By Ronn Burner • on March 9, 2010
Heading into Free Agency it appeared the Dolphins would be rather aggressive in plugging the most glaring chinks in their armor. So glaring, in fact, one would have to be super human to look at our WR, ILB, NT and S positions without a welding mask. All signs pointed to the Dolphins making major moves beginning with need and ending with Uncapped Year. Squished in the middle being Free Agents that fit the bill. (Anquan Boldin) Check. Ownership that is willing to spend. ($53.5 million the past 2 years) Check. Large contracts to dump. (Gibril Wilson and Joey Porter) Check. Players to re-sign. (Chad Pennington) Check.
So what happened? Teams proved they were not going to blow the bank account when there would be viable options at a much friendlier price in the Draft for one. Aside from the Dolphins following, or maybe leading, that trend I think the domino effect came into play here with Key Free Agent NT’s being locked down with Franchise Tags resulting in far to steep a price to pay to pry them from their squad. New England’s Vince Wilfork (since has been signed), Pittsburgh’s Casey Hampton, San Francisco’s Aubrayo Franklin and Green Bay’s Ryan Pickett would have all been highly regarded by the Dolphins and any other team running the 3-4 had they hit the open market. However, their respective teams realized the importance of these kind of run stuffers in today’s NFL and how rare they are so unless someone is willing to part with 2 first round picks then they aren’t budging. Since Jason Ferguson’s 8-game suspension for performance enhancing drugs the Dolphins already glaring need at the position just got brighter than Dez Bryant’s future. See what I did there?
Although I tend to be leary of plugging only one of four gaping holes via Free Agency I still have to force myself to sit back and relax and “Trust in Tuna”, which is becoming increasingly more difficult following the Joey Porter releasing gaffe and not even entertaining the notion of bringing in Boldin for a 3rd and 4th round pick. We have to assume that Miami’s Free Agent activity, or lack thereof is by design. A calculated maneuver based on two things. 1.) An awful track record consisting of Ernest Wilford ($6 million), Reggie Torbor ($4 million), Justin Smiley ($9 million), Charlie Anderson ($2.5 million), Randy Starks ($7 million), Josh McCown ($2.5 million), Jake Grove ($14.5 million) and Gibril Wilson ($8 million) over the past 2 years with only Stark proving worthy and colossal busts in Wilford and Wilson. And 2.) By signing Karlos Dansby to a five-year deal worth $43 million with $22 million guaranteed, making him the highest-paid inside linebacker in the NFL, which leads you to believe they obviously had him targeted from the get go and have a plan intact to acquire through the draft the run stuffing NT, play making WR and ball hawking Safety doesn’t it? That sounds like an awfully ambitious wish list for one draft and by “awfully ambitious” I mean “No way in hell”.
Bill Parcells and Jeff Ireland tried to plug one of the three remaining holes by signing S Ryan Clark away from Pittsburgh but midway through his visit to Miami he called his Mommy agent and said he wanted to go home so before he landed back in Pittsburgh he had already been offered a 4 year worth $17 million, which was less than the Dolphins were willing to give him. I guess I should commend him for not talking the money and running to Miami instead opting to keep his wife and three kids in their home and lives in Pitttsburgh and I would had he spurned the Patriots but he didn’t, he spurned us. Another domino that fell leaving the Dolphins scrambling for scraps. Heading into the draft needing a WR and NT to step in immediately and start sounds a whole lot more likely than adding a starting Safety to that list as well.
I didn’t think there was a Pizza Roll’s chance on Kevin Smith’s plate that the Dolphins would select Dez Bryant at #12 overall in the Draft but after signing Dansby there is not near the urgency to acquire linebackers Rolando McClain (Alabama) or Sergio Kindle (Texas) since Dansby is essentially that same player with experience and with NT’s Dan Williams (Tennesse) and Terrence Cody (Alabama) probably not worth the #12 pick it’s looking more and more like that Dolphins and Bill Parcells will, in fact, fill their biggest need offensively and select Dez Bryant if he’s still sitting their at #12. There in lies the problem though because I will be beyond shocked if he is still available when Miami selects. I will be so shocked that I refuse to even include him as an option when I write my Draft outlook later in the week. I’m even going tell you that I think there is a very good chance that he goes #3 overall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I could really care less where he goes but that Pizza Roll has a better chance of still being on Kevin Smith’s plate come April 22nd than Dez Bryant does of being on the Dolphins plate at #12.
I’ll get more into it with my Draft article later in the week but the signing of Dansby, albeit a good signing, muddles the picture further for me actually. Sitting at #12 we could have had our choice of any number of quality linebackers that were worthy of the 12th pick but now there isn’t that dire need for that type of player, at least at that position. Our positions of need doesn’t match up with our selection in the Draft barring a trade, which is a strong possibility. With Bryant gone there isn’t another receiver that deserves to go #12. After Safety Eric Berry (Tennessee) there isn’t a Safety worth that pick either. So by the process of elimination isn’t it rather obvious that Dan Williams has to be our pick even though he may be a reach that high? We can always get that Safety and Wide Receiver later right? Yup, I’m terrified that we are going to have the exact same nightmare next season of not having a play making wide receiver or an NFL calibre Safety. These were two off season “priorities” after last season’s pathetic play at these positions and to not address them before next year would be an unfathomable failure by Dolphins brass. No way they are that stupid, right?
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