While the blame for selecting the players on this team lies with those who drafted or signed those players. The real issue with this team is the overall lack of talented players on the roster.
They have one good TE in Gesicki and the rest of the TE’s are average or below at best.
When healthy Parker would be a starter on any team in the NFL. Waddle is obviously talented but the OC’s seem to have no idea how to get him the ball to him beyond 5 yards. Fuller has been a major disappointment and as usual, he is injured again. The rest of the WR’s, including Williams need to be replaced once the season is over.
‘The RB position seems irrelevant to the front office and the coaching staff. I see no RB on this roster who would be anything more than a backup on any other team in the league and Gaston is the only RB who would likely be good enough to make most of the rosters in the NFL as a backup.
The OL is full of a majority of offensive linemen who would be backups on most NFL teams. This continues to be a major area if need for the Dolphins and this offense will continue to struggle until this OL is much better than it is now. That will take better coaching and more talent, so it’s not likely to improve much this season.
Whether Tua is the long term answer at QB is yet to be determined but if they make the mistake of trading for Watson and giving up the future, they will have basically decided to settle for years of mediocrity instead of giving Tua time to develop. They are going do whatever they want at the QB position, so there is no need for me to dwell on the QB.
On defense they still are weak against the run and they are not as effective against the pass as they were last year. Phillips played his best game today and seems to be coming along. Yet Van Ginkel and Baker don’t seem to be as effective as they were last season and the LB position is going to be an area they need to look at in the draft or free agency after this season.
Depending on what they decide to do with Ogbah and his contract. They are going to need another pass rusher if they decide not to sign him and let him go in free agency.
The secondary is still a strength of the defense but I don’t think they are as good a unit as they were last year. They seem to be giving up a lot more passes this year and last year the secondary helped the defense in being the best 3rd down defense in the NFL. Going into the game today, the defense was the worst rated 3rd down defense in the entire league. While that certainly isn’t all on the secondary, the play of the secondary has certainly been a factor in the overall drop in the play of the defense so far this season.
So basically when viewed in totality, the Dolphins still have a lot of holes to fill on this team before they can legitimately compete against the better teams in the league on a consistent basis. Going into the third year of the rebuild they are a team that can take an undefeated Raiders team into overtime one week and then turn around and lose at home to a winless Colts team the next week. In other words, they are the same type team that led to this rebuild 3 years ago when It was decided mediocre wasn’t good enough anymore. Unfortunately based on the game today, mediocre might be the best we can hope for this year.