Dave Hyde: Top 10 offseason steps for Dolphins as free-agent frenzy set to begin
Remember I said to get Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson in previous years. The easy groundwork has been done this offseason with the Dolphins creating cap space, writing big checks and making players happy. People ask if the Dolphins will land a whale in free agency.
Listen up. I’m making my annual foray into fantasy by solving the Miami Dolphins offseason again in 10 simple steps.
Forget I said two years ago to keep the young offensive line intact and watch it develop. Remember I said to replace as many as possible last year.
Forget I said to chase quarterback Nick Foles in 2019. Remember I said to get Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson in previous years.
The easy groundwork has been done this offseason with the Dolphins creating cap space, writing big checks and making players happy. That’s the easy part. Now comes the harder decisions what to do with that cap space and how to improve this team. Let’s go:
1. Let Vic Fangio pick two inside linebackers. People ask if the Dolphins will land a whale in free agency. They already have. Fangio is a star. Change is coming, too. The Dolphins were a 4-3, big blitzing and big press-coverage defense the past four years. Fangio’s 3-4 system doesn’t blitz much and plays more zone than man-to-man. What’s needed? A couple of inside linebackers for starters. He had stars like Patrick Willis in San Francisco and Roquan Smith in Chicago. Smaller names like Josey Jewell and Alexander Johnson were his inside linebackers in Denver. But consider: Jewell ranked fifth and Johnson ninth among linebackers, according to Pro Football Focus, when Denver had the third-best scoring defense in 2021. Free agency is full of relatively inexpensive linebackers. Cincinnati’s Germaine Pratt and the Los Angeles Chargers’ Drue Tanquill fit that bill. But Fangio knows what he wants. Let him pick them.
2. Buy a right tackle to compete and the best swing tackle available. Tua Tagovailoa’s concussion concerns add to the consequence of this decision. You can hope right tackle Austin Jackson improves a lot. You can’t trust it. You can hope star left tackle Terron Armstead plays more than the two-thirds of the snaps of last year. You can’t trust he will considering he’s missed more snaps in four of the previous seven seasons. The easy out is saying to buy San Francisco’s Mike McGlinchey or Atlanta’s Kaley McGary for $16 million a year. But even fantasy money has limits. An NFL scout pointed to low-paid veterans who grade out well like Las Vegas’s Jermaine Eleumunor or Arizona’s Kevin Beacham. Eleumunor also has been a career swing tackle, as has Denver’s Cameron Fleming. There are some good, budget-conscious answers. That doesn’t solve left guard. Liam Eichenberg, year three, is the hope.
3. Get the right backup quarterback since he’s the second-most important player on the roster. Teddy Bridgewater had some odd injuries last year but there might not be a better talent for this role. Andy Dalton? Gardner Minshew? Former Dolphin Jacoby Brissett had a good year in Cleveland. Local product Mike White gets mentioned. This is coach Mike McDaniel’s call, and like last year it’s a decision that could decide the season.
4. Spend pennies on running backs. The Shananan/McDaniel System doesn’t demand you spend big here — well, it didn’t until San Francisco traded for Christian McCaffery last season. There’s really no reason to spend big after Josh Jacobs, Tony Pollard and Saquon Barkley were given franchise tags from their teams. Bringing back Raheem Mostert makes sense considering he was productive last year (891 yards, 4.9 yards a carry in 2022) and won’t break the bank. You need someone else and there’s James Robinson, who can run and was a good receiving back in 2020 and 2021 for Jacksonville before being traded to the New York Jets last year.
5. How to fix the tight end? Maybe you don’t. Maybe McDaniel showed what the thought of the position last year. That fits more in the San Francisco idea, where a talent like George Kittle isn’t featured like Kansas City’s Travis Kelce. The top tight end on the free-agent market, Dalton Schultz, is similar to Kittle as a good receiver and 14th-ranked run blocker at the position last year, according to PFF (Kittle was 11th). But does McDaniel value the position at the $15 million salary Daulton will get? Maybe the option is pairing an above-average blocker and below-average receiver in Durham Smythe with an above-average receiver and below-average blocker like Cincinnati free-agent Hayden Hurst.
6. Help the poor special teams. They had a return-man rotation no one explained last year. Do you solve that with free agent Braxton Berrios, the former New York Jet and Miami Hurricane, to return punts and kickoffs? Jason Sanders is another question. His contract has an easy out for the team this offseason. He has an 82.9 percent field-goal average for his career and is 17-26 on field goals over 50 yards. Three free-agent kickers made over 90 percent last year. Matt Gay made 93.3 percent last year in Los Angeles. Brett Maher made 90.6 in Dallas and nine of 11 over 50 yards. You’d have to factor the stadiums in gauging all this, but it seems time to move on.
7. To keep or trade draft picks? I’d keep them loose, considering the Dolphins are all-in this year. But let’s be practical, too. The Los Angeles Rams’ cornerback Jalen Ramsey is available. Philadelphia’s Darius Slay is shopping around for a new deal and set the market for a possible Eagles re-signing. Cornerback is a deep position this draft. Does Fangio value such big man-to-man covers? Doesn’t seem like it. Also, do you get a young player and use the saved money elsewhere or get a high-priced veteran? Much of it depends on what Fangio values.
8. More passes to the post-game family area! The Dolphins, as I’ve written for years, are first class everywhere but on the field. A players’ union poll of team services agreed. The Dolphins ranked second in the league in the survey of everything from food services to training facilities. The only semi-blip was a C-plus grade in the treatment of families because, “they only give a limited number of passes to the postgame area, which players with lager families feel is very restrictive.”
9. Now that Tua is learning to fall better through jiu-jitsu (and, yes, that’s important), instruct him on taking fewer hits. People cheered when he lowered his head into Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Devin Bush last season after returning from his first concussion hiatus. The franchise has too much invested him to play like that. A quarterback controls how he is hit (or not) out of the pocket for the most part. In the pocket, there’s more learning to do. He tends to hold onto the ball in hopes of making a play rather than throwing it away and living for another down. That’s an issue Nick Saban talked about at Alabama.
10. Throw Dolphins fans a bone and have another game wearing throwback jerseys. I don’t care about this. I’m not 14. And look how I dress. But for as much as they’ve put up with the past two decades, give the fans this much. Please.
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