Wish I could disagree, but I cannot. Gase is an excellent coach, but our roster is very flawed. We have good pieces, and even a nucleus on which to build. But, we have some huge holes still, and free agency frustrated me that we didn't address the right things.
Last year our OL proved better than anything Tannehill had in Miami before, but that was with Tunsil providing good LG play. With the Albert decision Tunsil vacates the LG position, and we didn't fill the hole. Bushrod was very bad last year, and I cut him some slack because he played through injury, but he's not good enough to start, and Larsen isn't much better. Both LG and RG are the spots we should have landed good FA's, allowing us to concentrate on the draft. On defense the only free agent moves I thought were necessary were re-upping Reshad and Kiko and adding Hayes. And even Reshad was a little overpaid. Branch didn't really earn the contract we gave him, IMHO. Timmons, while a definite upgrade, wasn't worth the money. It's not even the salary that gets me, it's that we guaranteed almost all of it for two years.
In the draft I'm hoping and expecting that we'll address LB and DE, despite those moves in free agency. But, we now have set ourselves up to have a worse OL than last year. Glad we re-signed Stills, but I'm still scratching my head about Julius Thomas. This is an epic TE draft class, and we look set to miss it for the future captain of the IR. Speaking of the Injured Reserve, I guess we're not cutting Koa Misi. There's another LB with a spotless record of INT's and forced fumbles ... because who needs takeaways anyway?
Kudos to Gase for all he and the staff did last year. Heck, we had one of the worst ranked defenses in the league and our DC got a head coaching job from John Elway for a team that is loaded with defensive talent and needs an offensive injection. While this year's team will be better at stopping the run, we may see a lot more games that look like last year's Baltimore Ravens game ... because none of our LB's can cover well, and this is a passing league. But, if our secondary stays healthy, we'll definitely be improved.
The mirrors may still be here, but the smoke has dissipated, and this year Gase is going to have to plug those holes or it could get ugly.
