Why would we draft a RT when we gave a big contract to McIntosh and we sign St. Claire?
Because that "big contract" we gave to McIntosh wasn't as big as you think. People look at the $23 million mark. I say you almost never pay attention to total amount of money in a contract. You pay attention to the signing bonus. It is the clearest indicator of the team's commitment to the player, and how valuable they view him.
I believe McIntosh's signing bonus was only $300k. In other words, back before they knew anything about his ankle problem (which he was hiding from us) yeah we were going to sign him with the idea that doing so covers out RT position for years to come...therefore no Andrews.
But then the ankle problem showed up. And so we gave him a $300k bonus. We could cut him in training camp and suffer basically no consequences on the cap next year (I would say this year too but I dont know what the stipulations are on injury settlements when its an injury that the guy had before he signed with us).
This is something I think Boomer keeps making the mistake of not paying much attention to in his write-ups. We only went on to sign a contract with McIntosh after finding out about the ankle problem for 2 reasons. One, is that it would have been another of a fair string of embarrassments because we signed the original contract BEFORE the actual physical results and requests for information were all in...we would have probably had an arbitration case on our hands between McIntosh's agent and the team, and overall it would have looked very bad in the wake of the Marino snafu. Signing him to a contract anyway basically shut McIntosh and his agent up about the whole jumping the gun issue.
The 2nd reason we did it is just as an insurance policy in case we do not manage to get a guy in the draft, or as an outright shot in the dark. You roll the dice enough, and you'll eventually pull in the lucky 7. McIntosh at the reduced signing bonus represented an opportunity for the front office to toss the dice, and if they get a good toss then wow what a great move, and if they come up snake eyes, then big deal they didn't give up much. Very similar to what they did with David Boston.
In fact, here's what I'm thinking on this one:
John Tait signed the offer sheet with the Bears on March 5th.
Immediately the Dolphins play host to tackles Orlando Brown and Damion McIntosh on March 6th.
Dolphins reached an agreement with McIntosh sometime around March 7th and 8th.
Dolphins got late word from the Raiders about McIntosh's ankle on March 8th.
March 9th Spielman is refuting the SD Times report that the Dolphins and Chargers are in trade discussions about David Boston. From that
Coincidence? You know I honestly would not be surprised if IMMEDIATELY after finding out about McIntosh's ankle, the phins called San Diego to find out if they knew about it, find out the extent of it etc, and in that conversation I bet is when David Boston's name got brought up for the first time.
What I think happened is our first round draft strategy changed basically the day we found out McIntosh has an ankle injury that he'll be rehabbing for 4 to 6 months...and this is why we went for a bigtime receiver like David Boston. We would have gone for a first round WR, but instead after losing out on Tait, then McIntosh in succession, we changed our strategy from trying to go WR to trying to go for Shawn Andrews or Vernon Carey.
After that we went on a rampage signing and looking at insurance policies in case Andrews doesnt fall or he's not able to perform as a rookie, in the form of G/T types like Bobbie Williams, John St. Clair, Greg Randall, and most recently Solomon Page. Damion McIntosh I feel belongs in that category. He's an insurance policy shot in the dark roll of the dice that we are not counting on.
And this is why most draftniks have us itching to get Andrews.
