Seriously. This roster needs a mini blow up. I am going to try and be as realistic as possible. But these are the players I would like to return next year. QB Ryan Tannehill RB Miller *If the price is right, I just don't believe in breaking the bank for a RB* Ajayi WR Landry Parker Stills Hazel? TE Sims OL Albert James Pouncey Douglas Turner DE Vernon *Should be top priority* Wake Fede DT Suh Phillips LB Jenkins McCain *See how he progresses, not expecting to make impact* CB Bobby McCain Lippett *See how he progresses, not expecting to make impact* S Jones Aikens ST Franks Darr Denney That is it. New coaching staff. New GM. Tannebaum gone(not likely but I can wish) QB Tannehill is coming back. Giving him a shot. I am not sure about selecting a QB early on yet. RB Probably sign a vet to work with Ajayi. WR Set. Get some depth/ST players. OL I believe with Albert being 100% from the start and coming in camp in better shape will help with him being much better next year. James and Pouncey are solid. Two VETERAN guards. Enough of hoping for the young guys. Two VET guards and let Turner or Douglas beat them out next year if their turning the corner. TE I like Sims. Is he a #1 TE? I wouldn't bet on it, but I would get another TE for compete with him. Through draft preferably. DE Resigning Vernon is a must. Plain and simple. Wake is the dude, and I think releasing him would be a mistake, especially for the fan base. I think he should be apart of a rotation, pass rusher, get after the QB. He can still do that. Bring in a DE that can play the run. We are missing that. DT Bring in another veteran to compete with Phillips. But we need our 2nd rounder to step up next year. LB Jenkins. That is it. Two other starting linebackers needed. Hopefully one can come through the draft. CB I like McCain as a nickel. So that means we need two starting type CBs. Hopefully one through the draft and one through free agency that is better then Brice McCain. S In need of a legit Free Safety. A lot of holes. Rebuilding time for defense. Need to build an immediate offensive line however to see if Tannehill shows an signs of being the guy. Just my opinion...
Like stated above I would like the rookie linebackers to return and Delmas, those knee problems are certainly a concern, but he is a leader and if he could stay healthy it would be beneficial. That would have to be cheap though. Also, see if Cedric Thompson can play after a year on the practice squad.
Delmas is returning,,,he'll be lucky to get out of bed anymore when healthy let alone play football. He has been nothing but a walking injury his entire career and this last injury was the final straw.
Even if they make a lot of right choices, I don't see them being able to fill all these holes in one offseason. I can see cutting Cameron for $$$, but I would be interested to see if he could function better with a new offensive coordinator.
I don't think Albert can be relied on for an entire season. I think you need to draft his replacement or at least attempt to in the 2nd or 3rd rounds. His injuries have caused us to put Fox or Thomas into service which makes our OL considerably weaker. Additionally, I think we need to move on from Wake. Or at the very least restructure his contract. He's 33 years old and while he's still good at getting pressure he's a liability in run defense. I also don't think it makes sense to move on from Hewitt or Vigil. They are both solid special team players.
Add Brandon Albert to the list. Look at his last 4 years where he's missing an average of 4 games per year As bad as our offensive line has been is he worth the $10 million dollar cap hit next season? He may have a restructure in his future
If Lynch or Goff are still on the board when the Dolphin select in the first round, I take either of them in a second. Other than these two QB's, there is no other QB worth selecting until the middle rounds. If the QB's are off the board, Hargreaves is my next player up and if he has already been selected, take the best player available. With all their needs, there will surely be a quality player available to fill one of their many holes.
Dolphins fans, always looking forward to the offseason.. This season was nearly as bad as when we went 1-15 and we have just as many holes, but an even bigger issue is we are in far worst cap situation than we were after 2007
Vernon isn't so good that he should be our priority. I'd rather resign Lamar Miller or Rishard Mathews. I'd rather bring back Quinton Coples and Jordan Cameron at restructured salaries.
What about....grr....who's that bum we signed #3 overall? He hasn't played in so darn long I forgot his name. Anyway, I'd bring his fat margarita-drinking *** back for pre-season and run his *** till he puked. Then I'd cut him and take the compensation pick in 2017.
The Dolphins are never going to get anything for Jordan. The best they can hope for from that terrible pick is that they can finally get his salary off their cap number. The Dolphins have had many terrible picks over the past 50 years and I have been around to see everyone of them. To me, considering what the Dolphins gave up to draft this clown. He is the absolute worst draft pick in Dolphin history.
He's not so good based on what? He's been very good this year? 25 year old pass rusher. You don't just let that guy walk. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I agree, he should be our top priority in terms of keeping our own players. You don't develop a 25 year old pass rusher that is getting better and better, then watch him walk away. If we can't keep him because someone throws a truck full of millions at him so be it, but we should try our hardest to keep him.
I don't expect him to be at training camp... Dion is going to disappear just like Justin Blackmon did to the Jaguars.. Shoutout to our man Jeffy for drafting him. genius GM right there..
We've got a lot of defensive needs and of course the offensive line. So we'll have to stand pat with the rest of the offense I think. I don't see that as a big issue though. I'd look for a vet QB to back up/push Tannehill if there was anyone decent out there at all. You don't draft a replacement for Tannehill though, I think he deserves one last shot with a competent (hopefully) coaching staff. We need some linebackers in the worst way. Getting some impact players there could probably make a huge difference for the defense.
Tannebuam blew up the WR position last year. I expect him to blow up the DB this year. All the DB and Safety's
Get Aikens outta here. New Chapter almost here. Fixing the O-line would be my priority. Just like we can't critique Tannehill fairly; we can't judge the defense by our three and out offense.
I certainly wouldn't bring Aikens back with thoughts of him being the starter. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I wouldn't start him ahead of a drone flying around the secondary with Caitlyn Jenner's photograph taped on...
I didn't see anyone mention it but in regards to Wake, he tore his Achilles. Unfortunately he's done as far as being an impact player
He has? Vernon's got a mere 7 sacks, as a weakside pass rusher no less. This follows up a disappointing 6.5 sack season last year. More importantly, however, Vernon continues to provide us with no "additional impact plays". He doesn't have a single fumble recovery in 4 yrs. He didn't force a single fumble this year, keeping his career total at an abysmal 3. By comparison, Wake forced more in 7 games this season than Vernon has in 4 years. He doesn't have a single pass deflected in 4 yrs. Those are the equivalent of a sack since they kill the offense's play before it has a chance to succeed. The sum of Vernon's additional impact plays (FR, FF, PD, INT, TD) for his career: 3. That's pathetic!! That's 30 less than Carlos Dunlap's past 4 yrs. Derrick Shelby had 7 this year alone. Add sacks + additional impact plays together and you get a bumbling 7 for Vernon in 2015, whereas Shelby gave us 9.5 as a part time starter. If you're consistently depriving the defense of impact plays, you better post more than 7 sacks a season. Vernon is clearly not the answer at the position of greatest impact on defense- rush end. Therefore, spending $35+ million on him to keep us underwhelming at the position for the next 4 or 5 years is a poor use of resources. You use that money on a player who will actually make a difference (like an upgrade at guard or corner), and then you draft a DE who improves the rush end spot and does so at a fraction of Vernon's cost.
We've seen the impact an elite playmaking corner can have on defensive success. The way they allow a DC to scheme it up, it's like you're playing with 12 defenders. With Brady, Sammy Watkins, and Brandon Marshall in our division, it makes the starting corner position all the more important. So I have Jalen Ramsey heavily atop the draft list. He's a true cornerstone piece, the kind you typically can't buy in FA. Since we're likely picking in the top 5 or 6, I'd have no problem trading up a few spots. ATM I'd put Jared Goff and Myles Jack in line behind Ramsey. Goff offers 2 key elements that Tannehill has been unable to develop in this cluster**** of an organization- touch and pocket feel. Tannehill's development has been so stunted here for so long that Goff could probably surpass him within 2 years. Get a draft pick for Tannehill and save a boatload of money at QB to help us address other needs. LT Ronnie Stanley would be a fine selection, but an upgrade at LT doesn't offer the same impact that an elite corner, upgrade at QB, or game-changing LB does, so I'd prefer to address O-line atop the 2nd round where there's still plenty of talent left. I mean, there's no sense in having a player like Nmdamukong Suh if little effort is made to parlay him an elite defense.... and it's an elite defense spearheaded by Suh, not an offense led by Tannehill, that will provide this team with the quickest and greatest chance of reaching the post season. It's not outside the realm of possibility to see Branden Albert bounce back next year, so for me personally, I'd focus on the interior O-line since Tannehill is pretty mediocre at handling pressure up the gut and b/c the pass rush off the edge becomes exacerbated when a QB has no room to step up in the pocket to avoid it. As far as DE's go, I'd target Shaq Lawson or Shalique Calhoun if we go the trade-back route. Once the analysts start picking apart Calhoun and he kills it at the combine, I think we'll see him climb into the Top 20 discussion b/c he arguably owns the greatest upside of 'em all. Carl Nassib is one of my personal favorites. He'd be a nice get if he lasts till round 2. Ogbah isn't worth a top 10 pick IMO.... but I need to see his Bowl game to see what kind of strides he's made over the course of the season b/c he underwhelmed me with some of his earlier play.
I think you've looking at too many box scores and haven't been watching enough games. Vernon has been the best pass rusher in the league the past 7 weeks. On the season he has 31 hits on the QB. Only guy with more is JJ Watt. The best player in the league. Vernon also has the most QB pressures in the league from his side of the line. PFF has him rated the #2 DE in the NFL this season. Behind only Watt. You can take your splash play stats. Ill continue to watch him harass the QB at an insane rate.
Sorry but it's kind of amusing to watch you go the "I watch the games, I watch the games" route. Well, if you watch the games then you should be well aware of the fact that during the 2nd half of the season Vernon faced: 2 HORRENDOUS backup left tackles [Baltimore & San Diego] a very poor backup LT [Philly] a rookie LT playing on a busted ankle who's been abused in pass pro [Giants] an Indy o-line that can't keep its QBs upright and featured a LT in his first game back from knee injury 2 backup QBs who owned little to no ability to audible at the LOS If Vernon had drawn a healthy Eugene Monroe instead of James Turnstile Hurst in week 13, he'd be sitting at 4.5 sacks right now through 15 games.... so just stop dude. Unlike yourself and PFF, I pay attention to context...... so I COULDN'T CARE LESS about how many QB hits Vernon has had during the season's second half, nor about PFF's obnoxious ranking of him. If the NFL held a league-wide redraft, Vernon's name would be so far down the list of selected DEs and 3-4 OLBs it's not funny. If anything, PFF's silly ranking is further testament to their unreliability than it is a toot of Vernon's horn. What I DO CARE ABOUT however is the fact that during the first 7 games when Vernon had the league's best DT and best edge rusher next to him commanding extra attention, he couldn't muster up more than 2 sacks. That's all you need to know right there. If you're a rush end who's consistently too late to get the cookie and is mediocre against the run, then you're expendable, especially when the alternative is overpaying you. This is Brian Hartline redux. JJ Watt on the other hand actually GETS TO THE QB, makes IMPACT PLAYS all over the field, and is strong against the run, so don't bother lumping Vernon's name with his. It's kind of odd though that you believe getting a hit on a QB after he releases the ball carries a greater impact than deflecting passes, causing fumbles, recovering fumbles, picking off passes, defensive TDs, and causing safeties do. Eh, we might as well compare Vernon to Watt since you took it there. Vernon has amassed just 3 of the aforementioned impact plays in 4 years. Watt has 65 over the same span. It's pretty difficult to field a great defense if that impact play element is missing.
Vernon needs to get his head out of his *** with those penalties. He cost us the Jax game single handedly Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I keep hearing he is more of a safety than cb. Still, we could use his size against the big receivers we face in Gronk, Watkins, Decker/Marshall from either spot. Not sure we can use him on the Edelman's but that's ok. Agree on LT. We need impact, and that's just not OL. The big question is what about QB. The Tanned crowd will dismiss any thought, and we do have lots of holes to fill, but if we have at a top QB his play so far does not make passing easy.
I think a lot of who we keep will depend on the coaches and systems implemented. Can't really make a determination on who you want kept until you know that.