we will improve when we stop drafting offensive linemen in the first two rounds year after year.

 

We are not in bad cap shape. Just ditching the players we should due to poor performance will get us to around $38 million in cap room with the rollover without getting into more brutal cuts. It's just a lot of positions that need to be filled. Might even pick up a pick or 2 for them. Probably see a few one year deals though to help fill out the roster.

 

I guess. Only if it means that by that point, we'd already shored up the OL and can take a flyer on play makers.

 

They will have good cap space once they cut some players. Assuming the Dolphins are smart enough to do so. Crap....

 

The answer to fixing the OL does not lie within drafting OL early over the next couple of years. We need to get a collection of playmakers on both sides of the ball. The OL is easier to fix through FA and mid/late draft picks.

How many other Offensive lines have 3 first rounder? Of those very very few, how many would draft another one early regardless?

Most of the league is ahead of us in terms of skill player talent. Its time to tip the scales instead of just getting by with mediocrity.

 

I think Albert, guard in free agency, Pouncy, Turner, and James will be a good offensive line. Everyone back in their best position and hopefully an elite guard in free agency should do it. I would like to see a WR in the 1st round and a MLB in the 2nd round. They really need linebacker help and a redzone threat. Or a DT in the 1st round.

 

Watching CJ Mosley and Kueckley yesterday makes me want a beast middle linebacker so bad. Oh I miss the days of Zach Thomas.

 

Me too. The Koa Misi's of the world don't come close. Heck I'd settle for Dansby but that ship sailed when Philbin didn't want anyone with an opinion on this team.

 

and our depth? we need depth as injuries happen and in fact derailed our season this year. I agree that we can try to get the fix through free agency. But if we dont, we have to draft at least two offensive linemen who are not projects, but plug and play types. that usually means earlier rounds

 

4th or 5th round for back ups. Don't need an OL in the 1st or 2nd in that case. Or maybe even get a veteran back up in free agency.

 

Philbin has destroyed this team in more ways than one. Hopefully some free agents will want to come here despite him being here.

 

Draft picks and solid FAs. Brian hartline and gibson production is replaceable by Rishard mathews and a rookie. Kevin white would be cheaper and more productive than both imo. I see good lbs get drafted every year...just not by us. Hopefully tripp actually steps up cause we need him too. Wheeler And ellerbe should be gone, tripp, mccain, misi l, jordan (?), need to fill in. Our big questions are really at dt and og.

 

I don't think that is that big of a deal.

Ellerbe, Hartline, Gibson are all easily replaceable. Ellerbe is replaceable for nothing. Gibson and Hartline both can be replaced by players who cost way less. Especially Gibson who is useless with Landry on the team. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Hazel replaces him. If you use June 1st on Ellerbe and Hartline, that is $16 million in cap room for all three of them.

Then Starks and Finnegan need to be upgraded anyway. That is $10 million in cap space. That is $26 million in cap space where Starks and Finnegan need relatively paid free agents to replace them.

Should also lower Field's cap hit by giving him an extension, however you probably need to determine if he is worth keeping around.

Then there are many ways to work the cap.

Miami's cap space is in a fine position.

 

It might save $200,000 this year, however it saves $3 million the season after.

 

What and ignore a hole that's just as big as ANY other we have ??

 

I think there are a few moves, most all of which we've talked about ad nauseum, that will give us some room to make a few moves that are needed...

 

Draft picks cost less money. Build through the draft. I felt that last year we absolutely had to draft 2 WR in the first 3 rounds. At some point we need to stock pile playmakers. The draft is the best way to do this.

Cut Hartline and Gibson. We don't need them.
Keep Wallace and draft a big bodied #1 WR at pick 14. Wallace has value. Hes not earning his contract but is still worth the 2.5M we would save if we cut him.
After that take BPA in round 2 and round 3. Wouldn't be a bad thing to find a Borland type player at LB like SF did last year in these rounds.

 

Wheeler was barely playing by the end of the season, saving any amount of money with him is good, cause we won't notice him being gone

 

It's obvious that Dallas has really tanked since drafting 2 OL in the first round...lol.

 

Dallas already had the offensive weapons in place before adding their final OL piece with Martin this season. That's much different than to continue to spend high picks on OL when your playmakers are average at best. Who cares how good your line is if your skill players can't get open, fight for balls, break tackles, or make people miss in open space.

The true problem with this franchise is lack of athletic playmakers. Its not the OL. 15 years of garbage offense has not been the OL. If we could for ONCE really go balls to the wall on drafting playmakers instead of plugging holes and drafting linemen early, I really think that would be the beginning of turning the corner. Then again we can continue drafting lineman early every year and watch all of the best playmakers continue to go to other teams. How many playmakers were playing in the playoffs this weekend that we passed on in previous drafts? The #1 WR on all 4 teams today just to name a few. (Dez, Nelson, Thomas, Hilton)

Playoff teams understand the importance of having playmakers. The Colts, Broncos, Packers, and Cowboys are absolutely loaded.

 

You're kind of underestimating how bad our oline is. Playmakers can't do **** when the qb is sacked in 2.5 seconds

 

Amazing short term memory on this forum. Lets not forget that Dansby had become a lazy player 25lbs overweight during his final season here. That it took being cut to get him to take getting back into shape physically.

$38 million is a lot when you factor in that most first years in contracts are structured to be lower cap hits. I've previously outlined how I would like to see things filled in FA and the draft (http://bit.ly/14KIiaV). Note: That was just one way to go about it. I could have also gone more emphasis on WR and less on DT etc. Outside of a Suh none of those would cost more then $6 million a year with probably a $3 million first year cap hit. The only way it would have to played tightly is if they were somehow able to go all in and get Suh. Then yes the cap would be a little more interesting...but manageable.

You should really play our GM League game that is starting very very soon on this forum.

 

Whatever the problem with the OL, its not best to fix it in the first 2 rounds when we don't even have a true #1 WR. The OL has been a scapegoat for our real problem. Some of the sacks were coverage sacks or 17 simply standing in one spot like a statue.

The OL absolutely needs fixing but lets do it a different way. We draft like crap year after year and wonder why we suddenly have so many holes. If there was a report done somewhere on all of the best offensive lines and when the individual linemen were drafted or how obtained, I think it would show some surprising results. Many lines are built in middle rounds except for a franchise LT and possibly a center, in which we already have both.

 

We already have our tackles so I don't see this great need to go out and spend big money and use high picks on the interior of the oline. We really only need 1 good, starting guard and then some decent depth, all which can be acquired in the middle rounds or on cheaper fa, at least more so than our other glaring holes like a competent wr to go with wallace and some secondary help. We have 1 good cb, who is getting old and 1 good safety. You can't tell me a guard is more important than a cb or safety in this league. Pouncey is overrated and got exposed when he had to pass block 1 on 1, so he will eventually need replacing but S.Smith, Turner or a mid round pick can adequately start at one of the spots. Smith was better than Pouncey and who knows what Turner will do. You can't assume he sucks just because our ****** of a HC didn't play him. The point is we can get by without 2 star guards this offseason but we desperately need playmakers on both sides. Our only playmaker on offense, currently under contract is Wallace. This team despises playmakers it seems.

 

Fans seriously want to take a G with a top 20 pick when we have holes at premier positions like dt, lb, cb, s, wr and currently te? And when we struggle next year it'll be because thill doesn't have any weapons right? I could understand if we needed a LT but we already used our main resources to fix that last offseason. It's high time we stop passing on the Dez bryants and earl Thomas of the world for pouncey and misi and odricks. It's gotten us nowhere.

 

We don't have that many holes, you guys are Debbie downers. We have mediocre talent at places but we aren't so thin across the board that we will start bring terrible.

I want a wr at #14, a FA DT, possibly a safety in round 2, and then lineman after that. The key is weather or not our draft picks this year and last contribute. We need them to.

 

What is the budget (for lack of a better term) for this years rookie class? Less than ten million, right?

 

That's overkill. I could go for 2 of the 3 and that's signing an OG (Boling/Franklin) and finding a reliable swing tackle. But drafting a high guard on top of that is overkill. We have a player in Turner who is a bulldozer of a man. He should be able to man that RG spot and provide an excellent push in the run blocking. Don't let Dallas Thomas (Ireland) pick sour you. Turner was a consensus beast that was just raw and ended up with turf toe in his rookie year for a coach who hates playing rookies unless they are 1st/2nd rounders. At best you add some mid round/late guys/vet depth signings and UDFA's to compete with them.

I do love Kevin White at 14 to replace Hartline. Try to make it work with Wallace for one more year. Hard to score on 2 WR's in one offseason. We will need 2 DT's in FA. I could see a splash guy...but then keep your eye out for an Earl Mitchell type signing for the 2nd guy. If we were going to blow a wad here ....I'd be all for Suh...very unlikely though. Most likely we sign a $6 million guy here and a $4 million guy. Odrick had a really crap year so I'd only bring him back if he was in the $4 to $5 million a year range on a 3-4 year deal.

I'd create more cap space after the draft if we can land Kendricks in round 2 that would allow us to ditch Misi. (Jenkins/Kendricks/Dion Jordan LB trio?).

Might be wise to double dip on the CB's. There are only Finnegan type corners on the market so based on the suggestions I just made I would grab a corner in FA and add one in the 3rd or 4th.

FS I am fine with a 1 year deal guy again. Let Aikens compete and bring in a late rounder and UDFA's to compete. If we get no development there we can always hit that next year when Philbin is canned.