This would be a hostile acquisition. Jerry Jones has already stated that Miles Austin will play for Dallas next year and nobody else. The RFA tag leaves the possibility open for Miami to engage in hostile poison pill tactics, but Miles Austin has to go along with it and right now if he's convinced that Dallas is committed to getting him a great long term contract, then I doubt he'd go along with the idea of a hostile RFA contract complete with poison pill clauses.
It would take a 1st and 3rd.
I just don't see this one year wonder argument. The guy looked like a very promising receiver even beforet his year and a few teams (Jets, Dolphins) would have strongly considered trading a 2nd round pick for him as an RFA. And that was BEFORE he broke out. So you can't tell me that this guy just came from nowhere.
I mean, you guys can come at me talking about Antonio Bryant, Braylon Edwards, Lee Evans, Chris Chambers and Drew Bennett.
None of those guys seem like appropriate comparisons. First off, Bryant, Edwards and Evans are all really talented players. If they haven't produced much of late it's because of the offenses they're mired in. With Braylon one big issue is a lack of commitment that people knew about even while he was having a breakout year. Antonio Bryant has similarly stood in his own way during his career, until he broke out, and right now the biggest reason he's not producing isn't attitude it's the fact that he had crap throwing him the ball in a tragic offense that fired its own offensive coordinator before the season even started. As for Lee Evans, he's absolutely a top quality guy. Give him some stability and ability at the QB position and I have no doubt he plays well on Sundays.
As for Chris Chambers, he was a perennial underachiever before he finally broke out and had a nice year. That's a fair bit different from a Mile Austin.
Drew Bennett is a more apt comparison. I would offer a few more, one being Germane Crowell, another being David Boston. But the big reason why Germane Crowell never followed up his ridiculous 1999 campaign is because of some big injuries. As for Drew Bennett, Miles Austin has a whole lot more physical ability than Drew. Physical ability is risk control, when it comes to guys that are potential one-year wonders. David Boston had physical ability, but similar to guys like Antonio Bryant and Braylon Edwards, attitude was a huge question mark and commitment to football as opposed to other things made him a high risk player. With Braylon Edwards one wonders if he wouldn't rather just be a male model and celeb and not play football at all. With David Boston, it was obvious he wanted to be a body builder, which was not conducive to being a good WR.
I'm not normally a proponent of offering 1st and 3rd round picks for anyone. But the bottom line is this is a poor draft for offense, and this is an uncapped year. That changes things. You can't sit here and pretend it doesn't change anything.
The Dolphins have let opportunity slip by them for a long time now, because they seem to always be convinced it's too risky on one basis or another. If you don't have talent, you're not going to do any better than what they did in 2008 and 2009. The main differences will be in scheduling, which will dictate whether we're a playoff pretender or a team just below .500.
