Dolphins Free Agency Grade

[GreenDolphinSt]

Mixing and matching from the poll options. Our talent overall stayed in the neutral range, but just grading this "semester" (this free agency period, not the past, and not drafting), and taking into account the cap situation going in, Grier and staff get an A.

 

[PhinFan1968]

As of now I'd say B, with plenty room for movement either direction before the season.

 

[DANTODUPER]

Big problem I see is that we are ignoring the OL again! And Grier just can’t draft talent on the OL. But I am hoping somehow we get better at the end of the preseason. Just don’t have faith to be honest.

 

[Jason Taylor (99)]

For me it's an A.

We have now a better Team than last year. I think Grier and our Head Coach and Coordinators are working hand in hand and sign Players, which are working perfectly in our system.

Our new Center Brewer is an okay/good player overall but perfect working in our zone running system. Little downgrad to C.Williams but massiv upgrade to Eichenberg.

K. Fuller play absolutly reliable and ist an perfect CB 2 with Ramsey as CB 1 and C. Smith as young and hungry CB 3. For Nickel/ Slot we have Needham and Kohou, both nice for the position. Better than last year with Howard as CB 2.

Poyer are old but gold. He is better as Elliot last year and with Holland we have a very football intelligent safety duo. Better as Elliot/Jones last year.

Brooks is an underrated ILB and for our new DC very important. He is a Tackling machine with a 180+ Tackling Season in the past. That's Z.Thomas vibes and an upgrade to Baker. Baker was a good blitzer but to soft and has not the IQ Level that you wish for an Leader and MLB. Walker is a nice and cheap addition to the group and better than D. Riley. With our new 3-4 defense (bigger D-Line and LB) the new ILB fit nicely. So upgrade to last year.

D-Line is interesting, because Wilkins was our best player but is not worth the Raiders contract. He plays very good against bad offense Lines and medicore against the top Lines. That is the difference to A.Donald, C.Jones the absolutely top DT in the league. So now with our new rotation and many new faces our D-Line ist not so bad as many think. We have Sieler, which is a perfect player in relation to his contract and good enough as our new big Time DT Player. So overall a little downgrade at D-Line but with the new System the LB, S, CB and Weaver as DC i think the Defense is much better next year. Much tougher and not so soft in Tackling. And that with the loss of Wilkins, Howard, Baker.

At Offense J. Smith is the new toy for McDaniel and much better as Gesicki from route running and blocking. So McDaniel has a plan for him and 500yards/8td is in place. Smythe is what he is, a good cheap blocking TE 2.

I hope we get G.Barton in the first Round. He is a Quenten Nelson LG for the next 10 years. So we get an Pro Bowler as gurad. Better then Hunt, he was a good player but same as Wilkins not so good as his new contract says. New system Center and new Guard in the Draft. When we play healthy the next season our O-Line and Offense play will be better than last year. I think McDaniels learn a lot about his play calling and plays better at Game Day the upcoming year.

So what you think to my overall opinion about our Free Agency and Offseason. For us stay positiv, than our window is not closed. Bills and Jets are not better than us and the Patriots are out in the Division for the next years.

 

[fansinceGWilson]

I agree, not a big poles voting guy so leaving that alone but I'm stoked we let the high priced FA's walk for comp picks and cap room and that we have addressed so many holes with serviceable if not better vets. Have to remember Grier's job is only harder since the two stud edge guys we do have are injured so we are basically having to re-address a position that had been or will eventually be covered again. For holes at edge, DL, LB, CB and safety, just on D, then OL, TE and WR on O, this is an incredible start IMO.

We still have the draft and although limited in picks do have coveted 1st and 2nd rounders. We then will hit FA period # 2 in June when we get the X money back and that is when we will likely extend Tua long-term (team friendly contract pls) and free up even more room. Roster is not close to done but I think we are in as good of a position as we could have hoped for as we get ready for '24.

Then you realize we have 11 or so picks in '25 (8 of those in top 5 rounds) and a bunch of cap space with many of the current additions being deals we can get out of next year, well, that's setting yourself up for a potential very strong run.

There, IMO, is the key to the grade. Fans can argue over individual players and upgrade/downgrade, but talent has been signed. Players seem to be better fits. AND, more draft picks and god cap management in coming years

 

[Danny]

hard to say....I like the players we've gotten for the most part and what it has costs us money wise....hard to see so many starters go though ....the hardest for me when it comes to the player plus the deal he got is AVG.....when you consider we gave Barnett something close to what AVG got, I'd have rather kept our guy but maybe he just wanted to leave?

 

[where's th'fish]

Unit by unit, our DBs are better. LBs probably better, too. Edge players, we are a bit worse. D line, much worse. Scheme, we'll have to see, but it could make an important difference, hopefully for good.

On offense TE is better, WR, QB and RB the same, and the O line is a lot worse. IF we can somehow solidify the line, I trust McDaniel to continue to improve this unit. But no line, no deal.

Overall Grier has done an admirable job with the cards he was dealt with... ahem, with the cards he dealt himself. However, the talent is clearly worse at this time. Results could still be better on the field, you never know. And last's year team underachieved, so maybe it's our turn to overachieve. And we could smash the draft!

Fingers crossed.

 

[1972forever]

Big problem I see is that we are ignoring the OL again! And Grier just can’t draft talent on the OL. But I am hoping somehow we get better at the end of the preseason. Just don’t have faith to be honest.

Grier drafted Hunt and Hunt is one of the top guards in the entire league. That is why he recently signed one of the biggest contracts in free agency.

While it took time for him to develop, Jackson certainly showed vast improvement last year and eventually signed a new contract with the Dolphins. Grier also drafted Jackson.

Grier was also responsible for signing Armstead and Williams for the OL and when they were healthy, they were two of the best players at there positions in the entire league.

Lamm played very well at guard before his injury last year.

The job of Grier is to draft and sign free agents or trade for players to upgrade the talent on the roster. The fact is when the Dolphins had their starting five offensive linemen on the field early last season, they had one of the top offensive lines in the league.

Unfortunately they had injuries on the OL throughout the season and that affected the play of this unit. Most teams have trouble finding five quality starters for their offensive line, much less backups who can come in and play at the level of the starter they replaced.

I think Grier did an outstanding job of building a quality starting offensive line last season. It was just bad luck that many of the starters were injured during the season and the backups weren’t as talented as the starters. That is just life in the NFL.

 

[Ray R]

I think that you've got to be realistic and admit we've "marginally declined" from what we had. So I voted C.

That was more/less inevitable though. And the Bills should decline a bit as well so we ought to easily remain in competition for the Division.

I think the secondary is looking great, even to the extent of being improved which is shocking but obviously the DL got worse by an equal measure losing Wilkins and Van Ginkel. Hopefully Shaq Barrett and Benito Jones fill in reasonably for a year. Those are definitely downgrades though. You just have to manage the losses and Grier did.

We still don't have a long-term replacement for Wilkins (yet).
We still need to re-sign Isaiah Wynn (which I assume is coming).
We still need to re-sign Kendall Lamm (which I assume is coming).

And we still haven't heard the terms of the Tua contract which are apparently beyond what we were expecting.

I think we can be cautiously optimistic but we certainly can't say we're 'all good' at this point.
> Interior OL is up in the air.
> We've downgraded from Wilkins.
> The Tua deal isn't done and it's probably coming in high.
> We couldn't find the $$$ to re-sign Van Ginkel.

So far, the only bright spots for me are Kendall Fuller and the fact we didn't over-spend on Wilkins & Hunt. Good Lord that would've hurt.

The rest is business as usual. I'm not overly excited about the TE Smith, the LB Brooks and have reservation on the C Brewer. None are all that great. They're okay pieces, the LB and TE more so. If you think any are coming in and revolutionizing anything, you're nuts.

Other than that's its all back-ups and rotational guys (i.e. Robert Jones, Needham, Neal, etc.). God help us if we're judging Grier by those moves. That's as "depth" as it gets.

I feel that many posters, along with other teams' fans" have a tendency to "over value" the teams better players, and it shows in all the poster voting "C".

 

[Ray R]

I went B. My first and last name start with B . Very scientific.

Thank God you weren't named BooBoo.
I guess that would have been OK, but ... - LOL

 

[Feverdream]

I think there is a real tendency among us to just continue stating whatever narrative that we've heard repeated... things like Grier just can't draft offensive linemen.

I mean, objectively, this just isn't true. He's had more hits than misses there, but people keep saying it, even though the success of Hunt and Jackson show that it isn't true.

Hell... Eichenberg wasn't awful, even though many just keep saying it. He's been mediocre... given us quite a few snaps ahead of typical FA types. Heck, he might improve just like Jackson did... and remember, one of the old narratives was that, "Jackson will never be any good".

 

[39wildman]

If Tua don't win playoff game. We can let him walk to.

 

[ThePeopleShow13]

I don't agree with the grade, but I do get your reasoning. I also agree that Miami is stronger at linebacker and in the secondary.

For those of us who have been talking about improving middle linebacker, Brooks could be that guy. It looks like a more physical linebacking group, which was needed.

Grier did a good job considering the salary cap mess, but I still believe smart teams find a way to keep players like Wilkins. Put it this way, I'd rather have Wilkins than Chubb so maybe that trade was questionable.

I do think the grade can change following the draft. Hopefully Grier kills it.

A smart team finds a way to resign a future HoF player still playing elite ball. The Chiefs could not afford to lose Chris Jones.

A smart team trades a player they know they can’t afford before they let them walk for a comp pick. The Chiefs traded Hill to us for a sizable return, put next to no effort into replacing him, and won back to back Super Bowls.

Wilkins is not, and never will be, an elite player (I only view a few players at each position as true game changers). The first season Sieler got the same number of snaps as him was last year (he had 44 less) and look at their stat line. Wilkins had 2 more tackles, 1 less sack, 1 less tackle for a loss, 2 less passes defended, 1 less INT, and 1 less defensive TD (the last 3 stats don’t mean much) than Sieler. No way that translates to getting paid 2.5 times as much as him.

TL;DR if we were “smart”, we would have traded Wilkins before the trade deadline last year for picks this year. Even a 2nd or 3rd would have been better than a pick in the 100s in 2025. Good teams have to make tough financial choices.

 

[Jamesw]

I’m at the B grade, but reallly incomplete. One sneaky good signing was DT Benito Jones. His experience with the Lions will really help him. He will prove to be an upgrade over R. Davis and potentially much more.

 

[BobDole]

I think there is a real tendency among us to just continue stating whatever narrative that we've heard repeated... things like Grier just can't draft offensive linemen.

I mean, objectively, this just isn't true. He's had more hits than misses there, but people keep saying it, even though the success of Hunt and Jackson show that it isn't true.

Hell... Eichenberg wasn't awful, even though many just keep saying it. He's been mediocre... given us quite a few snaps ahead of typical FA types. Heck, he might improve just like Jackson did... and remember, one of the old narratives was that, "Jackson will never be any good".

So who besides those players listed are we talking about exactly? You have a decade to choose from. You picked the only hits. Good for him for getting better but talk me through that incorrect narrative.

We can throw the FA in there as well. It's like people forget the fins were putting up all time worst oline numbers until very recently.

What am I missing here? I'm asking honestly.