I like a lot of what we've done so far...

- Overall, I can see a plan that seems to make sense. I'm not claiming it will necessarily work or that every move will be a home run, but the moves seem to fit within a viable master plan.

- In general, it seems like younger & less proven get shorter, mid-range (yes, can't believe $10 mill/yr seems to = mid-range) deals, like Flowers, Shaq with Ogbah getting even less...with a common thread being that they were 1st rounders (Ogbah pick #32) who seemingly underperformed. There's definitely risk (hence, shorter contracts for less $)...but also a chance that they're good raw material that can blossom. Van Noy is an example of someone who significantly underperformed his draft slot w/DET his first couple years...then blossomed in NE.

- systematically, I believe they prioritized elite talent at the CB position, thus enabling scheme-driven pressure by the front 7. Count me among all of us who REALLY hope Xavien Howard (a) can stay healthy and (b) gets his head screwed on right in terms of handling himself as a man/personal issues.

- although I'm not ga-ga over Jordan Howard (nor am I against him in any way), you can't argue his past productivity while still being young. My hope is that it signals an end to any interest in Gordon from SD at the price tag he was at least seeking last year.

- Van Noy and Byron Jones appear to be moves that land us blue-chip talent that are also great scheme fits from teams that functionally lacked the cap space to keep all their great players.

- in today's NFL, seemingly, guys who aren't in the news for being completely selfish are basically considered team-first guys. I'm glad none of our acquisitions to date fit into the former category.

The one main area where I still wonder is adding another FA piece to the OL. That said, the way things went in the past few days, it feels like making a move on an elite FA OL player got much more difficult/expensive. Conklin to the Browns for $14 mill/per caught my eye, but other than that, there wasn't really a no-brainer "can't believe we didn't make that move" (and Conklin wasn't even necessarily that) move out there with all the tagging/resigning.

Still a good bit of FA season left, so I'm not really trying to figure out what this might mean for the draft.

Only time will tell

Is Jones better than Logan Ryan?

Flowers has been somewhat a bust

Van Noy should be solid and like Lawson and Ogbah dont neeed to take a DE early

Hopefully we will see the old Howard with Swift and Aj dillon, Eno Benjamin or Josh Kelly

Flowers has been somewhat a bust

True........but they seem to be signing players that are young and haven't broke out yet. Do to other teams like we have been doing. Picking players and getting rid of them and then watching them go to the Pro bowl.

I love the plan. Hopefully they can implement it.

GO DOLPHINS!!!!

I also like what they have done so far.

Flowers - you say he is somewhat of a bust but that is at Tackle, at Guard he is rated just below Scherf.

Ogbah is a good value

Van Noy is one hell of a leader and a good player.

Lawson is reunited with his position coach at Clemson.

I like Howard he is an upgrade

Jones is the interesting one because he usually only plays one side of the field , whereas Howard lines up over the #1 receiver. But I do like the combination of the two.

Pull another OL , maybe Ted Karras then kill it in the draft because we can do many different things then.

I feel pretty good about the productivity that Flores can get from these new FA's to the team. My confidence in that is based by how he was able to get this team to win more games than I thought they would especially after a major purge. I'll even say that I think Flores has learned quite a bit from his former boss. It also seems like he has a pretty good working relationship with Grier. Seems as though he's listened to feedback from his HC about players. I feel a good vibe about this team with Flores as HC and that we'll be pretty damn competitive by the 2021 season, & perhaps maybe a very nice surprise in 2020.

Just got Ted Karras.... very good center

I like what they are doing. Improving defensive front 7 and another lock down CB. Rolling the dice that players like Karras and Flowers are peaking. Flowers was terrible as a LT, too slow. NFL DE's were just too fast for him. A move in to guard worked well for him in DC. Karras played next to some solid guys, Thuney, Mason and Andrews.I would still be open to taking a Center w/ our 2nd #2 or 3rd round picks. Especially if a guy Ruiz or Cushenberry is there. I actually like Howard, like Ballege he needs space to build up steam.

Staff appears to know what they want.

astro34 Wrote:
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> Just got Ted Karras.... very good center


I just read he turned down a better offer for a 2 year deal from the Pats but he chose not to stay there. The culture seems to have changed here in Miami thanks to Flores as our HC.

808phan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> astro34 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Just got Ted Karras.... very good center
>
>
> I just read he turned down a better offer for a 2
> year deal from the Pats but he chose not to stay
> there. The culture seems to have changed here in
> Miami thanks to Flores as our HC.


That's beyond huge. A decade ago when players were refusing to play in sunny Fla with all the tax exemptions a millionaire would love.....that was concerning.

GO DOLPHINS!!!!

808phan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> astro34 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Just got Ted Karras.... very good center
>
>
> I just read he turned down a better offer for a 2
> year deal from the Pats but he chose not to stay
> there. The culture seems to have changed here in
> Miami thanks to Flores as our HC.



He's also kin to Alex Karras, who was awesome in Blazing Saddles...and Webster...oh yeah and played alongside Garo with the Detroit Lions back in the day.

As I re-look through the moves and try to project the 2020 starting lineups on both sides, I did a quick look back at how the season went from starting 0-7 to finishing 5-4 in the last 9 games. Certainly there were a number of factors in the improvement, but one is that we averaged allowing 160 YPG rushing in the first 7 games and improved to 116 over the last 9 (coincidentally, just about the league average for all of 2019). In those same stretches, our points scored improved from 11 per game to 25.4 per game.

At the highest level, I think one could say that we just seemed to learn how to play better football overall...scoring, defending, etc. and that improved offensive production helps run defense by causing teams to have to throw enough to score enough to beat us (or at least compete to beat us).

All that said - even with the improvement to about average, I'm still hoping that we add a massive run plugger on the DL. I know we can't get every player we target...and I don't know if we even wanted him, but Danny Shelton at $4 mill/per with DET would have fit the bill in my opinion. I prefer FA at this particular position because:
- good ones seem to be able to play well even at older ages
- they aren't super-expensive, relatively speaking
- interior DL seems to take a couple seasons for performance to begin meeting potential
Maybe someone like Dontari Poe or Marcell Darius a bit later in the FA lifecycle?

Yeah, I wanted Shelton too. I thought we should have grabbed a NT in F/A. Very few guys come out of college strong enough to anchor the nose in a nfl 3-4 d as a rookie. Michael Pierce would have been nice also. Well cannot have everything. I till think we will sign 1 or 2 more players. I think this front office knows the player's they want.