2024 Free Agency scorecard. How did our front office do?

[Feverdream]

I touched upon this in another thread and belatedly realized it needed it's own home.

Last year, we went into the Free Agency portion of the season with very little money, yet most touts thought we did quite well. Let's do a deep dive.

Home Runs:
1) Jonnu Smith just set a Dolphins record for TE TDs, and added in 88 catches for 884 yards, and we got all this for... chuckle... 2 years/8.4m. This may have been the single best FA deal in the NFL last year. Home run Hell... it was a grand slam. ...and best of all, at 29, Jonnu probably has 5 years left as TEs tend to play longer than most positions.
2) Aaron Brewer. 3 years/21m. Theft. PFF has him in the top 10, and he was a freaking glove fit for our zone-blocking scheme... and maybe best of all, he's the first Center we've had in years that wasn't an injury risk. Barton? Never heard of him.

Triples:
1) Jordyn Brooks. The best ILB we've had in several years. 3 years/26m. Not quite theft, but this was a very, very solidifying signing. He's 27.

Doubles:
1) Kendall Fuller. Signed to be a two year bridge player for 2 years/15m. He was solid as our CB2. Downside he only played 11 games, but pff rated him 66.2 which is in their green range. He wasn't a star, but we hadn't expected one for 7.5m.

Singles:
1) Benito Jones was our run-down DT this year. Absorbing double teams was his entire job. 1 year/1.8m. Cheap.
2) Da'Shawn Hand. Rotational snaps for 1.2m. Free.
3) Siran Neal. Special Teams player and depth DB. 1.9m. Cheap.
4) Anthony Walker. Played more than we expected. 1.3m. Free.
5) Tyrel Dodson. Waiver wire pickup mid-season. We paid about 1m for 8 games, 3 of them starts.
6) Robert Jones. 2m. As a starter, he would have been a decent bench player.
7) Robert Poyer. 2m. Wasn't good, but called out the assignments and worked really cheap.
8) Elijah Campbell. Depth player and special teams for 1.4m. Cheap depth.

Whiffs:
1) OBJ. Was never needed and ultimately released. 3m.
2) Braxton Berrios. Injured before we could cut him. 2.1m
3) River Cracraft. Borderline useless. 1.1. Vet minimum.
4) Isaiah Wynn. Mr. Glass. Sigh.
5) Jack Driscoll/Jonathan Harris/Neville Gallimore/Jody Fortson Got some guaranteed money in preseason, but didn't really hurt us.
6) Nik Needham/Salvon Ahmed. Vet minimum, PS players. No real problem here.

Error:
1) Shaq Barrett. This one HURT. We absolutely needed a vet Edge to cover for Chubb and Phillips and he ****ing bailed on us, depriving us of an opportunity to add a starter here. Ultimately, we probably didn't have to pay him, but this signing lead directly to our piss poor 35 sacks this year. Yes, the second baseman launched an easy double play ball into the outfield here. Big, BIG error... and not discussed enough.

All things considered, I complement the F.O. on this group. We got a LOT of bang for very little bucks.
Don't let the loudmouths scream too long or loud about OBJ or Berrios. Ultimately, they just didn't cost much.

 

[Atila]

Yeah, in a vacuum these signings are fine - I find myself nodding along with everything you say here.

The problem here is you are implying Grier did well. He did not.

You’re not addressing all the talent vacated and the net return - for example you must consider losing Robert Hunt, Wilkins, and most ****ed up of them all, AVG.

Free agency also is the talent we lost too.

Free agency also incorporates your GM’s philosophy on roster building - no priority put on shoring the OL at all which, again, year after ****ing year, was one of the top2 issues with the team.

You also have to consider the team he intentionally built to get us to the free agency he was taking part in. For example, your commentary would be GREAT if he was a new GM taking over the team… he wasn’t, everyone already here he picked, so the failed OL also has a bunch of injured dudes on it too. You simply cannot make a commentary about 2024 free agency in a vacuum.

I’ve said it a hundred times but I’ll say it again - Chris Grier is the definition of mediocre. He will do some good things, and give you a list of nice moves he made to help you defend him… but he makes an equal number of bad moves… and worst of all, philosophically, he doesn’t know how to hang with the elite front office players of the NFL. He’ll get you some wins with the way he believes in roster construction, but he’ll get you just as many losses… and he’ll never hang with the best run franchises.

You simply cannot create a commentary like that without actually covering all the facts. It’s irresponsible to actually paint our “front office” as commendable.

 

[Feverdream]

Yeah, in a vacuum these signings are fine.

The problem here is you are implying Grier did well. He did not.

You’re not addressing all the talent vacated and the net return - for example you must consider losing Robert Hunt, Wilkins, and most ****ed up of them all, AVG.

Free agency also is the talent we lost too.

Free agency also incorporates your GM’s philosophy on roster building - no priority put on shoring the OL at all which, again, year after ****ing year, was one of the top2 issues with the team.

You simply cannot create a commentary like that without actually covering all the facts. It’s irresponsible to actually paint our “front office” as commendable.

There are things that our front office did that were ENTIRELY commendable. This set of FAs as well as last year's draft were both excellent.

...and as far as allowing Hunt, a good but not great, Guard to walk for an astonishing 20M/per year and Wilkins to walk for a mind-boggling 27.5m/year???

Excellent work, Mr. Grier! Resigning those two would have been idiotic.

AVG? He had his best season by far, he'd never been over 6 sacks before. He'll be 30 next year, let's see how it goes.

 

[Atila]

There are things that our front office did that were ENTIRELY commendable. This set of FAs as well as last year's draft were both excellent.

...and as far as allowing Hunt, a good but not great, Guard to walk for an astonishing 20M/per year and Wilkins to walk for a mind-boggling 27.5m/year???

Excellent work, Mr. Grier! Resigning those two would have been idiotic.

AVG? He had his best season by far, he'd never been over 6 sacks before. He'll be 30 next year, let's see how it goes.

Yawn, as I said, Grier will do plenty of good things to defend. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t do just as much bad to leave you in the same mediocre place. You proved my point just the same.

And my point about losing Robert hunt or Wilkins isn’t that I wish we signed them - it’s about your lack of addressing the entire breadth of the topic. If you only measure someone based on their acquisitions it will always be easier… the way he constructed the roster forced us to cause players to walk… it’s with every team… roster construction and talent coming and going is all apart of the equation of who and WHY you used free agency the way you did.

And anyone who tries to defend the loss of AVG loses credibility with me. The dude made plays every game while he was here. For you to have the audacity to try and make it seem like a “who’d have thought!” situation is seriously disingenuous for someone with your level of football acumen.

 

[Carne Asada]

There are things that our front office did that were ENTIRELY commendable. This set of FAs as well as last year's draft were both excellent.

...and as far as allowing Hunt, a good but not great, Guard to walk for an astonishing 20M/per year and Wilkins to walk for a mind-boggling 27.5m/year???

Excellent work, Mr. Grier! Resigning those two would have been idiotic.

AVG? He had his best season by far, he'd never been over 6 sacks before. He'll be 30 next year, let's see how it goes.

Also all the players we've been letting walk are from the Flo era. Not that I think that gives Grier or McD an excuse to lose them but they did have a different roster philosophy back then and the players wanted to be valued in the way Flores did and ultimately THE PLAYERS chose to leave.

We just didn't think building a salary structure where our DT, RG and a tweener LB/Edge that didn't fit our new scheme should be on the top of our payroll.

I'm sure we tried keeping them within the salary structure. They just wanted to be on teams where they were valued the way they were under Flo.

 

[artdnj]

Yeah, in a vacuum these signings are fine - I find myself nodding along with everything you say here.

The problem here is you are implying Grier did well. He did not.

You’re not addressing all the talent vacated and the net return - for example you must consider losing Robert Hunt, Wilkins, and most ****ed up of them all, AVG.

Free agency also is the talent we lost too.

Free agency also incorporates your GM’s philosophy on roster building - no priority put on shoring the OL at all which, again, year after ****ing year, was one of the top2 issues with the team.

You also have to consider the team he intentionally built to get us to the free agency he was taking part in. For example, your commentary would be GREAT if he was a new GM taking over the team… he wasn’t, everyone already here he picked, so the failed OL also has a bunch of injured dudes on it too. You simply cannot make a commentary about 2024 free agency in a vacuum.

I’ve said it a hundred times but I’ll say it again - Chris Grier is the definition of mediocre. He will do some good things, and give you a list of nice moves he made to help you defend him… but he makes an equal number of bad moves… and worst of all, philosophically, he doesn’t know how to hang with the elite front office players of the NFL. He’ll get you some wins with the way he believes in roster construction, but he’ll get you just as many losses… and he’ll never hang with the best run franchises.

You simply cannot create a commentary like that without actually covering all the facts. It’s irresponsible to actually paint our “front office” as commendable.

I can never forgive him for the back up quarterback situation And the guard situation. If we had a capable backup quarterback, we’d likely be in the playoffs now.

 

[Feverdream]

As you said... Yawn.

Each year is a different challenge, some years you are going all-in (which our owner and fanbase insisted on 2 years ago). Some years, you are repairing the damage from going all in on a previous year... and that was this year.

We added a TE, an ILB, and a Center. All of who will start cheaply for several years, while also drafting a DROY candidate, a probable starting LT, a RB2, a WR3, and a possible SS in the draft.

Sorry to wreck the whiny narrative, but last year's work was excellent. The problem was going all-in 2 years ago... something I SCREAMED that we should NOT do.

 

[Honeybadger08]

No Calais Campbell on your deep dive? He was by far the best FA pickup of the season!

 

[Coolguy3]

I feel like we do a good job with FA signings and cap situations but we kill ourselves with poor drafts and not developing our own. We need to hit more on our draft picks.

 

[Carne Asada]

As you said... Yawn.

Each year is a different challenge, some years you are going all-in (which our owner and fanbase insisted on 2 years ago). Some years, you are repairing the damage from going all in on a previous year... and that was this year.

We added a TE, an ILB, and a Center. All of who will start cheaply for several years, while also drafting a DROY candidate, a probable starting LT, a RB2, a WR3, and a possible SS in the draft.

Sorry to wreck the whiny narrative, but last year's work was excellent. The problem was going all-in 2 years ago... something I SCREAMED that we should NOT do.

We wanted to see if Tua and McDaniel were the guys. I think the result turned out inconclusive but we were talking about a 24 yo QB and a 39 yo coach. I think they failed forward. I think, specially w McDaniel, that you have to allow for a lot of development. Otherwise there was no reason you should have picked such a young and inexperienced guy.

He didn't even call plays in SF.

He helped design plays. He had held the OC title for one year.

Honestly having gone 11-6 at 40 last year buys him an instant HC job somewhere if we let him walk now. There aren't 32 better HCs than MM right now and there are specially few that also have 30 year careers ahead of them.

 

[Atila]

As you said... Yawn.

Each year is a different challenge, some years you are going all-in (which our owner and fanbase insisted on 2 years ago). Some years, you are repairing the damage from going all in on a previous year... and that was this year.

We added a TE, an ILB, and a Center. All of who will start cheaply for several years, while also drafting a DROY candidate, a probable starting LT, a RB2, a WR3, and a possible SS in the draft.

Sorry to wreck the whiny narrative, but last year's work was excellent. The problem was going all-in 2 years ago... something I SCREAMED that we should NOT do.

I don’t whine, I speak in facts.

You’re missing the point… any “mess” is his own.

He was given a very very rare 100% roster build.. and he got you .500 record and 0 Playoff wins over the course of 6-7-8-20 years.

Again, you’re not addressing the entire breadth of work.

How anyone with a clue can defend Grier still is beyond me. It’s shocking.

 

[ForksPhin]

I touched upon this in another thread and belatedly realized it needed it's own home.

Last year, we went into the Free Agency portion of the season with very little money, yet most touts thought we did quite well. Let's do a deep dive.

Home Runs:
1) Jonnu Smith just set a Dolphins record for TE TDs, and added in 88 catches for 884 yards, and we got all this for... chuckle... 2 years/8.4m. This may have been the single best FA deal in the NFL last year. Home run Hell... it was a grand slam. ...and best of all, at 29, Jonnu probably has 5 years left as TEs tend to play longer than most positions.
2) Aaron Brewer. 3 years/21m. Theft. PFF has him in the top 10, and he was a freaking glove fit for our zone-blocking scheme... and maybe best of all, he's the first Center we've had in years that wasn't an injury risk. Barton? Never heard of him.

Triples:
1) Jordyn Brooks. The best ILB we've had in several years. 3 years/26m. Not quite theft, but this was a very, very solidifying signing. He's 27.

Doubles:
1) Kendall Fuller. Signed to be a two year bridge player for 2 years/15m. He was solid as our CB2. Downside he only played 11 games, but pff rated him 66.2 which is in their green range. He wasn't a star, but we hadn't expected one for 7.5m.

Singles:
1) Benito Jones was our run-down DT this year. Absorbing double teams was his entire job. 1 year/1.8m. Cheap.
2) Da'Shawn Hand. Rotational snaps for 1.2m. Free.
3) Siran Neal. Special Teams player and depth DB. 1.9m. Cheap.
4) Anthony Walker. Played more than we expected. 1.3m. Free.
5) Tyrel Dodson. Waiver wire pickup mid-season. We paid about 1m for 8 games, 3 of them starts.
6) Robert Jones. 2m. As a starter, he would have been a decent bench player.
7) Robert Poyer. 2m. Wasn't good, but called out the assignments and worked really cheap.
8) Elijah Campbell. Depth player and special teams for 1.4m. Cheap depth.

Whiffs:
1) OBJ. Was never needed and ultimately released. 3m.
2) Braxton Berrios. Injured before we could cut him. 2.1m
3) River Cracraft. Borderline useless. 1.1. Vet minimum.
4) Isaiah Wynn. Mr. Glass. Sigh.
5) Jack Driscoll/Jonathan Harris/Neville Gallimore/Jody Fortson Got some guaranteed money in preseason, but didn't really hurt us.
6) Nik Needham/Salvon Ahmed. Vet minimum, PS players. No real problem here.

Error:
1) Shaq Barrett. This one HURT. We absolutely needed a vet Edge to cover for Chubb and Phillips and he ****ing bailed on us, depriving us of an opportunity to add a starter here. Ultimately, we probably didn't have to pay him, but this signing lead directly to our piss poor 35 sacks this year. Yes, the second baseman launched an easy double play ball into the outfield here. Big, BIG error... and not discussed enough.

All things considered, I complement the F.O. on this group. We got a LOT of bang for very little bucks.
Don't let the loudmouths scream too long or loud about OBJ or Berrios. Ultimately, they just didn't cost much.

Agree with nearly all of your analysis.

We should have kept Driscoll. Maybe Needham should have seen some time.

Otherwise, we nailed quite a few of these.

And the craziest part is that all of these players probably don’t add up to the $47m annually to Hunt and Wilkins.

And Hunt and Wilkins, as good as they were, would not have changed the ultimate outcome of this season.

 

[DANTODUPER]

I touched upon this in another thread and belatedly realized it needed it's own home.

Last year, we went into the Free Agency portion of the season with very little money, yet most touts thought we did quite well. Let's do a deep dive.

Home Runs:
1) Jonnu Smith just set a Dolphins record for TE TDs, and added in 88 catches for 884 yards, and we got all this for... chuckle... 2 years/8.4m. This may have been the single best FA deal in the NFL last year. Home run Hell... it was a grand slam. ...and best of all, at 29, Jonnu probably has 5 years left as TEs tend to play longer than most positions.
2) Aaron Brewer. 3 years/21m. Theft. PFF has him in the top 10, and he was a freaking glove fit for our zone-blocking scheme... and maybe best of all, he's the first Center we've had in years that wasn't an injury risk. Barton? Never heard of him.

Triples:
1) Jordyn Brooks. The best ILB we've had in several years. 3 years/26m. Not quite theft, but this was a very, very solidifying signing. He's 27.

Doubles:
1) Kendall Fuller. Signed to be a two year bridge player for 2 years/15m. He was solid as our CB2. Downside he only played 11 games, but pff rated him 66.2 which is in their green range. He wasn't a star, but we hadn't expected one for 7.5m.

Singles:
1) Benito Jones was our run-down DT this year. Absorbing double teams was his entire job. 1 year/1.8m. Cheap.
2) Da'Shawn Hand. Rotational snaps for 1.2m. Free.
3) Siran Neal. Special Teams player and depth DB. 1.9m. Cheap.
4) Anthony Walker. Played more than we expected. 1.3m. Free.
5) Tyrel Dodson. Waiver wire pickup mid-season. We paid about 1m for 8 games, 3 of them starts.
6) Robert Jones. 2m. As a starter, he would have been a decent bench player.
7) Robert Poyer. 2m. Wasn't good, but called out the assignments and worked really cheap.
8) Elijah Campbell. Depth player and special teams for 1.4m. Cheap depth.

Whiffs:
1) OBJ. Was never needed and ultimately released. 3m.
2) Braxton Berrios. Injured before we could cut him. 2.1m
3) River Cracraft. Borderline useless. 1.1. Vet minimum.
4) Isaiah Wynn. Mr. Glass. Sigh.
5) Jack Driscoll/Jonathan Harris/Neville Gallimore/Jody Fortson Got some guaranteed money in preseason, but didn't really hurt us.
6) Nik Needham/Salvon Ahmed. Vet minimum, PS players. No real problem here.

Error:
1) Shaq Barrett. This one HURT. We absolutely needed a vet Edge to cover for Chubb and Phillips and he ****ing bailed on us, depriving us of an opportunity to add a starter here. Ultimately, we probably didn't have to pay him, but this signing lead directly to our piss poor 35 sacks this year. Yes, the second baseman launched an easy double play ball into the outfield here. Big, BIG error... and not discussed enough.

All things considered, I complement the F.O. on this group. We got a LOT of bang for very little bucks.
Don't let the loudmouths scream too long or loud about OBJ or Berrios. Ultimately, they just didn't cost much.

How about letting Van Ginkel go, and paying bad players much more than what he got? How about thinking we had a competent QB backup? How about drafting Eichenberg and thinking he is a starter in the NFL? Long was a triple last year and this year he totally sucked. Poyer? Come on! There are LOTS of BIG failures by Grier. We have a team full of injury prone, declining or overvalued veterans. Why? Because Grier cant draft top players. We dont have depth, we dont have a cappable OL, we dont have a running game and our backup QB sucks. Why we cant compete against top teams even with a healthy Tua. The answer is we just dont have the talent to do it. We always defeat losers and are blown by contenders. Thats the story of our team with Grier. To have a chance at playing on the SB we need to be on another different level. That level wont happen with Grier.

 

[Atila]

What do you want to hear?

That he did a really good with the 2024 free agency considering the absolute **** position he left us in over the past couple years?

Yeah, I do agree with that. He did good in 2024 free agency. It doesn’t give him grace for anything and still left you with an 8-9 record.

Awesome.

 

[Feverdream]

We wanted to see if Tua and McDaniel were the guys. I think the result turned out inconclusive but we were talking about a 24 yo QB and a 39 yo coach. I think they failed forward. I think, specially w McDaniel, that you have to allow for a lot of development. Otherwise there was no reason you should have picked such a young and inexperienced guy.

He didn't even call plays in SF.

He helped design plays. He had held the OC title for one year.

Honestly having gone 11-6 at 40 last year buys him an instant HC job somewhere if we let him walk now. There aren't 32 better HCs than MM right now and there are specially few that also have 30 year careers ahead of them.

I think a lot of the sisters here are easily upset...

We made two major mistakes with the build of this team. Tua, and going all-in MUCH too quickly.

Now... I'm not sure whose fault that was. Was it Grier... was it the owner?

We'll never know, but I'll say this. We would have been better off if we'd drafted Herbert... and not made a series of trades that sapped our draft for three years. (Plus the tampering).

If that was Grier... then fire him, but if these choices were ownership, then Grier has done well despite his boss.