A number of brothers have suggested that Grier's has either not been trying because he's been hamstrung by ownership, or alternately, he's just too dumb to know which players he should be signing... some of the theories have been vaguely conspiratorial.
So I wondered...
Who would you have signed that has already been signed by someone else? And be reasonable... we would have had to outbid the team he signed with... say 10-20% more, and that assumes the player you want isn't joining an old coach or going home (that'll cost extra). ...and as a bonus, who would you have restructured to pay for him.
Listening...
I'm a big proponent of the
"it's Ross" explanation because of what our problems have been.
I generally don't mind the low-key stuff which common sense tells us is coming from people below the Owner. I think most fans would agree. The small moves which the GM, HC and Scouts make possible really aren't what kill the Dolphins, in fact we generally love a lot of it. We often profit from our short-term / low-cost signings: Seiler, Mostert, Jonnu, etc.
We consistently turn up players who can play without signing big deals. We plug our holes surprisingly well. Moreover, we've been able to pull some really good talent from the top of the draft: Minkah, Wilkins, Tua, Ajax, Hunt, Waddle, Phillips, etc.
What I've had a problem with are the bigger
"strategic" decisions:
- Should we have traded away a stud LT in his prime for a couple of picks? Meh. Draft picks are hit-and-miss. Stud LTs are valuable pieces, good for any offense and any young QB. Bird in hand is probably worth
more than 2 in the bush.
- Should we have tanked our roster in '19 to the extent we did? I don't think so. Who else has done that and not ended up floundering? I understood it as a way to brute force our way into a QB but most of the top QBs were drafted naturally at positions all across R1, not just at the very top of R1: Allen at #7, Mahomes at #10, Jackson at #32, Hurts at #53, etc.
* Btw, the trend among QBs isn't that the best ones are taken at the top, rather that the most successful ones are those that are drafted by organizations that are generally stable and already quite strong. My survey a year ago showed that almost anyone who's anyone at QB in the NFL went to a team that was very recently in the Playoffs the year or 2 prior.
- Should we have begun our rebuild with a QB before the team itself was ready? It's generally dangerous.
- Should we have hired a HC that didn't see eye-to-eye with the entire strategy? It doesn't seem logical. Should he have been forced to work with a QB he didn't want? In hindsight, the facts don't make Flores seem like a sensible hire given the team's agenda.
- Should we have taken a more balanced approach to spending in the Flores era instead of concentrating on heavy
defensive contracts like Xavien Howard, Kyle Van Noy and Byron Jones? It seems so. Our best players on offense were Parker and Gesicki...not exactly luxury pieces for a young QB.
- Should we have acquired Tyreek Hill considering the picks and money it cost us? I would not have signed off on that considering he's a WR. It's ludicrous to do such a thing in today's NFL. He's a great player but I wouldn't try to build an entire offense around 1 superstar WR.
- Should we have broken the rules and tampered with Sean Payton? No. It cost us multiple picks. Or at least make sure to ink the deal if you cheat. The history of tampering, only to lose out on the guy seems common: Harbaugh, Watson, Payton, etc.
- Should we have traded for Bradley Chubb to help ensure we could make a run in '22 after Emmanuel Ogbah went on IR? I get the motivation but you've got to trust your internal pieces (e.g. Andrew Van Ginkel). Chubb is another good player who probably wasn't the best move for us to make in the long run. His cost and injury concerns just don't help us.
At the end of the day, I disagree with a lot of the philosophical, strategic and reactionary moves the team makes. Every few years we seem to decide that everything's wrong and we need to "fix everything" by uprooting what we're doing and completely re-starting with moves that take us in another direction.
First, we're about fixing our QB and our offense (Gase), then defense is our focus (Flores). Now we're back to being an offense-first franchise (McDaniel). At one point we're tanking but also about building a culture with tons of picks. Later, we're firing the HC who's supposed to be the source of that culture and we're off buying expensive pieces from around the NFL in FA/trade and our culture is very opposite of what Flores was installing which was much harsher on the players.
You can pick and choose because we've had everything. We've been the opposite of stable.
Nothing ever makes sense because nothing holds for more than 2-3 years at a time.
This doesn't point to a GM whose strategy is flawed. There are a million strategies going on at once...
which one is supposed to be Grier's?!
This pattern of behavior points to an Ownership group that gets its hands dirty by getting involved in the affairs of the team. It sounds like Jerry Jones and his Cowboys, doesn't it?
Sad reality is that Ross probably has the team he wants...one he can constantly manipulate.
you are hilarious