Finsmob Unleashed

It’s funny, just going through the formality of typing out the title of the 2024 Season, Game 5 etc. felt like an exercise in futility. I can’t believe we’re back here again, that sad, dark place when you know your team is doomed, not only for this season, but way beyond, especially if QB Tua Tagovailoa holds this team prisoner by not retiring. I desperately wanted them to protect themselves, but oh boy, the love affair with HC Mike McDaniel and QB Tua Tagovailoa was hot and heavy, and both Mike McDaniel and Chris Grier threw caution to the wind and gave him a massive contract. How many times did I stress that it was one season, and how he played that season so carefully as not to get injured. That extra careful play just doesn’t work in the NFL, not when you play the better teams. Tua will come back, that much is certain, but what version do we get of Tua, and for how long? Even worse, what will our record be when he comes back, and will it even be fair to expect the Dolphins to pull themselves out of a 1-5 start?

There are so many decisions Chris Grier and Mike McDaniel made, and it’s so unfortunate that it appears they made the wrong ones on most counts. Let’s start with one of my favorite ones. DT Christian Wilkins, drafted in RD 1, 13th overall, and all that guy did here was bust his ass for 5 seasons, playing tons of snaps and every single the last 3 years of that contract. What do we do? Let-him-go! “Ohhh, he wanted too much money, you can’t pay him that!!!” Well, we should have said that and more when it came to everyone’s favorite QB Tua Tagovailoa who is now one hit away from maybe not even being able to make the decision on whether or not he should play. Oh, he’s coming back, probably Week 8, which coincidentally is the Fest game against Arizona. The question on everyone’s mind though is how long will he last. It will be that way for as long as he plays in the NFL, that’s just the way it is. These are the tough decisions GM’s have to make, and I’ll tell you Chris Grier keeps making the wrong choices.

Besides Christian Wilkins, we had drafted OG Robert Hunt in the 2nd RD (pick #39) in the 2020 NFL Draft. All Robert Hunt did was bust his ass for 4 seasons playing in 50 of 51 games in his first 3 seasons before last season, where he played in 11 of 17 due to injury. No, he was never an all pro, or pro bowler, but you could easily make the argument that he was our best OL during his tenure here in Miami. So what we do, Chris Grier? Give him a contract? “Ohhh, he’s asking for too much money, we can’t pay him that!!!”. Say goodbye to our best OL, and one that we drafted. It’s not like don’t have one of the top 5 offensive lines in football, so why keep one of your own who was a solid, dependable, above average player? Our LT is in has last season, and he misses so much time. While that’s good for rookie Patrick Paul, maybe we could have saved the money on Terron Armstead, and just played Paul right out of the chute. Let’s face it, Chris Grier is playing the O-line by the seat of his pants. There’s clearly no plan, with the majority of the line departing next season in FA, or retirement. LT Terron Armstead is retiring, LG Robert Jones is a FA, C Aaron Brewer is under contract through 2026, RG Liam Eichenberg is a UFA next season, and RT Austin Jackson is also signed through 2026.

Think about it like this if you will. You’re in the medieval era, you build a magnificent castle while you’re surrounded by hostile armies. You decide, you know what, the castle is made of bricks, and it looks great, we don’t need to spend a lot on moats, or heavy iron gates. You can just imagine what would happen to that castle or your QB Tua Tagovailoa when you neglect to protect them. Tua’s injury history was well known here, and what’s worse, a concussion problem in a league where this has been a long battle between former players and the NFL, and the Miami Dolphins organization doesn’t want this type of thing ruining it’s product or image. In essence, this is precisely why we put Tua on IR, while other players who were concussed as recently as last week might even play this week. It was such a risky decision to think Tua wouldn’t get hurt again, yet we pushed all our chips into the pot anyway.

Then we can discuss the backup QB situation. We had Mike White, and 3rd year 7th RD pick (pick 247), picked 15 spots before Mr. Irrelevant Brock Purdy. I know some of y’all don’t think much of Brock Purdy, but compared to Skylar Thompson, who’s been here 2 seasons and by all rights should know Mike McDaniels offense backwards and forward, he looked lost out there. Yes, it was in Seattle, where the crowd is deafening, but they practice for that, don’t they? QB Tim Boyle looked far less bothered by the noise, or not really having time to learn the offense, or read a defense due to the leaky protection. So we pick up QB Tyler Huntley from the Baltimore Ravens practice squad. It’s an awful ot to ask a QB to digest such an overly complicated offense in just 2 weeks, and of course we would think that they would simplify things, maybe eliminate the complicated motions because timing is so important for that. This is where the HC Mike McDaniel has to take some heat. It seems as if he’s designed this offense specifically for QB Tua Tagovailoa, and that’s a real problem considering he’s only played one full season, and once again I stress, did it wearing bubble wrap and oh so cautiously and carefully. That’s unacceptable, it just is.

There are more poor choices both Grier and McDaniel made. We let OLB AndrewVan Ginkel go. Never really a full time starter, but always, and I mean always an impact player. When you contrast him with our first RD pick OLB Chop Robinson, Robinson is all speed, quick get off, and basically made it through college looking quick, but not making plays. All AVG did was make plays. Big plays! We can only hope that someday Chop Robinson does what AVG did here. I understand why AVG left, he went to a coach that believed in him. Much like McDaniel believes in Tua, Flores believed in AVG. Back to Mike McDaniel for a moment. “Offensive Genius”. Next fucking time we consider hiring one of those, GO THE OTHER WAY! If he’s truly an offensive genius, he’d realize that no QB on the roster or off it can run this offense as well as Tua Tagovailoa, who this system was tailored to by a fine Italian tailor. It fits perfectly, but if you need to bring in a different QB, it takes far too much time to get everyone in sync. How he hasn’t been able to make changes and eliminate the most complex things like 3 different players in motion and then getting set with a QB who just got here 2 weeks is beyond me.

Oh yeah, we play the Patriots this weekend, and our good friend Hulk got tickets from his brother and was willing to drive to the game from his house in CT. At this point, Piggy (Who could fly to the game) and myself both backed out because the effort necessary to get that done and the expense just isn’t worth it to see this product. I admit, I thought we could be a very competitive team, i thought Mike McDaniel would work out the kinks, and we’d use new weapons like TE Jonnu Smith, and rookie RB Jaylen Wright, along with our superstars WR Tyreek Hill, WR Jaylen Waddle, 3rd WR OBJ, and promising 2nd year RB De’Von Achane. Instead, Jonnu Smith is an afterthought, OBJ may play his first game this weekend, and somehow 5’9 180 lb De’Von Achane became a workhorse RB, as starter Raheem Mostert is OUT with a chest injury. I know you know, but this offense that scored 496 points last season HAS NEVER HAD A LEAD THIS SEASON, NEVER! That includes Game 1 against Jacksonville at home, and Game 2 against Buffalo, at home, with Tua. Incomprehensible. Has the NFL really just figured out our offense now to the point where it can never again be effective? Just play 2 deep safeties and cover those WR’s and keep everything in front of you and they’re stymied!

The last 4 games of 2023 we scored 15.5 PPG, 22 against Dallas, 19 against the Ravens, 14 against the Buffalo Bills, and 7 against the Chiefs in frozen Arrowhead. This year it’s 11.3 PPG, 20 against Jacksonville, 10 against the Bills, 3 against the Seahawks and then 12 against the Titans, on MNF no less. The question now looks like what does Mike McDaniel and Chris Grier have to do to keep their jobs at the end of the season? We gave extensions to WR Tyreek Hill, WR Jaylen Waddle, QB Tua Tagovailoa, CB Jalen Ramsey, RB Raheem Mostert, and yet the one guy who gave us the chance to win our only game this season, S Jevon Holland, is without a contract. Seems like one of the guys who makes big plays, and yet there he is, on the outside looking in. Next year we have 7 picks, RD1, RD 2, RD 4, RD 5, and 2 picks in RD7. We’re expected to potentially get 2 compensatory picks, one very likely a 3rd RD pick for Christian Wilkins, and either a 3rd or 4th for Robert Hunt. We may also get a 7th RD pick for DeSon Elliott, who is having a nice season for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I DO NOT, want GM Chris Grier making these picks, and I’m somewhat convinced I don’t want MM involved either. We’re going to have to once again draft a starting QB, because Tua’s days are numbered here, his next concussion could be his last, much like I had warned about talented TE Jordan Cameron before we picked him up. Oh yeah, WTF happened with Jonnu Smith, that guy who was going to help this offense when teams took away Hill and Waddle? Well, if you haven’t noticed, they took away Hill and Waddle!!! Tyreek Hill through 4 games has 17 receptions for 217 yards, 1 TD. Jaylen Waddle has 17 receptions for 212 yards 0 TD’s, remarkably similar to Hill. That’s basically 4 catches a game for about 54 yards per game. Let’s throw more money at them!!!

So we play the Patriots this weekend and I’m not sure how many minutes I’m willing to invest in watching this product we’ve putting out there. There will be no scouting report or predictions, I’m not putting any more effort into this than the team is right now, so we’ll just wait and see if we can improve from the garbage we’ve put forward through the last 4 games. I thought last week we were due for a better game but I couldn’t have been more wrong.