I already gave my ranking of C but I'll explain a bit more about my thinking here...
The majority of the moves Chris Grier has made were forced upon us. As I've said quite frequently, you cannot get credit for sticking players into holes your past decisions helped create. Two steps forward today does not count as improvement if you spent yesterday taking as many steps backwards.
The obvious pattern here are the 1-yr deals:
CB/ST - Siran Neal (29)
TE - Jody Fortson (28)
OG - Robert Jones (25)
DT - Neville Gallimore (27)
DT - Benito Jones (26)
LB - Anthony Walker Jr (28)
LB - Shaq Barrett (31)
S - Jordan Poyer (32)
To be totally clear, not a single one of the above mean anything to me. Some will see starting time (J-Poyer). A few will rotate (S-Barrett, B-Jones, N-Gallimore). We may even see R-Jones at some point.
But rest assured none of those are even worth discussing in the long-term picture. The old ones are about dead and the young ones ain't that good. Most are old and/or coming off injuries. Poyer will be 33 and has definitely lost a step and begun the injury decline. Heck, I can promise Fortsom won't make the team. He's 28. He's torn his Achilles and dislocated his shoulder. He's a permanent KC practice-squad dude with 123 yards receiving in 5 years of pro ball. He's a camp body.
Then you get to the 2-yr deals:
TE Jonnu Smith (28)
CB Kendall Fuller (29)
CB Nik Needham (27)
It's tempting to like these but use Nik Needham as the gauge here. Are you excited at his return? Okay, that's how excited you should be for Jonnu Smith.
Jonnu Smith is going into his 8th season and has played for 3 different teams over the last 4 years. He's pretty similar to Durham Smyth and Julian Hill in terms of overall size and averages 385-yds per season. He's not a big threat given his lack of explosiveness. He's an outlet on short routes and that's it. His best instinct seems to be that he gets his head around quickly and is QB-friendly. He knows how to play the position. The best thing you can say is that he'll be a reliable veteran player even though he lacks any real upside. I don't expect much production but he's more physical than Smythe.
Kendall Fuller has the upside you want in a starter. He's solid and reliable and finds a way up the rankings as a veteran who's healthy should. However, he was cheap because he's going into his 9th season. He's spent 6 years in Washington and 2 in KC. He's 29 at a position where at 30 there's often a wall and where the drop-off from "we like you" to "you can't play for us anymore" is usually pretty sudden.
Ideally, Fuller is someone we can lean on as a veteran over the next couple seasons while a younger replacement is found. He's not a CB we can expect to play over multiple contracts for us. Most likely, this is a 2-yr investment and we pray he continues to stay healthy although aging corners often fight nagging injuries. We saw it with X. We saw it with Ramsey. It's a known risk here as well with Fuller's age.
This is a good find, to be sure, but it's not a long-term solution and there's a reason he was cheap-ish. It keeps the need for boundary CB in play in the '25 draft, especially if the light doesn't come on for Cam Smith this year. It kicks the can down the road a year but we're going to be thinking about this position again in short order.
I like the move but it's not the end of the story. It's a stop-gap player, albeit a solid one.
Then you get to the 3-yr deals:
Jordyn Brooks is a leader. He's a tone-setter. He was a late-R1 pick in 2020 for a team with veteran LBs like Bobby Wager, Bruce Irvin and KJ Wright. That's a good group to learn from. He also came out of Texas Tech like another Dolphins LB we all know.
Although Brooks tore his ACL at the end of '22, he came back last year and looked alright. He may be the upgrade we wanted, especially at the price. He brings some size you lacked with Baker. Brooks is 2" shorter but 15-lbs heavier with a knack for good tackling (which Seattle is known for).
He's younger and has been as productive on his rookie deal as what Baker was over the last 6 years in Miami. Miami's defense lost some physicality up front with Wilkins leaving and hopefully Brooks helps bring that back.
This is a signing you can really smile about. Due to the age of the player, I probably like this more than Fuller at CB to be totally honest.
Aaron Brewer has given up the most sacks of any Center in the last 3 years. It's an issue. Yes, he's athletic enough to get to the 2nd level but he'll need to improve if he's to be any sort of asset for the Dolphins. Look, when you're young and you're a starter and you stay healthy for 2 seasons and you don't get a small-to-medium contract from the team that groomed you, there's a problem. Fact is, this was an UDFA and those guys often have certain kinds of upside and certain limitations that rarely go away (see Kohou).
The best thing that can be said about Brewer is that he's young (heading into year #5) and he's played 100% of the snaps for the Titans over the last 2 seasons since taking over as starter. But we're taking on the project that is Aaron Brewer. The Titans said 'no thanks' and now he's our project. We have good coaching but this is a gamble. And to be fair, I don't mind it.
What I'll say in defense of this signing is that with the players on this offense (and yes, that absolutely includes this QB) the Dolphins don't need elite linemen as much as they need healthy, reliable ones. If Brewer can stay healthy, he's an upgrade over the oft-injured Williams and the <stick insult here> Liam Eichenberg.
Summary
To look at this group of acquisitions and be excited is fooling yourself. These guys will help get us through 2024 but few will be anything like long-term solutions. The best of this group is maybe here in 2026. We're filling holes and we're doing it without attaching ourselves to anybody long-term. That's really the story here.
We're definitely going to use 2024 to reset and hopefully be in better position in '25 and '26 but that's clearly going to come from re-signing our own pieces and hitting on more in the draft. That's now been made absolutely obvious. This signals that Ross & Grier are again in lock step and that no one's "on the hot seat."
Hopefully we compete but if you're picking from the options, we clearly got a little worse and we're clearly hoping for a little good fortune along the way if 2024 is going to amount to much for us. Maybe we luck into a Division Title for once?
