Source: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/2009/03/dolphins-to-release-vonnie-holliday.html
this is bull****. any tell me we couldnt have used him this season, a vet in the locker room and someone who liked being here.....and i will call BS. this move pisses me off.....
Wow, big hit to dump him...makes you wonder why Wilford is still around...they must think higher of him than many of us do...
Damn, that sucks. I always liked Vonnie. He was a leader and class act. Apparently we tried to renegotiate with him and he refused. We probably just wanted more reps for Merling and Langford. Well, this is a business and these things happen. Definitely best of luck to Vonnie. I'm sure he'll catch on somewhere.
We were a surprising 11-5 last year, even when we were supposed to rebuild the team, this year those players are on the bubble in favor of younger players who can develop. Vonnie will catch on somewhere else, 11 teams switching to the 3-4, he'll land somewhere...hopefully in the NFC...
It's a youth movement at the position... They want their young players to play and they don't want to have to carry 6 DEs into the season again like last year. Dotson, Merling, and Wright all deserve playing time. Starks very likely is better than Holliday because of his run-stopping ability. They'd like to protect Porter better in the run game and having Starks play more is a way to do that. If they take the hit this year, they improve their cap situation next year. Relax we have depth at the position and there's a reason we spent the equivalent of a first round pick on it in Merling. What would you rather have this or Sparano to go up to Holliday and say you've declined we're starting one of the kids in front of you.
We have almost no depth at WR + the cap hit for Wilford as I understand it is huge. We have a surplus of depth on the DL, especially after we draft another couple guys.
I am not happy with this.....I'd have let Crowder walk and save a little money so we could keep Vonnie. Buncha BS!!!!
so we save 2.8m but he counts 2.5m on the books.....so this move in reality saved us 300k dollars?!??! or am i not thinking clearly?
It isn't about the god damn money. It's about avoiding having to pay him extra money when we were going to cut him. You'd skip giving our only good ILB who is 25 cash so that we can retain our extremely deep but pointless DE rotation?
I really don't think it's about the money. The only way that factors in is bc we wanted him to take a lesser role next season and therefore, he would be paid more like a backup. I think it's more about letting our younger guys get as many reps as possible bc we feel their ready. (I hope). The money really seems pointless.
Apparently we realize a huge cap savings next year by cutting him. Now we can either build up the cap room for next year or shove some money into the 2nd year of a FA corners contract.
It's incorrect, total we save about 3m for this year. The 2.5m is dead cap. Next year we get six million more in cap room. There's a good chance he would have lost his job at some point because Starks is just a younger, larger, faster player.
If we had gone into the year with six DEs again we'd set ourselves up for failure at the nose tackle position. What people should be happy about is that this means another draft pick was very likely successful in Dotson. If there's any position Sparano and Ireland know well it's 3-4 DE.
Ok, so we cut him to avoid a 1.5 Million dollar roster bonus and then another .5 Million Dollar bonus later on this season. So total we would have cost us 2.0 Million in bonuses plus his salary about 3 million dollars give or take some. OVERALL for the year Holliday was going to be payed about 5 million dollars; by cutting him we are taking on a 2.5 Million dollar pentalty. So the Miami Dolphins are saving 2.5 Million dollars... IMO Holliday is definatley worth 2.5 Million dollars this season. I mean I love Kendall Langford and Phillip Merling, but Holliday's leadership and locker-room presence will be missed. If we have plans on how to use the 2.5 Million we just saved I am very interested to see what happens... If not I am really upset by this move.
Cant understand the outrage or surprise. A four-man DE rotation is unweildy at best, and there are 3 younger DEs on the roster who warrant extra snaps. The writing was on the wall when they spent a 2nd, 3rd, and a solid contract on 3 DEs. You wanna keep giving Starks or Merling 15-20 snaps a game?
Holliday was a class act, through and through. That said, I like the move. More playing time for the youngsters. Its time for Merling and Langford to become leaders, on and off the field.
yeah, holiday was an all around great leader, player, and professional. i agree. this is a call for the young pups to take it to the next level.
youth Movement Which I can understand. What has my questioning this is, if we were going to have to pay him about 2 million for the year, why take a 2.5 million cap hit? Unless he was being paid more then just the 2 million. We now need someone inside for sure.
I definitely agree. It seems like this release was gone about on a good note and purely a business decision. With that said, the window is probably open for a return down the road at a reduced price. The good thing is... we've got a solid rotation at that spot, although loaded with inexperienced players. I think we'll be fine with Merling, Langford, and Randy Starks. Surely, we'll miss his leadership and locker room presence. I'm sure he was a major influence on our two rooks last year. However, if a move like this opens the door for a bit more money spent in the direction of a starting CB, then fine. I think this is a bigger loss off the field than on the field... not to say that Holliday didn't contribute or anything, but I'm confident in our young players at that position. I'm sure the FO feels the same as they brought all of those guys in.
Okay last night when I said "Can we please make a move here", I didn't mean for one of our veteran good guys, who can still play to get cut..geesh Couldn't I have woken up this morning to find out maybe we signed a cornerback? Is that too much too ask for, since we let Goodman walk? Damn, I liked Holliday, good veteran presence in the locker room, good physical player, still has maybe 3 years of productivity left, great leadership skills for the younger guys, still a threat on the D-Line, does great interviews. Not really thrilled with this move at all.
Kendall Langfrod, Phillip Merling, Randy Starks, Lionel Dotson, Rod Wright. Pretty deep at that position so I dont mind it even though I really liked and respected Vonnie alot.
It looks like the two guys we drafted last year picked it up good enough for this to happen. That is a good thing.
I liked Holliday a lot. Thought he brought experience and leadership to our defense. Now we'll get to see more of Langford and my boy Merling. Hope Holliday gets picked up somewhere outside the AFC-East. Off topic: Just saw that Jason Taylor got released, as well.
I love Vonnie and wish him well. His veteran presence and leadership qualities was huge for us. I put my full trust in the trio to make the right moves to keep our team on the right track. Sometimes, the moves hurt a little more than others.
I'm with Disgustipate on this one. You guys didn't see this coming? I mean just a little bit even? We drafted three defensive ends last year in the draft, we kept one from Saban's last draft and we added one to a fairly expensive deal in free agency last year. Holliday is 33 going on 34 and is blocking the progression of the young defense that the Fins hope to build in the front seven.
The outrage on here shows me how much people underrate Randy Starks's potential. At least IMO. A lot of talk goes around about Merling and Langford, but I think that Starks has the potential to outshine both of those guys. That's not saying Merling or Langford aren't going to continue to play well and get better however. I think he's just what the pass rush needs up the middle in passing situations.
That's pretty disappointing. Holliday was a huge part of this team the last few years. Great on the field, and a great leaderin the lockerroom. Sucks to see him go, makes sense why we did it though. Save some cap room, and get a chance to kick our young guys up into more playing time
Just saw on ESPNEWS, that we offered Holliday a new contract, and he said "no", thus explains the releasing. Damn Holliday just take the cut.
