1. Keep your draft picks. This needs to be said right here, up top, in neon lights, to stop the recent-years insanity of trading picks for expensive (and good) veterans. Draft your own stars is the idea. The Dolphins are already without third- and fourth-round picks. They already have the least draft capital over a three-year period in league history. This compounds some of the aging and financial problems. And who to take with the first and second picks? Almost anyone who can step in and start from Day One — at cornerback, guard, tackle, tight end, third receiver. Wherever. This team needs good, young, inexpensive help desperately.
2. Re-do deals to save money. The Dolphins’ three most expensive contracts explain their trouble. Tyreek Hill and Jalen Ramsey are 30 next season. Bradley Chubb is 28 with a growing injury history. Using the accounting work of overthecap.com, the idea is to save $12 million off the cap by re-doing and extending Hill’s deal from a $31 million cap hit to $19 million. You can similarly save $18 million from Ramsey and $15 million from Chubb. But to understand the financial plank this franchise is on, consider these contracts in three years as they grow older (and more injured).
3. Keep chopping big salaries. General Manager Chris Grier made a couple of easy decisions for designated June 1 cuts in 31-year-old cornerback Xavien Howard to save $18.7 million and
little-used defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah to save $13.8 million. That spares tackle Terron Armstead, it seems. He should’ve been in line for a re-done deal to save money. He must’ve known it, too, because he played the I-may-retire card on the first day of off-season. He barely practices, is a game-to-game decision most of the season and won’t be better at 33, barring some medical miracle. To this end: Double tackle Kendall Lamm’s $1.3 million salary to try and keep him.
4. Don’t extend Tua Tagovailoa to a mega-quarterback deal and get him competition. He’s good. Can he be great? He’s made nice steps the past two years. Is another in him? The NFL’s models to win big are a great, expensive quarterback or a cheaper, good quarterback. Which one is Tagovailoa? And spare the talk of a “controversy” or “hurt feelings.” These are all big boys. Ask this: What team would pay him in the area of five-years, $255-million (with $179 million guaranteed) like Jalen Hurts got in Philadelphia after going to the Super Bowl last season. You make that commitment, he better be great.
5. The Christian Wilkins Mess. He’s everything you want. Homegrown. Talented. Hard-working. And smart? He bet on himself last year when the team didn’t meet his price. He won, too. The Dolphins could franchise-tag Wilkins for $22.1 million and keep him for a year, considering the window to win is now. Look at their plight, though. They’re investing a fortune in the defensive line. Consider new defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver coached seven defensive linemen at Baltimore last year whose total cost was $18.4 million — less than Wilkins would make on the tag. Baltimore made the AFC Championship Game, too. That’s how smart teams can afford an expensive quarterback. The Dolphins? If you transition-tag Wilkins in hopes of matching any offer, a smart team would front-load a deal to box you out. Bottom-line: You’d clear space to sign Wilkins in a normal winter. But nothing about this is normal so franchise-tag him and know he’ll ball out to break the free-agency bank next offseason.
6. Guard Rob Hunt or center Connor Williams? Is it really a binary issue — one of the other? Hunt is a great player and great personality. When Williams got hurt last year, your line was in trouble because Liam Eichenberg had never played center. But center is a deep position in free agency and the draft. Complicating matters is Williams’ knee injury probably means he misses part of next season. So, offer Hunt $10 million and find a good, less expensive center in the draft (Oregon’s Jake Powers-Johnson?) or a middle-class center in free agency (Tennessee’s Aaron Brewster?) If that doesn’t work, swap the idea with Williams and a guard. This is the best combo deal, not just one, and considering the importance will need some work.
