Dolphins Dollars & Sense In FA?

[So Be]

I have to agree, I made a similar post on this same topic. Hickey may be trying to change what we had, and bring in "his" players. I love Grimes but youth and health is key. Would be nice to bring him back, but anything is possible, and Verner was great last year.

I'm wondering about the high priced interest Grimes will find in FA with Talib, Cromarte, Verner, Shields, VD, and others out there?

 

[phinfan40353]

There is something that you won't get from stats and that's cohesiveness. When you lose that many guys at once you kind of get left with a team that has no identity. Soliai is a big locker room guy. Clemons was the leader in the backfield. Grimes was a stand out vet who is said to have taken the younger guys like Davis and Taylor under his wing. These would be tough losses and to think you can just plug that many new starters into a team and have the same or better success is not a sure thing. In one offseason we could lose the defense, which is our strength.

I was getting ready to post a similar thought. We let leaders leave via FA last year because Mr. Philbin didn't like them as leaders. The leaders we lost on offense were replaced by snot nosed kids who ran the ship into the ground. Have we learned nothing?

It might be a numbers game when your deciding on the final roster spots with your CAP and value. But the leaders of your team have earned a certain amount of their salary by leading, setting examples and being coaches on the field and in the locker room. This enables the disconnected coaches to run into their offices and take phone calls from their wives and girl friends and do everything BUT coach.

Simply looking at cap numbers and cutting this player or that player oversimplifies the intricate planning and orchestrating that is required to build a winning football team. When someone doesn't do their job, the guy beside them must do it and then he suffers from not being able to do his to the best of his ability. Eventually, enough links in the chain are stressed and it breaks.

I'm sure there are vets in that locker room that will not let this happen again if given the chance. It may call for them to step over their side of the ball to lead the team, but I guarantee if we cut our defensive leaders and pieces that are working to save a few dollars we will blow up this entire team.

A leader's value does not get recorded in the stats. It gets recorded in W's.

Baltimore without the aging Ed Reed, Boldin and Ray Lewis got much younger and much worse. How can 3 old guys be the difference in missing the playoffs and winning the Super Bowl? Leadership and Inspiration.

Lewis coming back to rally the troops at the end of the season and into the playoffs galvanized that team into being all that it could be and more. They didn't win because they were the best team, they won because they were resolved to not lose.

When coaches are intimidated and insecure because of their on field player leadership, you really don't have coaches.



One final thought, you can compare Soliai, Starks and Grimes or other potential FAs on D and say they didn't play like they earned their money last year... or that they can be replaced with younger talent and you would be overlooking the fact that an inept offense with no running game makes everyone on defense look bad. Take any defense in the NFL and leave them on the field long enough every game and they will look pedestrian. Many parts of your defensive ability rely on healthy and rested players. Specifically Run D.