Hear up. I’m making my annual foray into fantasy by fixing the Miami Dolphins once more in 10 easy steps.
Neglect I mentioned two years in the past to maintain the younger offensive line intact and watch it develop. Bear in mind I mentioned to exchange as many as doable final 12 months.
Neglect I mentioned to chase quarterback Nick Foles in 2019. Bear in mind I mentioned to get Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson in earlier years.
The straightforward groundwork has been accomplished this offseason with the Dolphins creating cap area, writing huge checks and making gamers completely satisfied. That’s the simple half. Now comes the tougher selections what to do with that cap area and the right way to enhance this workforce. Let’s go:
1. Let Vic Fangio choose two inside linebackers. Individuals ask if the Dolphins will land a whale in free company. They have already got. Fangio is a star. Change is coming, too. The Dolphins had been a 4-3, huge blitzing and large press-coverage protection the previous 4 years. Fangio’s 3-4 system doesn’t blitz a lot and performs extra zone than man-to-man. What’s wanted? A few 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 had been his inside linebackers in Denver. However take into account: Jewell ranked fifth and Johnson ninth amongst linebackers, in line with Professional Soccer Focus, when Denver had the third-best scoring protection in 2021. Free company is stuffed with comparatively cheap linebackers. Cincinnati’s Germaine Pratt and the Los Angeles Chargers’ Drue Tanquill match that invoice. However Fangio is aware of what he needs. Let him choose them.
2. Purchase a proper sort out to compete and the perfect swing sort out out there. Tua Tagovailoa’s concussion considerations add to the consequence of this resolution. You may hope proper sort out Austin Jackson improves quite a bit. You may’t belief it. You may hope star left sort out Terron Armstead performs extra than the two-thirds of the snaps of final 12 months. You may’t belief he'll contemplating he’s missed extra snaps in 4 of the earlier seven seasons. The straightforward out is saying to purchase San Francisco’s Mike McGlinchey or Atlanta’s Kaley McGary for $16 million a 12 months. However even fantasy cash has limits. An NFL scout pointed to low-paid veterans who grade out nicely like Las Vegas’s Jermaine Eleumunor or Arizona’s Kevin Beacham. Eleumunor additionally has been a profession swing sort out, as has Denver’s Cameron Fleming. There are some good, budget-conscious solutions. That doesn’t clear up left guard. Liam Eichenberg, 12 months three, is the hope.
3. Get the precise backup quarterback since he’s the second-most essential participant on the roster. Teddy Bridgewater had some odd accidents final 12 months however there may not be a greater expertise for this position. Andy Dalton? Gardner Minshew? Former Dolphin Jacoby Brissett had a very good 12 months in Cleveland. That is coach Mike McDaniel’s name, and like final 12 months it’s a call that might determine the season.
4. Spend pennies on operating backs. The Shananan/McDaniel System doesn’t demand you spend huge right here — nicely, it didn’t till San Francisco traded for Christian McCaffery final season. There’s actually no cause to spend huge after Josh Jacobs, Tony Pollard and Saquon Barkley got franchise tags from their groups. Bringing again Raheem Mostert is sensible contemplating he was productive final 12 months (891 yards, 4.9 yards a carry in 2022) and gained’t break the financial institution. You want another person and there’s James Robinson, who can run and was a very good receiving again in 2020 and 2021 for Jacksonville earlier than being traded to the New York Jets final 12 months.
5. How you can repair the tight finish? Perhaps you don’t. Perhaps McDaniel confirmed what the considered the place final 12 months. That matches extra within the San Francisco thought, the place a expertise like George Kittle isn’t featured like Kansas Metropolis’s Travis Kelce. The highest tight finish on the free-agent market, Dalton Schultz, is just like Kittle as a very good receiver and 14th-ranked run blocker on the place final 12 months, in line with PFF (Kittle was eleventh). However does McDaniel worth the place on the $15 million wage Daulton will get? Perhaps the choice 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. Assist the poor particular groups. That they had a return-man rotation nobody defined final 12 months. Do you clear up that with free agent Braxton Berrios, the previous New York Jet and Miami Hurricane, to return punts and kickoffs? Jason Sanders is one other query. His contract has a straightforward out for the workforce this offseason. He has an 82.9 % field-goal common for his profession and is 17-26 on discipline objectives over 50 yards. Three free-agent kickers revamped 90 % final 12 months. Matt Homosexual made 93.3 % final 12 months in Los Angeles. Brett Maher made 90.6 in Dallas and 9 of 11 over 50 yards. You’d should issue the stadiums in gauging all this, however it appears time to maneuver on.
7. To maintain or commerce draft picks? I’d preserve them unfastened, contemplating the Dolphins are all-in this 12 months. However let’s be sensible, too. The Los Angeles Rams’ cornerback Jalen Ramsey is accessible. Philadelphia’s Darius Slay is purchasing round for a brand new deal and set the marketplace for a doable Eagles re-signing. Cornerback is a deep place this draft. Does Fangio worth such huge man-to-man covers? Doesn’t appear to be it. Additionally, do you get a younger participant and use the saved cash elsewhere or get a high-priced veteran? A lot of it depends upon what Fangio values.
8. Extra passes to the post-game household space! The Dolphins, as I’ve written for years, are top quality in all places however on the sector. A gamers’ union ballot of workforce companies agreed. The Dolphins ranked second within the league within the survey of every part from meals companies to coaching amenities. The one semi-blip was a C-plus grade within the remedy of households as a result of, “they solely give a restricted variety of passes to the postgame space, which gamers with lager households really feel may be very restrictive.”
9. Now that Tua is studying to fall higher by way of jiu-jitsu (and, sure, that’s essential), instruct him on taking fewer hits. Individuals cheered when he lowered his head into Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Devin Bush final season after coming back from his first concussion hiatus. The franchise has an excessive amount of invested him to play like that. A quarterback controls how he's hit (or not) out of the pocket for essentially the most half. Within the pocket, there’s extra studying to do. He tends to carry onto the ball in hopes of constructing a play fairly than throwing it away and residing for an additional down. That’s a difficulty Nick Saban talked about at Alabama.
10. Throw Dolphins followers a bone and have one other recreation sporting throwback jerseys. I don’t care about this. I’m not 14. And look how I gown. However for as a lot as they’ve put up with the previous 20 years, give the followers this a lot. Please.
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