I'd add even more circumstantial detail...
Let's begin with something rather singular. Grier's election to trade a R2 pick for
QB Josh Rosen was telling. That wasn't a clever way to tank with a bad QB. That was an actual attempt to trade a valuable asset (which we needed as a team with a bad roster) for a might-be franchise QB. It was clear early on however that Rosen was so bad he'd soon be gone. The move was such a flop, we forget it even happened. But trading a R2 pick shouldn't be so easily forgiven as if it's merely the price of doing business. It isn't. And it's potentially damaging when your R2 history shows a 50% hit rate with picks like Xavien Howard, Mike Gesicki, Robert Hunt, Raekwon Davis and Jevon Holland.
You also have to wonder why
HC Brian Flores was ever hired if he wasn't willing to go along with the tank? Not only did it end in Flores being replaced but it actually cost the Miami Dolphins in punitive damages. Perhaps if a HC more willing to go along with the plan was hired, we wouldn't have lost that R1 pick and the scandal could've been avoided altogether. It doesn't make strategic sense to hire a strong-willed HC if you're looking to tank and push the envelop with tampering.
Furthermore, why did we add the capable veteran
QB Ryan Fitzpatrick if we were mostly interested in setting up the optimal draft position? What exactly did Ryan Fitzpatrick accomplish for us? He was never good. He was only good enough to ensure we didn't suck which helped undermine the tank. Flores and Fitzpatrick are two big reasons we have Tua instead of Burrow.
Speaking of Fitzpatricks, what ever became of
Minkah Fitzpatrick? You remember, that prospect we liked so much that we drafted him in R1!? I guess he didn't like the idea of tanking either and again the mean, old nasty Brian Flores helped run him out of town. Funny how well a plan comes together in Miami, huh? Long story short, somehow the guy we were going to use we traded away and now he's an All-Pro FS for an historically stable organization with a more player-minded HC.
Speaking of coaches, why has this team parted ways with so many veteran coaches on contentious terms? Ross helped push
Parcells away but
Gailey and
Fangio didn't seem to want to be here either. Both seemed happy to set sail after just a year in the organization. Gailey was always a weird hire and why we ever brought Fangio in if he wasn't planning to commit long-term, IDK. Again, it leads to questions about the vision of the leadership. But more importantly, why are these most experienced, long-tenured coaches so turned-off by what they seeing and experience in Miami?
Then you've got how the team
botched Tua's first two seasons. We drafted a young QB recovering from a string of injuries in college and subsequently forced him onto the field early and did little to enhance the support around him. In those years, we had questionable offensive coaching, a sub-par OL and inadequate weapons (some of the worst in the NFL actually), hardly the type of environment in which you'd expect a young QB to find himself.
Meanwhile, most of the team's
questionable spending was oriented towards defensive FAs like Emmanuel Ogbah ($15M), Eric Rowe ($16M), Shaq Lawson ($30M), Kyle Van Noy ($50M) and Byron Jones ($80M). Is it worth mentioning how little Lawson, Van Noy and Jones actually did?
Shaq Lawson was quickly rendered irrelevant and is today mostly forgotten.
Kyle Van Noy left on bad terms and hates us.
Byron Jones ended up producing very little relative to his perceived value and his expensive contract.
Meanwhile our young QB is running from pressure throwing to people like Lynn Bowden, Mack Hollins, DeVante Parker and Isaiah Ford.
Along those lines, can we talk about the string of lackluster receivers we've drug from the mid-rounds who've done almost nothing? I'm speaking of
Leonte Carroo (a R3 pick who we traded up for),
Lynn Bowden (who we acquired from the Raiders for a R4 pick),
Jakeem Grant (who stuck on the roster forever despite doing nothing),
Durham Smythe (an over-rated R4 pick),
Hunter Long (a R3 pick who's now gone) and
Erik Ezukanma (a R3 pick who's done nothing).
...we might as well not even waste our time picking in R6 or R7: Thomas Duarte, Isaiah Ford, Malcolm Perry, Elijah Higgins, etc.
I think when you exit forums like this long enough to really evaluate what the Dolphins are it becomes quite clear they're a directionless franchise with a sort of leadership that has very little long-term vision. I actually think the veteran voices like Adam Beasley, Omar Kelly and others speak with a type of cynicism you can only get when you see this team fail for 10-20 straight years. Omar recently cited how this team is looking for the "next thing to sell the fans" and that's precisely accurate I'm afraid. That's what this team does. It cashes in future assets to make a splash every couple years to conjure up some hope and sell some tickets.
There will always be a few highlights to be happy about. Even those though are easily shot down by a critical analysis. For instance, a pick like
Jaylen Waddle looks good at first glance but not compared to the alternatives who all have produced just as well (Smith, Chase, Pitts, Sewell). In fact, I think most agree they'd probably rather have drafted Ja'Marr Chase as a WR or maybe they'd rather have Penei Sewell on the team right now that we've got Tyreek Hill.
And maybe the worst knife in your side is when you look at
Tyreek Hill and realize that you're not even really seeing any actual value being created. You see future assets and cap dollars cashed in for immediate production. Hills numbers are impressive but not really when you consider the cost combined with the fact that the team lacks a WR3 / TE to steal some of that production. While it did lead the league in 2023, Tua's 4,600-yds isn't actually all that outstanding in the modern NFL. It's good but not great. Finding Hill in the draft or securing him in a cheap trade would've been value creation. But that's not what Chris Grier and the Dolphins do.
I think what you say
@gofins60 is probably as close to the truth as we can get. The Miami Dolphins are not what the fans want to believe they are. This team could've found it's franchise QB with Burrow or perhaps rebuilt the OL with quality picks or drawn in a qualified veteran at HC who had already learn in some prior stint or used the 2019 season to position itself strongly in the draft over the next decade. Did they do any of that?
How much do we really feel confident in? The GM? The HC? The QB? The financial future? Nothing is decided. Nothing today is more certain that it was 10 years ago. We may be back to square one in another 3-4 years looking for a new HC, QB, etc.
And that's why the National Media doesn't put Miami at the top. We're better than the average bad team. But we're not an actual elite team that does all the important stuff well.
But hey...for a short-sighted organization that lacks patience and doesn't draft particularly well outside of RB they've done pretty well.
