to Wilkins. We had to add some OL depth as well. Maybe Paul is a future tackle. But they’re all projections.
Every rookie is unproven… even the #1 overall Draft picks every year… even the UDFAs that become future HOFers.
I truly get the sense that Newton is going to become somebody YUGE in this league. JMO, of course.
Reports from Raiders camp are that Christian Wilkins is BALLING.
That was to be expected, without a doubt. Not sure I’ve ever seen anybody give 100% like he does. Even in practice, he’s above and beyond. He operates on a Pentium 2075 upgrade of sorts… NON-STOP motor.
Elon Musk should ask for a DNA sample from Christian Wilkins… he could power the world for free.
Elite motor and energy mixed with average power and quickness. That’s what Wilkins is.
I fundamentally believe that if Coach McDaniel improves by a mere 15% in Offensive play-calling (changing it up in-game) and judgement-calling, we can win 2-3 more games this season than last… granted our Defense can keep us in games. AND, granted we spray for the injury bug!
We needn’t a ‘perfect’ roster to make a Super Bowl run, just little improvements here and there, both sides of the ball.
Yes, I think clock-management could be improved upon, for example.
Jets are already a mess. I love it.
Aaron Rodgers runs the team. He thinks very highly of himself. He wants to prove he’s amazing. I’m not sold he’s all in on football though. Coming off the Achilles injury and 40 years old. He seems to have other interests.
We need Chop to make that not so easy. He really does have elite upside and he’s always been a grounded individual. I’d be shocked if he doesn’t pan out.
NEW BLOG UP!!!!
Adam Schefter
@AdamSchefter
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Jets have signed defensive lineman Takk McKinley, a former first-round pick who joined the team for mandatory minicamp as a tryout player.