Oops...Hindsight is 20/20...Donovan Darius to be traded? | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Oops...Hindsight is 20/20...Donovan Darius to be traded?

ckparrothead

ckparrothead

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http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/041204/jag_15321101.shtml

My thinking on this one is back before we actually cut Brock Marion I thought to myself (and aloud, to everyone through the boards) that we can't afford two slow safeties...and I wouldnt shed a tear in my beer if we actually cut both Brock Marion and Sammy Knight.

But I figured if we had to get rid of one of them, because I'm sentimental (and because I really really like SS candidate Bob Sanders in the draft) that we should keep Marion cuz of what he's done for us, and draft someone to eventually replace Sammy Knight.

Obviously, the front office disagreed with me. They cut Marion, and for a second, we heard Wannstedt talk about possibly giving Knight an extension. Its completely understandable tho, not something I will claim they did wrong because I understand the thinking behind it. Marion was probably a better FS for us than Knight was a SS for us, however they are both slow, we can't afford to keep two slow safeties, and Knight for now is cheaper, and a whole lot younger than Brock Marion. It was a judgement call.

But now, Donovan Darius goes on sale for a 1st DAY pick....which our 3rd rounder would ostensibly satisfy. He's a franchise player at strong safety, and if you ask me who is more worth the longterm contract Darius or Sammy Knight, I would tell you Donovan Darius. You also ask me would I rather draft a Stu Schweigert in the 3rd (or go for Sean Jones or Matt Ware possibly in the FIRST round) or would I rather have had a safety combination of Brock Marion and Donovan Darius, minus our 3rd round pick, and I would probably have chosen the latter...

But thats just me.

Once again I'm not accusing the front office of making a mistake, or acting rashly or anything, I'm just saying with hindsight being 20/20 and now all the sudden Darius being on the market, if I had it to do all over again I would have cut Sam Knight, kept Brock Marion, traded a 3rd for Donovan Darius and signed him longterm, then drafted someone as Marion's eventual replacement (someone of the Yeremiah Bell caliber, just to get into the mix) and maybe go ahead and grab an Antuan Edwards to try and get into the mix.

What would you do if you knew then what you know now? How about opening it up on all our moves?

If you knew Jeff Garcia would definitely be available, would you have pulled the trigger on Feeley?

If you knew we could get Darius for a 3rd rounder, would you have have cut Marion instead of Knight?

If you knew that Sam Madison would cave in on contract negotiations and that a CB like Dunta Robinson might be available at our pick #20, would you have signed CB Reggie Howard?

If you knew we would have a fairly decent shot at WR Mike Williams, or WR Reggie Williams in this year's draft, would you have traded for Dave Boston?

If you knew that OT Shawn Andrews actually DOES have a decent chance of falling to pick #20, would you have gone after guys like St Clair and McIntosh?
 
Its not like Darius would only cost a 3rd round pick...the guy is good and knows it. He wants a contract on par with the top safties in the league, which over the past few years has risen considerably.
 
Garcia is 34 and clearly on a downward spiral so nope.

Darrius will be a pretty expensive safety both money wise and pick wise so nope there too.(why have a really high priced safety and have to pay a pick for him when we already have a great SS in Knight)

Would Madison have caved had Howard not been signed? And what about Madison's age and Surtains knees?? Good to have a younger guy that can start if needed, not to mention further down the road.

Bostons question marks arent all that different from the question marks u'd have with any wr coming outta the draft so might as well go with a guy that has the experience.

Again never know how a draft pick will turn out, and having too many tackles would be a problem??? After last year i dont think so.


So far Spielman has done a pretty good job, sure theres question marks, but in any new season ur goin to have question marks. The oline is the biggest worry on the team by far. How that will turn out who knows.
 
I knew Garcia was going to be on the market, and I still would have picked up Feeley. Garcia is too old and too hurt to be any good to us. I would have traded for Boston for what we gave up for him...heck yeah. Signing a veteran like McIntosh, doesn't preclude us drafting someone like Andrews if available, so I don't know where you are going there.

Darius is good, but I am comfortable with Knight and Freeman/Edwards back there. I think we won't really drop off too far from Marion with that combo. Besides, I am sick of losing draft picks, just once I would like to have consecutive picks in rounds 1-3. We won't even have that next year either.
 
Alright but I do believe we should not assume Pat Surtain's knees will prevent him from having a long and fruitful career. He's not shown any signs of slipping whatsoever, in fact IMO he has gotten better in each and every single year he's been in the league. He was even better in 2003 than he was in 2002. That report about his degenerative knees came out on WQAM from sources who have spouted similar bs in the past, and the team and Surtain both immediately denied the rumor. Surtain said it was news to him when he read it. Since then the team has made every commitment to Surtain including restructuring his contract in a way that makes it harder for us to cut him, and now this offseason they are publically looking to extend his deal again. These are not things the FO would be doing if they knew his knee was a ticking timebomb and his days are numbered. And you have to admit, its much more likely that the TEAM has the accurate story behind Surtain's knees, rather than Mad Dog or Hammerin Hank.
 
It seems like year in and year out our FO budgets out a 2nd round pick to use to acquire veteran help. That seems like a philosophy thing. I honestly don't know if its right or wrong but I think the 2nd round bar might be too high...it should be a yearly budgeted 3rd round pick, with it being a 2nd rounder in some years if the deal is too sweet, but usually a 3rd rounder in other years. As it is in some acquisitions we raise it to the first rounder, and in others we lower it to a 3rd...but a 2nd rounder is our average giveaway.
 
I trust Rick in what he's doing and I think he'll take us all the way.

Ozzy rules!!
 
I think we're set at Safety. Rick's done a very good this season. Time to concentrate on the o-line, linebacker, and DT.
 
I would still cut Marion. It is time for some young blood at safty.

I don't know why people want Garcia so much. He is an aging quarterback who has gotten worse every year with a great wide reciever in TO.

I don't think you should count on someone being there in the draft. I think you should sign the players you need without thinking about the draft. Unless you have a pick in the first 5.

Boston has done something none of the players in the draft has done yet. Have success in the nfl. Some of their best years will not be as good as Boston's first. Which ones? I do not know. However chances of every wide reciever making a big impact is small.
 
I dont want to be too critical because I understand what Rick has been doing, but when PFT came out with that story about Wayne Huizenga putting the weasel in the chicken run by opening up the criticism, well lets just say when they pointed out how in the wake of the Marino 'thing' it can be argued that we started a series of jumping-the-gun type maneuvers...it hit a chord.

As we see it, Huizenga's comments confirm that management is feeling a high degree of pressure and frustration after several years of solid starts and missed opportunities. Adding to the sense of urgency was the embarrassing hire-and-quit of Dan Marino, which followed a prolonged in-house beauty contest that placed much of the front office's positions at risk before Huizenga correctly decided to hand the reins to G.M. Rick Spielman.



But the damage perhaps already had been done. The process of deciding whether coach Dave Wannstedt (and his staff) and Spielman (and his staff) would remain employed likely created a sense of desperation that possibly has prevented the team from making sound decisions during free agency.



For example, the Dolphins pounced on A.J. Feely before Jeff Garcia's fate was decided in San Fran. Also, the departure of tackle Todd Wade and the swing-and-miss for tackle John Tait arguably prompted reactive signings of John St. Clair and Damien McIntosh, whose $21 million deal initially was delayed because he couldn't pass the physical.



Reggie Howard arguably was overpaid to replace cornerback Sam Madison, before Madison unexpectedly agreed to take a pay cut.



And the addition of controversial receiver David Boston underscores the notion that the Dolphins are willing to take big risks in order to achieve even bigger rewards in 2004. If Boston performs and behaves, the team could get to the postseason, and perhaps make a deep run into January. If he doesn't, the whole thing could collapse.
Click to expand...

I know most of you do not like what PFT has to say and hey thats understandable. But it doesn't preclude them from having a point every now and then. It seems to me like some of our moves have been on the wilder side basically hedging against getting screwed like we did last year in the draft with the whole failing to trade up for Foster, Steinbach, or Harris. Thats an undercurrent that I don't believe gets talked about too much. Last year, not many realize because of what happened with getting Eddie Moore, and us passing on Boldin...the main faux pas of last offseason was failing to take care of the tackle position. First we tried to get Wayne Gandy but we got outbid by New Orleans who offered a lot more than we did. Then for the rest of free agency, even though we didn't have a first rounder, I think the FO just kind of sat on its haunches and concentrated elsewhere...feeling that we could take care of backup OT in the draft. We would trade up and get a guy who could work at trying to beat Dixon in camp, and when Dixon gets hurt (as he always does) then the rookie gets some playing time in.

What ended up happening was the worst possible scenario, as we got absolutely stone-walled by teams when we tried to trade up high enough to pick up Kwame Harris, George Foster, or Eric Steinbach. So we had to go with an underrated guy we liked in the 3rd round, Wade Smith...and we gave up a future 2nd rounder to do it. We knew Wade was not in anywhere near NFL shape to start a season as a rookie, but then to add insult to injury Dixon goes down for what looks like it'll be a month or two, and ends up being the full year.

So we got burned. And yeah, it could have cost us a run at the super bowl...because at 10-6 we were real close. Now it seems like we're going on a rampage signing insurance policies like St Clair, Damion McIntosh, and now Greg Randall...Antuan Edwards...Reggie Howard...AJ Feeley...etc. A lot of those moves seem like insurance policy type maneuvers.

But I can't blame Spielman. We did get burned bad last year on the OT issue.
 
I'm not convinced that RS has made the moves to put us into the next level yet, (draft, June 1 FA), but he has added a lot of depth to the DBs, WRs, QB, and OL. We have had a run of injuries in certain areas that have devastated us the last 3 years...in particular, last year it was the OL...Obviously McI, St. Clr, Randall, Whitley are better backups than we have had the last few years in the OL. One of or all may end up starting for various reasons...But I don't see desperation in the FO. It looks more to me like a plan. Have we missed on some bigger names, yeah, but we have not lost out completely like last year with the LT situation. The one thing I like most about what RS has done is he has added depth...DBs, WRs, OL, QB all have better depth than the last few years, and we haven't gotten to the draft yet....We need added depth in the DL and LBs but I'm sure that will also be addressed either in the draft or in June 1 FA...I like what he's done so far....
 
I feel RS so far has done really well with what he had to work with.
 
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