This is a moderated phorum for the CIVILIZED discussion of the Miami Dolphins. In this phorum, there are rules and moderators to make sure you abide by the rules. The moderators for this phorum are JC and Colonel.
1 Earl Mitchell
2 Kelvin Sheppard (already a FA)
3 Jamar Taylor (1.15 mil)
These are the main reasons the defense was so bad IMO.
At least one of these (WA) will be back for special teams duty....
4 Walt Aikens/Michael Thomas
5 Brent Grimes
He will occasionally make the great play but he has been in decline since game 12 of 2014. He was not helped much over the top by whatever FS they put on the field. I'm sure Joseph is evaluating whether or not he thinks Grimes can offer more than he has over the past 22 games at 9.5 mil. Unfortunately when we signed him, we signed the Grimes family as well. They may decide he is not worth the distraction. He would be lucky to get 6 mil on the open market, IMO. It would be nice if we could trade him. The new team would get him for two years at 7 mil per season. We carry the pro-rated signing bonus regardless of trade or release. 4th round pick?
Of all the backups, I think only 3 are going to be worth anything. Sometimes it takes years for a DT to put it together (Soliai/Starks) and we all know they are not giving up on Tannenbaum's pet project in Jordan Phillips. He would be #4. So far a reach pick and now we need to use another high pick on yet another DT or sign a FA. Ridiculously deep DT group this year in the draft.
Tony Lippett, Neville Hewitt and Bobby McCain showed some bite last year and are worth future investment. Hewitt is a man without a position because Jenkins is the WLB. We have two decent WLB's and no SLB or MLB. I like Lippett the best. He's my pick for breakout player in Miami.
6 Koa Misi should be a cap casualty at just under 5 mil with cap savings of 3.72 mil.
JoeFootball Wrote:
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> Miami is trying to resign Rishard Mathews. Smart
> move but a year too late.
Head scratcher if they pull it off, only so much money to go around, I would think OV or Miller would be bigger in-house priorities with our receiving core already in place, unless maybe Stills is out but he's relatively cheap and our fastest WR (plus losing the 3rd we gave up for him), a move like this without properly addressing other huge needs would be worrisome to me that it's "business as usual" in Miami......
You know how these initial reports go...Could be they are just putting out feelers to see what type of deal he is seeking. If it's too much, it goes no further. Personally, I would rather have RM because of the chemistry he had with Thill. I was a huge proponent of Kenny Stills but he didn't impress me much last year. Tannenbaum likes to wheel and deal. It would be nice if he could put some of these guys up as trade bait but we don't really have a lot to work with...
As far as having enough money to go around, we have 8.6 mil in cap space right now....
Restructure:
Cam Wake + 4 mil
Ndmauking Suh: +18
Cut:
Earl Mitchell +2.5
Greg Jennings +4
Koa Misi +3.7
Jamar Taylor +1
Brent Grimes +7
Jordan Cameron +7.5
Dion Jordan +4
Dallas Thomas +1.7
That frees up $62,000,000!!!
Olivier Vernon -12
Lamar Miller -4
Rishard Mathews -4
Cameron Jordan -5
So we re-sign our own players for 25 mil. We still have 37 mil to replace that dead weight.
LG Keleche Osemele -7 mil
RT Mitchell Schwartz - 7 mil
FS Reggie Nelson -4 mil
DT Damon Harrison - 6 mil
Sean Smith - 6 mil
Total 30 mil
Then draft a LB, DE, CB...etc
I'm not saying we can actually sign all those players but it just gives you an idea of how much we can do....Get out of bad contracts with bad players.
EDIT: But then again Armando is reporting that we are 11 mil OVER the cap right now. Not sure where this is coming from all of the sudden.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/2016 08:39AM by JoeFootball.
ESPN had an article yesterday that with the veteran cuts, the NFL might have $1 Billion of salary cap room to spend for this year. (The would be an average of almost $32 million per team) This could be one expensive free agency year. I suspect we will see some insane contracts.
I suspect that the other 3 AFC east team are not going to be active in free agency. The Jets have the most cap space $14M in the AFC east but they have the most expensive free agents. Wilkerson, Harrison, Ivory, and Fitzpatrick are all free agents that contributed to their systems last year. They are likely to lose on DL. I find it funny that the Bills put in the poison pill in Charles Ckay contract but they are up against the cap. They are going to renegotiate or cut players just to sign their draft picks.
Using Joe's list I wouldn't cut grimes or touch Suh's contract unless absolutely necessary.
That would give us 37mm heading into FA. I'd keep Vernon with a cap friendly deal. Still not sold on him. He may be the 2 best 4/3 DE available but he's about to get paid like he's the 3rd best DE in the league.
jsm08 Wrote:
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> Using Joe's list I wouldn't cut grimes or touch
> Suh's contract unless absolutely necessary.
>
> That would give us 37mm heading into FA. I'd keep
> Vernon with a cap friendly deal. Still not sold
> on him. He may be the 2 best 4/3 DE available but
> he's about to get paid like he's the 3rd best DE
> in the league.
Agreed. Also until Cam Wake was injured he was the 2nd best DE on our team. 10-12 million players should someone that makes impact on the game. OV doesn't seem to be getting special attention from the opposing offenses either, like Wake and Suh do. The more I think about it, the more I think we might regret signing OV to big contract down the road.
Vernon is not a 12mil DE 9 sackless games in 2015, 10 in 2014. 2.5 of his 7.5 sacks came against Bmore who had just as bad of an oline as we did. Again we have to lose the attitude that we need these players who are generating 6-10 and 8-8 seasons. Let Vernon walk. I would rather have Mario Williams at 31 years old who might sign for several mil less.
All n all Miller is more valuable to us at 5 mil than Vernon at 12.
I'm torn on OV. I don't want to lose him just because we are so deficient at DE. I also don't want to overspend on him but it may be the price of inflation.
I think you could structure the deal (as they typically do) to make it look bigger than it is with a lower cap hit.
For instance, 5 year, 59 mil deal with only enough guaranteed money to get out in 3 years with lower cap hits for the first 3 years. signing bonus of 12 mil spread out over the first 4 years
2016: 9 mil
2017: 11 mil
2018: 12 mil
2019: 13 mil
2020: 14 mil
As long as the guaranteed money is around 27 mil, you are ok.
If he doesn't perform we can get out but the guy is so young and already pretty good. He may not have the sacks but he has the pressures and good tackle numbers for a DE. He's solid vs the run too and I don't think he has ever missed a game.
Even Jason Taylor had 10 out of 15 seasons with fewer sacks than OV had in his best year of 11.5 sacks. The big plays will come once they put a decent DT next to him. Even Vonn Miller only had 11 sacks this year.
Put the franchise tag on OV........Who else do we use it on if we dont use it on OV.....He is young and improving......And our Dline position is weaking every day...
Rumor is Dolphins will go after William Hayes as their strong side DE. They want better run stoppage at DE and he is one of the best. He also had 5.5 sacks last year.
He is 6'2 258, has 29.5 career sacks in 8 years and will be 31 years old in May.
Also heard they are willing to look at a low end DT in FA to pair with Mitchell, Phillips, Suh, etc.
I hope these are just rumors. Hayes is ok for a VERY short term, low money deal but DT is a huge issue, IMO.
Kelechi Osemele, LG
Malik Jackson, 3-4 DE/4-3 NT
Eric Weddle, FS
Alex Mack, C
Mitchell Schwartz, RT
Janoris Jenkins, CB
JPP, CB
Charles Johnson, DE
Tier 2: 5 to 7.5 mil
Sean Smith, CB
Jaye Howard 3-4 DE/4-3 NT
Tamba Hali, DE/OLB
Damon Harrison, NT
Derrick Johnson, MLB/ILB
Reggie Nelson, FS
Rolando McClain, MLB
Ian Williams, NT
Ryan Schraeder, RT
Rodney McLeod, FS
Adam Jones, CB
Casey Hayward, CB
Geoff Schwartz, LG
Kelvin Beachum, OT
Tahir Whitehead, MLB
Alfred Morris, HB
Chris Long, DE
Tier 3: 3-5 mil
George Iloka, FS/SS
Matt Forte, HB
William Hayes, DE
Haloti Ngata, D-line
Jeff Allen, LG
Evan Mathis, LG
Robert Ayers, DE
Ramon Foster, LG
Alex Boone, RG
Brandon Brooks, RG
Nick Fairley, 4-3 DT
Husain Abdullah, FS
Patrick Robinson, CB
Paul Soliai, DT
Quinton Coples, DE
Nolan Carroll, CB
James Laurinaitis, MLB