I'm a big fan of Barry Jackson and very happy to have him reporting on the Dolphins, because he's honest, accurate and just plain good. I'm also an optimist, who has been accused of wearing aqua-colored glasses from time to time. But, I have to say, our defensive situation is worse than shown in that article.
The acquisition of Timmons and Allen does NOT make me feel better. OK, I am happy we added Mermaid-man Hayes despite his somewhat disturbing viewpoints. Hayes can play. He had as many sacks as our supposed pass rusher Branch, and Hayes is legitimately good against the run. But Timmons is over the hill. He was never good as a coverage LB, meaning he shouldn't play in the nickel. That's over 50% of the snaps where he will be exploited or out of the game ... and we guaranteed 11M of his 12M salary over two years. IMHO, that is the worst move of our free agency and it will bite us in the arse. Allen, cheap, we'll see.
Branch, well I understand rewarding a guy when he proves it in a prove it year contract. But, with a DL that includes double-teamed Wake and unblockable Suh giving you 1v1 on the blind side every passing down ... and you only get 5.5 sacks. Is that really proving it? Branch was also atrocious against the run. And we paid him more than Jabaal Sheard ... which to me seems like we overpaid.
Going into free agency everyone saw the draft talent, and every scout said the same things ... phenomenal talent at pass rusher both at LB and DE. Exceptionally deep LB class. Good DE class. Fantastically deep CB and S class. Possibly the best TE class of all times. And, very poor G and T class.
So, it seemed like a no-brainer, keep Albert and add 1 free agent guard, or move on from Albert and get 2 solid free agent guards. Because honestly, everything else is available in the draft. Then, take bargains, like Hayes, and re-sign our guys like Reshad Jones, Kenny Stills, and Jarvis Landry before his contract year. But we did too many other things. Yes, we did Hayes, Reshad and Stills deals, and those were all good (although we sure did pay a lot for an old safety who has a lot of years on his deal).
But before we back up the Brinks truck to a 30 year old LB who has dramatically declined the last two years and barfed on the field in Miami last year (Timmons), maybe we should have seen if we could get a LB in the draft? That's a very gettable position this year. So we signed one guy to play MLB who couldn't ever cover, and the last couple of years has lost his run defending prowess. Then we shored that up by re-signing Branch who was a very poor run defender and mediocre pass rusher. This is supposed to make me feel better?
Great TE draft, so instead, we added a super-injury-proned TE who doesn't block and quits on his team. Great LB draft, so instead we signed a guy well past his prime with obvious signs of decline. Good DE draft so we re-signed a guy who didn't stop the run and only got 5.5 sacks on a line with 2 guys that are arguably All-Pro. Terrible guard draft, so we double-down on the draft by now needing 2 starting guards. (Ted Larsen is not quality IMHO).
This is the sort of thing that made people rage about Tannenbaum in New York. Painting us into a corner to either A) bypass the exceptional edge rush, DB, LB and TE talent in this draft to pick two G's from a subpar class, or B) burn cap to stuff veterans in front of top talent we will draft on defense while we leave two gaping holes at guard preventing Ajayi from running up the middle and ensuring that Tannehill is constantly running for his life from A-gap pressure. Ummmmmm, this isn't very smart.
Yes, this approach has me frustrated.
