Name another team with long term sustainability? Have the 49ers, Eagles, Bills, or cowboys been a success in recent years in your eyes? I don’t think I can change your mind. You seem to be confusing the current dolphin build with previous builds pre 2019. We are a young team not a veteran team dude.
I don't know that you can claim being young when so many primary starters were old vets: Tyreek
Hill, Terron
Armstead, Jalen
Ramsey, Xavien
Howard, Raheem
Mostert, etc. Your best offensive weapons (Hill & Mostert) are both 30+ and your best OL (Armstead) is considering retirement.
It doesn't feel like a young team. It feels like a veteran team with a few young players thrown in. And too many of those young pieces are doing very little (e.g. Raekwon
Davis, Liam
Eichenberg, Cam
Smith).
That's not even mentioning the outright busts: Michael
Deiter, Noah
Igbinoghene, Solomon
Kindley, Hunter
Long, Channing
Tindall,
Ezukanma, etc. There have been quite a few actually.
You say we're young but I don't think the starters necessarily are:
>> Both our CBs were at the age of decline / irrelevancy / retirement: Xavien
Howard (30) and Jalen
Ramsey (29)
>> Our best OT Terron
Armstead (32)
is considering retirement!
>> Our best option at LT if Armstead retires is Kendall
Lamm (31).
>> Our most productive RB Raheem
Mostert (31) is a part-time guy who's at a scary age for RBs
>> Our most dynamic weapon, Tyreek
Hill (30), is at a point in his career where we expect degradation.
A lot of the other starters & contributors are also staring 30 in the face, too:
Durham
Smythe (28)
Isaiah
Wynn (28)
Zach
Sieler (28)
Christian
Wilkins (28)
Braxton
Berrios (28)
Cedrick
Wilson (28)
River
Cracraft (29)
This is literally why things are such a mess right now and why you have so many cap issues. Does this really feel like a young team to you? It doesn't to me. Our relevancy is tied directly to the veteran players and we're fighting to sign our young core because of the money we've spent on those vets.
Looking at Achane a bit closer:
You've seemingly found your next RB. That's excellent. Again though, those are easy and even Achane will need replacing in another few years so it's not the hit you'd want to be bragging about. It'd have been much better to hit on a 3rd round CB or TE for instance who might star for the next decade and save you some money. Finding a RB in the draft doesn't really save money because a productive FA is still going to be cheap.
You want to hit on the expensive positions which is where busts like Igbinoghene and potentially Cam Smith really hurt you.
Looking at Waddle a bit closer:
Picking a WR at #6 overall when several great ones were available was an easy "hit" but there now seems to be some hesitation as to whether we can have both Hill & Waddle over the next few years and to whom the franchise will show it's loyalty. Perhaps Waddle may be the one sent packing as most seem to see Hill as the "must have" guy. Hmmm....
I would agree more with you if we were in position to lock up our young talent long term, but in a lot of cases we're not. We're debating how good these guys actually are (having topped out at 11-6) and whether we have the money to keep them. That's hardly the foundation of a solid argument about having a
'healthy young core.'
Problem #1:
We're now hearing that both Christian
Wilkins and Robert
Hunt are set to hit the market. So much for building around a young core!
Problem #2:
You're locked in with Bradley
Chubb so if you're planning to re-sign Jaelan
Phillips next year (and it appears they'd be) then it's very hard to pay enough money to keep Andrew
Van Ginkel merely to be a 3rd / rotational OLB, especially when Holland will also be wanting more money next year. So much for that late-round draft hit!
Problem #3:
Do we even have 1 long-term option at
boundary CB? No, you don't and it's supposedly a position Grier likes to draft and views as critical. CB should be a strength. Yet our last 2 picks have been Noah Igbinoghene (a bust) and Cam Smith who to this point has done nothing. I guess Cam Smith helps make that average age thing look better but so what?
TL/DR Summary:
If you went with the good, young players you have now you could certainly make the argument you're making: Tua, Waddle, Achane, Ajax, Hunt, Wilkins, Phillips, Elliott, Long, Holland, etc. I just don't know that would be a great team in and of itself. I think
our young/core players and the aging vets that've helped make us relevant are separate groups.
If you feel good about this young core, you should build around it and be ready to move on from the aging vets.
>> You should be happy about
Howard's exit.
>> You should be willing to gamble on
Cam Smith.
>> You should be hoping for
Armstead's retirement to help pay
Williams and/or
Hunt.
>> You should be rooting for a
Tua contract to stabilize the future offense(s) and open salary cap options.
>> You should be hoping the team moves on from
Hill asap in favor of moving that money to
Waddle.
>> You should expect
Achane to take the bulk of the carries in '24 and '25 as the Dolphins feature RB.
>> You should be supportive of paying
Wilkins to keep him around.
Those are not unreasonable positions
at all...if you have faith in the young core and view it as the reason for Miami's recent success. But...
>> Is
Cam Smith a real starter? It's overly-optimistic to assume that.
>> How soon can we actually move on from
Tyreek? Not immediately. He's likely to get a restructure to relieve cap pressure.
>> What about
Waddle? It's going to be very hard to keep Waddle with Hill locked in.
>> Is
Armstead actually going to retire? Almost certainly not when he's in line to make so much money!
>> Will we pay a premium to keep
Wilkins? Probably not considering he's a DT. Ouch.
>> Will we pay a premium to keep
Hunt? Probably not considering he's a Guard. Double ouch.
>> Will we pay a premium to keep
Van Ginkel? Probably not considering we made such a bold move to acquire Chubb.
Will the situation be better next year with Phillips or Holland? I'm not sure.
Point is, it's all a bit of a mess, dude.
