Dolphins Cuts Thread EDIT - Branden Albert has NOT been released. They...changed their minds. (The rest are still out of the door, though)
Big money moves today. Wow. Little surprised at Albert, but his health has always been a concern and with a poor playoff performance and Tunsil ready to play LT you kind of had to know it was coming. Williams... see ya. Would have been nice to put that cap hit of his into other places last year. Little surprised to see Mitchell go. However Jordan Philips played pretty decent this year I thought. Be interesting to see what they do with the OL now. Pounceys health is a concern especially for his kind of cash, we have no Guards again. Obviously lots of time with free agency and the draft looming to fill those holes, but for the 3rd? 4th? 5th? year in a row the OL is in need of an overhaul again.
Summary from Armando: "The team is releasing starting left tackle Branden Albert, defensive end Mario Williams, defensive tackle Earl Mitchell and cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu... The release of Ekpre-Olomu is not salary cap related. He was signed last season after being cut by the Cleveland Browns because the Dolphins wanted to see if he still had the potential he showed in college at Oregon years before. The Browns gave up on Ekpre-Olomu after he suffered a significant knee injury before his rookie year. He never played for them and he never played for the Dolphins because Miami came to the same conclusion as the Browns -- that Ekpre-Olomu wasn’t ready to contribute. The Dolphins waived Ekpre-Olomu injured in August after he sustained yet another knee injury. Because he was not claimed on waivers, he returned to the Dolphins’ injured reserve list. He is off that list and the team now. In total on Thursday the Dolphins saved $19.7 million in cap space." LINK with lots more details
Excellent post. I think having Tunsil fall in our lap was heavenly. Imagine if he hadn't. We would have been forced to keep Albert.
My rationale...if we can make a trade for a CB, we can cut Maxwell saving big $$$. And when we cut D. Jordan, we'll be able to sign Stills, extend Jarvis, re-sign Branch, and still get a starting LB or guard in FA... And I still think we are going to trade Parker. I don't think Gase loves him. That will save another 3 mil...
Both of these players will have the franchise tag placed on by their teams if they can't come to an agreement on long term deals. So the Dolphins need to put their money into signing their own players like Stills, Jones, and Landry. They need to take care of Landry and Jones this off season, so they both don't leave in free agency after the 2017 season. Stills should be a priority and they should have money left over to add at least one quality guard and a couple of upgrades for the defense.
I think you'll see us make a run at Nick Leary for one guard spot. We will likely draft another one and off we go again. Ideally we need to get those spots sorted for the near future so we begin to bring in players to audition for Pouncey's job. We could also be clearing space for Julius Thomas if the rumors are viable that Gase is interested.
Julius was great in a loaded Denver offense with Manning at QB, but no way do I want to see Miami give that guy a big contract like the Jags did. A good but not great contract would be fine. He is not a great blocker, but would be a tough match-up with the WR corp and running game we have. Actually, given the needs on defense, the money might be better spent there. I can see how Gase would love another tool for his offense though. I guess scoring another TD per game will win us some games too.
