Welcome, Cam. Noah should have your locker cleared out by tomorrow night.

 

Pre-Draft Analysis
Smith is one of the most reliable cover corners in the 2023 class. He's smooth with excellent foot speed and fluid hips. He's highly instinctive and frequently gets early jumps on the ball by reading quarterbacks' eyes. He's a ballhawk with soft hands who elevates well. He's versatile and has experience playing on the boundary, in the slot or at safety. -- Steve Muench

Matt Miller's NFL comp: Jack Jones

Post-Draft Analysis
Miami traded for Jalen Ramsey, but it still had work to do after finishing 27th in passing defense last year. Xavien Howard took a step back in 2022, signed a lucrative contract last year and turns 30 in July. Keion Crossen doesn't project as a long-term starter. Smith held opposing quarterbacks to a 21 QBR as the primary defender since 2021, the 11th-lowest in Power 5. -- Muench

https://www.espn.com/nfl/draft/teams/_/name/mia/miami-

 

Great pick. Elite athlete… even by cornerback standards. Very good instincts.
Versatile and can be moved around the defensive backfield and used in a variety of ways.

Our pass defense was awful.
Never a bad idea to keep adding to your biggest area of weakness.
I know we all ‘hope’ Howard can return to form, but you know what they say… hope is not a plan.

 

Will be able to learn behind Jalen and Xavien.. that should motivate the **** out of anyone

 

Xavien's cap number is $25 mil per year in 2024, and last year was a pretty rough.

Kohou was pretty solid last season.

Now Cam Smith.

I feel like the writing is on the wall.

 

I think this move says a lot about the fact that last season we had Crossen, Kohou, and Bethal as the top three cornerbacks.

And that Jones, Williams, and Needham are all coming back from knee injuries.

 

I thought Noah was gone before this move was made.

 

Loved this pick. Top 20 player imo….not really sure why he fell. Sam Madison 2.0, welcome to Miami :cool::cool:

this is a fun read https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/s...might-be-most-day1-ready-guy-waiting-on-day2/

 

Good read. If he was truly rated as high as 15 and we got him at 51…..he’s a steal. That would explain why the pick was made so quickly.

 

Seems like great value although not really a position of need unless everybody in our secondary goes down again. I like what I saw from him on film it looks like he really can play.

 

The free money extension that Grier gave Howard a while back ties him to the team for several years to come.

In 2024, the team would absorb 23m in dead money and gain just 2.6m in cap space by moving him.
In 2025, that switches to 15.7m in dead money and 7.2m gained in cap space.
In 2026, its 9.5m in dead money and 14.7m in cap space, so I think thats the first real year they could move on from him.

2026 is also when Ramsey's contract is up. So, my guess is that Smith is a backup/nickle for two seasons, and then if all goes well, moves into the starting lineup in his third year.

 

Howard appeared "off" last year by the standards we expect him to play at, but in his defense he has said that the defensive schemes and what he was asked to do did not play to his strengths at all. In short, he was saying that coaching hurt the defense. I don't know if that was true or not, but given X's history he gets the benefit of the doubt from me.

Our starting corners will be X and Ramsey on the outside, then probably Cam and Needham in the slots. That's an excellent secondary regardless of who's playing safety. This was an excellent value pick and as we know, you can never have enough man cover safeties.

 

I think the move would be a Post June 1st cut in 2024. That would result in $7.4 mil in dead money.

 

Noah is not a starting CB. I think Needham and Kohou were both solidly above him

 

That would result in pain for 2025 as well, which I'm never a fan of.

Howard hurt his quad/groin either in the Preseason or Week 1 last year, and was never right afterwards. Lets all just hope that he's now healthy and can get back closer to his 2021 form, and we don't desperately need to move on from him as a liability.

 

I hate dead money more than anyone, but I could not fathom him sticking around with another down year at a $25M number. We are slated to be like $14M over the cap, so I do expect some cuts coming. We need to extend Wilkins too.

I think Baker, Howard, and Ogbah are in danger of being cap casualties. I think Wilson is living on borrowed time. If he makes it through this year, he is absolutely gone in 2024.

 

Ogbah and Wilson are such easy cuts a year from now that I'll be shocked if they aren't. 21m in cap savings vs 5m in dead money between them. Its basically a necessity, given the situation. Baker, I could see doing an extension to get his number down if he has a really good season. We'll just have to see what happens.

Along with the necessary Wilkins extension, we could also lower Tua's number a lot with one for him too. But that's about it.

 

A couple things I was too tired to post last night...

The AFC still runs though teams like KC, Cincinnati and Buffalo. The last 3 years they're the most consistent teams. That means covering the wide variety of weapons and playing vs great QBs. Jax, LAC NYJ (Gross), Pitt could easily join the conversation along with a few other teams and you better be able to cover. Howard was bad last year (even though he played hurt). I'm not waging my season on him rebounding and Kohou improving.

Howard and Ramsey are old for corners. That's not a position most guys play well past 30. And the cliff is steep. You better have more not less at the position.

Needham and Trill Williams are not roster locks and coming off serious injury. Trill has already been talked about as moving back to safety where he spent some time in college.

And lastly, we had guys like Bethel, Igbo, and Crossen take entirely too many snaps last year. We had to gameplan specifically around that at times. It was a definite shortcoming for us.

I'm really happy with Cam Smith.

 

You're not wrong. But I'd also like an offense that can own the ball and keep it away from those other offenses as well. If you're trying to score in 30 seconds and just hand the ball back to the other team, the D gets worn out, no matter how many players we have.

 

That's the thing, this is a future starter. You don't draft for need imo...if you don't like anyone there then you don't like anyone there. Don't force it. That's when you end up with Eddie Moore over Anquan Boldin.

 

this kid is going to allow Fangio to use JR and X all over the field..

when kansas city goes three wide receivers and travis Kelce.

JR will cover Kelce, Kader in the slot, X on one side and Cam on the other...

thats lethal defense right there

 

3rd and 10 with Smith, X, JR, Kohou, Jones, and Holland...that is a Dime!