I mean it's pretty simple. The owner stated it flat out, right at the beginning, they're taking a step back in order to take a step forward. That's why Flores got a longer than usual deal. Chris Grier even let himself slip a little bit during draft run-up, when he was talking about how they have extra picks in 2020 in order to give them the flexibility to move up for a quarterback if they need to. He said something along the lines of, "We could even be as high as 8-8 and still have the flexibility we need."
That told me everything I needed to know about their mindset.
But they keep hammering that point home over and over in other ways.
- They converted present cap space into future draft picks (e.g. Ryan Tannehill, Robert Quinn).
- They rank #9 in the NFL with $23.7 million in 2019 cap space, and they have no intention of using it. They will be rolling it forward into future years.
- But even that #9 ranking is deceiving because they have been flushing salary cap accruals onto the 2019 balance sheet in order to INFLATE their cap number. In actuality, they have the lowest cash payroll in the NFL.
It's just pretty damn clear what they're doing. There are a lot of things they'd be doing if they cared at all about wins in 2019, but they don't. There are things they've done that you probably can't justify if you care about wins in 2019.
Most teams keep their eyes on the present AND the future. Right now the Dolphins are strictly about the future.