Price For Production - How Messed Up is Miami's Roster?

[Aqua4Ever04]

I realize the title sounds doom-and-gloom, and I don't think that's where Miami is, but my goodness we have some weird contracts on the books.

I went through, position-by-position, and looked at where Miami has all of it's money tied up, and how it compares to the rest of the league.

Spoiler, our roster is oddly constructed.

https://www.lockedondolphins.com/price-for-production/

The flaws in the Dolphins general roster construction are apparent. In 2016, Miami tied up more money than the league average at quarterback, tight end, defensive line, linebacker and safety. Quarterback is a unique circumstance given the injury to starter, Ryan Tannehill. The QB figure goes back into the “green” when Jay Cutler inevitably comes off the books.

 

[jazz015]

I hold the sentiment that Mike T will cripple the dolphins for his poor spending/trades. Guy just doesn't understand and won't attempt to. I wouldn't be surprised if Ross sided with Gase and got rid of him

 

[finmann]

I guess he figures that it's not his money so what the hell, but in all seriousness Mike T has to stop overspending and build this roster from the draft while bringing in young reasonably price FAs.

 

[FSU Truth]

I guess he figures that it's not his money so what the hell, but in all seriousness Mike T has to stop overspending and build this roster from the draft while bringing in young reasonably price FAs.

Except we suck at drafting...hence the money spent on Free Agents...

 

[Avigatorx]

He touches on it towards the end of the article, alot of the discrepancy you see is due to where our youth is.

The reason our safeties carry a higher salary than our corners is because we have vets at safety, while our starting CBs are on rookie contracts. That is actually a good thing, because as they develop they will garner higher contracts. If Tank and Howard keep improving they will likely command a MUCH higher salary when it comes time to negotiate a new contract.

I have issues with the safety position other than their salary. TJM and Jones are probably worth what they are getting, problem is, I cant stand the interchangeable safety mentality. We need a free safety, not multiple strong safeties.

DL is obvious. We have alot of vets on BIG contracts there. If Goddchauex, Harris and Malvaeux pan out we will be moving in the right direction there, but guys like Suh, Branch, and Wake are gonna need to take pay cuts if we are going to be able to move forward building this team.

Ditto for LB, we have aging vets as stopgap players until we can get our LB core where it needs to be. McMillan is part 1, hopefully we can get part 2 in the draft.

On offense the same is true. We are lucky to have youth at RB and WR, but as we are seeing, some of that youth (Landry) is coming due for a payday. Decision time.

QB is also obvious and already touched on. We paid 3 vet QBs this year...Tanny, Cutler, and Moore. None of them cheap. We need to infuse youth here as well. Fales isnt the guy and neither is Doughty. Sure, we can save money by keeping Doughty as our backup, but I think we all know why this is a bad decision.

TE again, over paid, over the hill vets. They eat up cap space like nobody's business.

Oline is low because we pick up other people's trash and combine it with our own trash to create a completely new kind of trash. That and we have some high picks still on rookie contracts (Although that is about to end with James this year at RT.)

We are a team in transition, hopefully this offseason will start clearing things up for us.

 

[finmann]

Except we suck at drafting...hence the money spent on Free Agents...

Yes, but hopefully Gase will turn this awful trend around. Not drafting well has to become something of the past and I think it will.

 

[Avigatorx]

Except we suck at drafting...hence the money spent on Free Agents...

At some positions I think we drafted very well. Some speak for themselves unfortunately.

I think we hit big at RB, first with Ajayi, but also with Drake.

At WR we definitely hit on Landry, but Parker is still a question mark.

So far, we may have hit the motherlode at CB. Howard really turned it up late in the year and I think Tank will continue to progress. These guys should be our boundary corners for years to come.

On the Dline Goddchaux looks promising, Malvauex and Harris could make it great.

We just have big problems drafting O line. This needs to change, or maybe we havent been so inept at finding the talent in the draft, just inept at coaching them up. New oline coach might be all we needed.

 

[NBP81]

He touches on it towards the end of the article, alot of the discrepancy you see is due to where our youth is.

The reason our safeties carry a higher salary than our corners is because we have vets at safety, while our starting CBs are on rookie contracts. That is actually a good thing, because as they develop they will garner higher contracts. If Tank and Howard keep improving they will likely command a MUCH higher salary when it comes time to negotiate a new contract.

I have issues with the safety position other than their salary. TJM and Jones are probably worth what they are getting, problem is, I cant stand the interchangeable safety mentality. We need a free safety, not multiple strong safeties.

DL is obvious. We have alot of vets on BIG contracts there. If Goddchauex, Harris and Malvaeux pan out we will be moving in the right direction there, but guys like Suh, Branch, and Wake are gonna need to take pay cuts if we are going to be able to move forward building this team.

Ditto for LB, we have aging vets as stopgap players until we can get our LB core where it needs to be. McMillan is part 1, hopefully we can get part 2 in the draft.

On offense the same is true. We are lucky to have youth at RB and WR, but as we are seeing, some of that youth (Landry) is coming due for a payday. Decision time.

QB is also obvious and already touched on. We paid 3 vet QBs this year...Tanny, Cutler, and Moore. None of them cheap. We need to infuse youth here as well. Fales isnt the guy and neither is Doughty. Sure, we can save money by keeping Doughty as our backup, but I think we all know why this is a bad decision.

TE again, over paid, over the hill vets. They eat up cap space like nobody's business.

Oline is low because we pick up other people's trash and combine it with our own trash to create a completely new kind of trash. That and we have some high picks still on rookie contracts (Although that is about to end with James this year at RT.)

We are a team in transition, hopefully this offseason will start clearing things up for us.

Came here to say pretty much this, but you did a much better job than I would have...

 

[39wildman]

the dolpins have a 7-9 to wildcard roster. all depend on qb play in 2018

 

[johngarryvo]

start with paying a DT $120m for 4sacks or less a season. stupid and very messed up.

forgot to mention the 'now gimpy' average-to-marginal qb at $88m.

 

[TarHeelFinFan]

The roster is out of whack in terms of financial priorities. Too much money on Suh, Branch, Stills, Kiko, Pouncey. Suh is elite, but for what we pay him, we could get an adequate DT plus half a starting defense. Stills as a good #2 receiver makes average #1 receiver money. Branch, Kiko, and Pouncey are overpaid bums.

 

[39wildman]

The roster is out of whack in terms of financial priorities. Too much money on Suh, Branch, Stills, Kiko, Pouncey. Suh is elite, but for what we pay him, we could get an adequate DT plus half a starting defense. Stills as a good #2 receiver makes low #1 receiver money. Branch, Kiko, and Pouncey are overpaid bums.add thill17 on it as well

 

[TarHeelFinFan]

Tannehill is paid like an average QB (he is 15th in pay). He is at least an average QB and so his pay is not out of line with what he brings to the team. The only QBs appreciably better than Tannehill that get less than him are on rookie contracts.

 

[39wildman]

if thill17 getting 17.5 m a yr just to be avg. you cannot be mad at other guy. that want get paid too. we need draft better. every player want get paid. that why they work hard in nfl.

 

[TarHeelFinFan]

if thill17 getting 17.5 m a yr just to be avg. you cannot be mad at other guy. that want get paid too. we need draft better. every player want get paid. that why they work hard in nfl.

The point is, the QB position is expensive. For an average veteran QB, Tannehill is actually probably slightly underpaid. It is the advantage of us having signed him to a long-term contract early that also gives us a number of outs. We have other positions that need the resources more than QB right now. Philly won because their OL is ridiculous. Foles wasn't touched by the Pats last night and their RB's averaged 6 yards a carry because they had semi-truck sized holes to run through.

Neither the Pats nor the Eagles pay their QBs in the top 10 of the league (in fact neither did either of the other conference championship game participants did either). The Pats because Brady accepts mediocre pay to allow the franchise to allocate pay to make the team better and Philly because Foles entered the season as a backup (and Wentz is on a rookie contract).

The lesson is that you cannot sink all of your resources into the QB position. You have to build a championship caliber team, and have an affordable QB to run it.