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Guys we gave up on too soon

I remember when he blew his knee going for the 2-pt prior to halftime at Minny. I think we were down 28-0 at one point and somehow the game came down to a late, surprise onside kick as Minny didn’t want to give the ball back to us. Don’t recall what happened to Kirby after that. He was a heck of a receiver out of the backfield. Not the most effective runner IIR.
I think he played for the 49’s for a season. But like most that had that injury back in them days he lost a step or two.
 
I knew someone was going to say this. Billy Turner is NOT a serviceable guard. He was a horsesh*t lineman who along with Dallas Thomas and Jamil Douglas (the turnstile triplets) who was way overdrafted because of his supposed "upside" As far as him being "serviceable" in Green Bay, that's a misnomer. He's probably the worst guy on that unit. He looks much better than what he is due to playing with other linemen like Bakhtiari.

I really hope we don't give up on Michael Deiter too soon. He got off to a rocky start but I see him projecting as being better than guys like Hunt or Kindley. I've said many times on this forum that he will be this year's Mike Gesicki... most improved player
My biggest fear about this year's draft class is that Robert Hunt turns out to be Billy Turner 2.0 with all-world body and great physical ability ... but bad technique and never can master it.
 
I'm sure everyone remembers this, but since I didn't see anyone write it, I'm going to state the obvious. Wes Welker was not traded. Don Shula said he should have had a higher round tender placed on him, but we placed a lower round tender (3rd round?) and the way FA worked then any team could put up a contract and the Dolphins could match it. So the Patriots wrote a "Poison Pill" contract--which is now illegal because of this theft of Welker.

Essentially, it provided extreme compensation for any game played in Florida and low compensation for any game played in Massachusetts, and since players are paid per game based on where the game is played, the money for THAT contract would be far cheaper for the Patriots and prohibitively expensive for the Dolphins. To "match" the contract in that version of FA, the Dolphins needed to provide EXACTLY the same contract will all of the same terms--not comparable ones. So, the Dolphins could not possibly match it because it would cost them far more money than it was costing the Patriots.

So, the Patriots used an underhanded trick to steal our player. Sure, the NFL made that illegal right after that, but it didn't change the fact that we lost a very good young player without any real compensation.

The real mistake the Dolphins made was not placing a higher round tender on Welker, and honestly and fairly believing that if he received a higher offer they would match it and keep him. Don Shula knew that was a risky move and was against it, but that's what we did. The now-illegal poison pill was the shady vehicle of choice for Belicheat to snag that player. I did laugh when Welker and Belichick had a falling out at the end and Welker needed to go elsewhere to seek big money.
 
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Was Don offering his opinion on Wes Welker, because I don't remember Don being in any sort of decision-making capacity with the Dolphins past his retirement at the end of the 1995 season.
 
Was Don offering his opinion on Wes Welker, because I don't remember Don being in any sort of decision-making capacity with the Dolphins past his retirement at the end of the 1995 season.
Yep, he was asked in the media about it before the poison pill and he went on about how when you have a good young player you need to make sure you hold onto him. He thought the original round tender was too low and it was a risky move to low ball the tender and hope to match it because we have no control over the terms of those contracts. Low an behold .... Belichick pounced.
 
Also remember this

According to the Boston Globe, the Patriots considered signing Welker to an offer sheet that the 'Fins wouldn't be able to match, but instead opted to offer it to a second- and seventh-round draft pick. Miami accepted.
It was a deal the Dolphins could not refuse. Nobody realizes how unproductive Welker was with the Dolphins. In two seasons, he caught a combined 79 passes and one touchdown.
That's it.
He was not a superstar for Miami. Their game plan did not suit his skill-set like the Patriots' has. How could the Dolphins turn down a second-round pick for a player with one touchdown in two seasons? It would be the equivalent of a team offering a second-round pick for a player like Brian Hartline (who has actually surpassed Welker's Dolphins stats already).
Just because Welker was a fan favorite and has enjoyed great success since leaving Miami does not mean it was a bad trade at the time. In fact, it was a pretty awesome deal.

Obviously this was written back when Hartline was on the team but it still makes a lot of sense to me.
 
Also remember this

According to the Boston Globe, the Patriots considered signing Welker to an offer sheet that the 'Fins wouldn't be able to match, but instead opted to offer it to a second- and seventh-round draft pick. Miami accepted.
It was a deal the Dolphins could not refuse. Nobody realizes how unproductive Welker was with the Dolphins. In two seasons, he caught a combined 79 passes and one touchdown.
That's it.
He was not a superstar for Miami. Their game plan did not suit his skill-set like the Patriots' has. How could the Dolphins turn down a second-round pick for a player with one touchdown in two seasons? It would be the equivalent of a team offering a second-round pick for a player like Brian Hartline (who has actually surpassed Welker's Dolphins stats already).
Just because Welker was a fan favorite and has enjoyed great success since leaving Miami does not mean it was a bad trade at the time. In fact, it was a pretty awesome deal.

Obviously this was written back when Hartline was on the team but it still makes a lot of sense to me.
Well watching Welker it was obvious he was extremely quick and had a knack for finding the soft spot in zones, and was a skilled open-field runner. But, he was young and obviously a bit undisciplined and rough around the edges. He was the typical young guy who flashed, but not yet the polished finished product. I was actually very high on him when this all happened, and was devastated when we let him be stolen by a divisional rival. Then disgusted and nauseated when he went on a very vocal anti-Dolphin rant phase for a few years. Still, I can't help but wonder how much of that was to convince his new teammates of his loyalty. And, I always wonder how things might have been different with him in a Dolphins uniform for all those years.
 
Also remember this

According to the Boston Globe, the Patriots considered signing Welker to an offer sheet that the 'Fins wouldn't be able to match, but instead opted to offer it to a second- and seventh-round draft pick. Miami accepted.
It was a deal the Dolphins could not refuse. Nobody realizes how unproductive Welker was with the Dolphins. In two seasons, he caught a combined 79 passes and one touchdown.
That's it.
He was not a superstar for Miami. Their game plan did not suit his skill-set like the Patriots' has. How could the Dolphins turn down a second-round pick for a player with one touchdown in two seasons? It would be the equivalent of a team offering a second-round pick for a player like Brian Hartline (who has actually surpassed Welker's Dolphins stats already).
Just because Welker was a fan favorite and has enjoyed great success since leaving Miami does not mean it was a bad trade at the time. In fact, it was a pretty awesome deal.

Obviously this was written back when Hartline was on the team but it still makes a lot of sense to me.

He was productive in special teams
 
Also remember this

According to the Boston Globe, the Patriots considered signing Welker to an offer sheet that the 'Fins wouldn't be able to match, but instead opted to offer it to a second- and seventh-round draft pick. Miami accepted.
It was a deal the Dolphins could not refuse. Nobody realizes how unproductive Welker was with the Dolphins. In two seasons, he caught a combined 79 passes and one touchdown.
That's it.
He was not a superstar for Miami. Their game plan did not suit his skill-set like the Patriots' has. How could the Dolphins turn down a second-round pick for a player with one touchdown in two seasons? It would be the equivalent of a team offering a second-round pick for a player like Brian Hartline (who has actually surpassed Welker's Dolphins stats already).
Just because Welker was a fan favorite and has enjoyed great success since leaving Miami does not mean it was a bad trade at the time. In fact, it was a pretty awesome deal.

Obviously this was written back when Hartline was on the team but it still makes a lot of sense to me.
That article isn’t accurate imo.. that kid was an easy projection To become exactly who he became, I was livid.
 
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That article isn’t accurate imo.. that kid was an easy projection To become exactly who he became, I was livid.

He was a good kick returner and showed potential as a slot guy but no one projected him to be the player he became
He scored 2 TD in 2 years here

If you did then kudos :up:
 
While I wouldn't put this at the top of the list, but is worth mentioning because no one else has mentioned it, I would say we gave up on Daunte Culpepper too early. We traded a 2nd round pick for him, knowing he wasn't healthy at the time, and he was gone the following season. On other teams after the injury, he wasn't the same qb, so maybe we made the right decision. Regardless, it seemed weird that they spent so much to get him, even going with him over Brees, only to give up on him one season here? Tannehill was on our team for about 7 seasons. So it just weird that in this particular instance we were so quick to move on from him.
 
I hear you but this is a little misleading. In ‘85 we had Duper, Clayton and Nat Moore still. We needed help on D. We traded Carter to Minny for a 2nd and the LB you referenced, then packaged the 2nd round pick w a no 1 and sent it to Tampa for Hugh Green. Green was probably the most disruptive LB in the game after Lawrence Taylor. And that’s saying something because there were so many disruptive LBs in that era - Rickey Jackson, Pat Swilling, Andre Tippet, Chip Banks etc. I thought it was an awesome trade as much as I loved Carter. Reality is we didn’t “need” Carter but we absolutely needed some stars on D. Green was one of the best defensive players in the game - and at times a game-wrecker.

So what happened? He played a partial season w us in ‘85 after being traded, then got off on a tear to start the ‘86 season. 4 sacks in 2.5 games. Yep, tore his knee in game 3 and was never close to the same player after that - he lost so much speed. Had he not gotten hurt, he and Offerdahl would have made a heck of a LB corps in the late 80’s and perhaps the difference between 8-8 and 10-6 a couple of times. Carter wouldn’t have helped us win more games IMO as we had no trouble scoring back then. It was getting scored on that we couldn’t stop.
Thanks..I didn't know the history of the trade. Good stuff. I just knew that he got hurt in that jets game and it sucked. Green and John Bosa if healthy would have really helped us. ugh. And we lost that jets game, and I think a bad call screwed us. I lived in PA and didn't to see many games. I use to have to watch steeler games and wait for the ten minute ticker score update. Which was never only a ten minute wait for the next update. Okay...I am rambling. But this era brings backs lots of memories. Dolphins digest really helped keep me informed.
 
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