Finsmob Unleashed

The football minds of the Miami Dolphins are now focused on the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft which begins April 25th. The financial wizards are hard at work trying to figure the best way to keep the roster stacked while at the same time digging themselves out of cap debt. There’s ways of paying down that cap debt by paying money up front, turning salary into bonuses that are payable immediately, and that’s where Stephen Ross’s indomitable desire to win comes in handy. He will cooperate fully and would be willing to buy a championship if that were possible. That’s the good part. The other half of the equation is whether we have the right guy(s) making the personnel choices. GM Chris Grier is 67-64 over his 8 year career as GM with the Dolphins. That’s not awful by any stretch, but it’s pretty close to average. Compare him to Baltimore Ravens GM Eric DeCosta who is 56-27 over his 5 year career and it pales significantly. Compare him to Pittsburgh Steelers former GM Kevin Colbert (226-124), or even GM John Lynch (64-51), who is more of a contemporary to Grier, and he’s got some catching up to do. One important thing to point out with the Ravens and Steelers in particular is that both of those teams have had the same Head Coach for long periods of time. HC John Harbaugh has been with the Ravens for 16 years since 2008, and Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin for 17 years since 2007. Stability, something we’ve been looking to have here for a long time. Since Mike Tomlin has been pacing the sidelines in Pittsburgh, the Miami Dolphins have had 7 different Head Coaches. We all hope that HC Mike McDaniel will be here, and be successful for quite a long time.

Some of you wonder why I’m so dark lately. I’m sure all of you watched the Super Bowl, and if somehow you were too distracted or maybe too inebriated or both, the Kansas City Chiefs were fielding one of the youngest teams in the NFL with a roster age of 25 or 26, this after allowing one of their best offensive weapons go to the Miami Dolphins, in exchange for a fair amount of valuable picks. 5 in total, 2022 1st, 2nd and 4th RD and picks, and then in 2023 our 4th and 6th RD picks. So you look at the KC offense and you see WR Rashee Rice (meh), WR Justin Watson (meh), WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling (meh), WR Mecole Hardman (meh) and you think to yourself how did this offense win the Super Bowl? OK, RB Isiah Pacheco is solid, and of course the TE Travis Kelce is the best receiving TE in the sport. The most important thing is they have their QB. QB Patrick Mahomes is 74-22 (.770 winning %). He’s been winning since he started, winning since his best WR left, and hasn’t stopped. He doesn’t need people to make excuses for him, he just wins. Now some of you think our QB belongs in the conversation with Mahomes, that he’s on his way, and he “bites”. You talk about passing yards, breaking offensive records, but somehow are willing to look the other way when he disappears against better teams and cite a decimated defense as an excuse for the QB’s poor play against better teams. Patrick Mahomes doesn’t care who his receivers are, his defense, none of it. He just finds a way to win.

So now one of the biggest decisions both roster wise and monetarily come to a head. Do the Miami Dolphins buy into QB Tua Tagovailoa and pay him somewhere in the vicinity of $55M annually for 5-6 years? The Cincinnati Bengals gave QB Joe Burrow a 5 YR/$275M contract which is precisely $55M per. Well, some people compare Tua to Joe Burrow, but all I can do is laugh. Joe Burrow has been an All Pro QB, and is 5-2 in the playoffs, and took his team to the Super Bowl. On the other side of the ledger, The New York Giants gave QB Daniel Jones a 4 YR/$160M contract which is $40M annually. You know the Giants wish they hadn’t done that contract. Some say the Bengals wish the same with Burrow because he’s missed 12 games, 6 his rookie season in 2020, and then again 6 game this past season. He’s definitely an injury risk, but I’ll tell you one thing, that boy leaves it on the field every single game. There’s not one of you on this cherished blog that can say the same for QB Tua Tagovailoa. So we gleefully celebrate the fact that Tua played 17 regular season games and even 1 playoff game. I say, did he really? I know some of you think I hate Tua, but the truth is I don’t. I think Tua’s a great kid, I just don’t think in his current state, post concussion that he can lead us to a Super Bowl. I hate the situation we’re in, not the person himself. I do kind of hate the excuse makers, because I don’t really see what that accomplishes. I would like to be optimistic, but my perception of what happened this season was Mike McDaniel and Tua mutually agreed to be careful and keep him out of harms way. Some of us see passing records shattered, I see losses to every winning team with the exception of the Dallas Cowboys.

I’m not going to get deep into the draft yet, but it seems like everyone (and their mother) has us taking Oregon OC/OG Jackson Powers-Johnson at #21. I’d be quite happy with that, we could use an OC as a fixture for the next 5 years. LT?, LG?, C?, RG?, LT Austin Jackson. I’d love to be able to pencil in at least one more guy, so I’ll be giddy if we land JPJ. I also hope that somehow we manage to keep our own RG Robert Hunt, but it’s gonna take close to $12M per to keep our 27 YO powerhouse. I suppose if they do give Tua the big contract, then it’s much more likely we pay Hunt, and then we’ll have to see what they can do with DL Christian Wilkins. This is another thing that has me bitter. I know it hasn’t happened yet and we may still find a way to retain Wilkins, but I don’t like the body language so to speak. Wilkins leaves it all on the field every game, plays more snaps than most DL in the game. He’s EARNED A CONTRACT EXTENSION, not free agency! With our 2nd pick (#55), do we go with defense, either a pass rusher or CB? PFN’s (Pro Football Network) Tony Pauline was on the Joe Rose this morning and he reiterated some of the things that former DC Vic Fangio said about CB Cam Smith. Apparently, Smith has had, and continues to have attitude issues. Seems like drafting a CB isn’t a crazy idea. BTW, Tony Pauline really likes JPJ, he said he not only has an NFL body, he also has an NFL mind. I dig it!

GO DOLPHINS!!!