The reason I like the Albert signing

[Fin_Frenzy_84]

Yes he has been banged up at times but missing 11 games in 6 seasons is not all that bad at all.

We needed someone dominant in pass protection (Tannehill sacked 58 times) and Albert was the best option and in order to get him we had to pay. Yes we did overpay but I am fine with that because a guy that only gave up 4 sacks in 555 chances and the fewest QB hurries last season is our new blind side to Tannehill. On top of the he is the best fit in our oline blocking scheme.

Even though he turns 30 soon, we can cut him after the third year so we wont have to worry about paying him when he is 34 or 35.

Now obviously most of our fans are not a fan of the deal so I will probably get bashed but please tell me how you guys do not like those pass protection numbers?

 

[BGtoKNfor6]

Well at minimum it's better than what we had there before today.

 

[Spesh]

Yes he has been banged up at times but missing 11 games in 6 seasons is not all that bad at all.

We need someone dominant in pass protection (Tannehill sacked 58 times) and Albert was the best option and in order to get him we had to pay. Yes we did overpay but I am fine with that because a guy that only gave up 4 sacks in 555 chances and the fewest QB hurries last season is our new blind side to Tannehill. On top of the he is the best fit in our oline blocking scheme.

Even though he turns 30 soon, we can cut him after the third year so we wont have to worry about paying him when he is 34 or 35.

Now obviously most of our fans are not a fan of the deal so I will probably get bashed but please tell me how you guys do not like those pass protection numbers?

Heres the thing about cutting peoples before their contracts are up: we then have to replace them.

Instead of fixing the problem in a single move, we now have to go back and re-fight this same battle in another few years. Its not like we didnt have the option to really fix this thing now, we just chose not to. Thats why people are exasperated and annoyed.

Also alarming is the level of "normal" people have seemingly accepted. When did everyone start believing that 5 year deals automatically equal 2 year deals? That cutting players years before their end date is acceptable? That there are no repercussions to ripping up deals? Was it after Jake Grove? Was it after Dansby? Jeff Ireland did a superior job jading fans, thats for sure. How about we sign very good players to reasonable contracts and then, you know, let them play out that contract. Just throwing that out there.

 

[Bingit]

What other options were there that would have been so great? Does anyone like what any of the other teams that needed a LT did? 35 Mill for Veldheer? Safford got nearly what Albert did. I don't know the details of what Monroe will be getting, but I know I would not have been happy with any of the other LT deals that went down today.

Instead of fixing the problem in a single move, we now have to go back and re-fight this same battle in another few years. Its not like we didnt have the option to really fix this thing now, we just chose not to. Thats why people are exasperated and annoyed.

Who exactly was that option?

 

[BGtoKNfor6]

How about we have a few good years of drafting? This teams draft track record is putrid. 80's bucs putrid.

 

[bird33]

its funny i read people saying we shouldve kept jake long last year and he has been much, much more injury prone compared to albert. from what we've had at lt the past 3 years no one and i mean no one should complain about the albert signing. yeah it was expensive but it was needed and an excellent move.

 

[BGtoKNfor6]

its funny i read people saying we shouldve kept jake long last year and he has been much, much more injury prone compared to albert. from what we've had at lt the past 3 years no one and i mean no one should complain about the albert signing. yeah it was expensive but it was needed and an excellent move.

I don't think a single rational dolphins fan on here is going to balk at the Alberts deal.

 

[PSU Cane]

I hate the deal. We overpaid an average NFL tackle while Eugene Monroe was sign for $10 million less. We are putting ourselves into some SERIOUS cap hell the next couple years with mediocre talent. Hickey needs to unf*** what Ireland did, not add to it. We could have used that money on a LT AND another position.

You overpay for talent to take that next step of a Super Bowl run....you do not overpay just to overpay. That is what Daniel Snyder and the Redskins have been doing for years that got them in trouble.

 

[BGtoKNfor6]

It's free agency, everyone overpays. Monroe didn't want to leave Baltimore. If we learned how to draft properly the past decade or more, we wouldn't be in this situation where we have to buy stop gap players.

 

[Fin_Frenzy_84]

I hate the deal. We overpaid an average NFL tackle while Eugene Monroe was sign for $10 million less. We are putting ourselves into some SERIOUS cap hell the next couple years with mediocre talent. Hickey needs to unf*** what Ireland did, not add to it. We could have used that money on a LT AND another position.

You overpay for talent to take that next step of a Super Bowl run....you do not overpay just to overpay. That is what Daniel Snyder and the Redskins have been doing for years that got them in trouble.

How is 4 sacks and fewest QB hurries given up average? His run game is slightly average but we still have more lineman to upgrade our run game. Blind side is supposed to be dominant in pass protection and Albert is!!! What part of that is average. Holy **** some of you guys complain way to much.

 

[PPPP]

I think everyone should have their own thread about Branden Albert

 

[Spesh]

What other options were there that would have been so great? Does anyone like what any of the other teams that needed a LT did? 35 Mill for Veldheer? Safford got nearly what Albert did. I don't know the details of what Monroe will be getting, but I know I would not have been happy with any of the other LT deals that went down today.

Who exactly was that option?

If your asking for the general numbers: Monroe received a 5 year, $37.5 million deal. How that breaks down, i dont know, but as hes 27 years old he has the potential to play at a fairly high level through the entirety of that deal.

Jared Veldheer(who was my personal choice) and Anthony Collins, on top of Monroe, were the other "top tier" tackles. Veldheer will be 27 and Collins will be 28. Those 3 players are in the prime of the careers and still have some great days in front of them. That they would all come cheaper(assuming Collins doesnt get some massive deal, a fair assumption seeing as how no one dropped huge money right off the bat) should have been even more incentive to go with one of them.
Albert, at 30 and with a suspect back, is on the decline. We've already seen his run blocking fall off, especially last season. Maybe Albert will beat the odds and his back will have no problems going forward. Perhaps he will be here until hes 35 and will make many more probowls. But history definitely is against him.

Albert might be the most productive player right now but its easy to assume he wont be for long. Perhaps even as soon as this season depending on how motivated he is after cashing in. Value matters, and we could have secured a very good tackle that would locked down that position for at least the next half a decade at a very reasonable cost. Instead we decided to gamble big. Many of us just dont see much upside with picking Albert.

Note, i left off Saffold. I consider him a guard. I have no explanation for his contract other then: its Oakland.

 

[PSU Cane]

How is 4 sacks and fewest QB hurries given up average? His run game is slightly average but we still have more lineman to upgrade our run game. Blind side is supposed to be dominant in pass protection and Albert is!!! What part of that is average. Holy **** some of you guys complain way to much.

I'm just grumpy today....no sleep. I guess it's not a horrible deal now that i've seen other deals out there for Saffold and others, i just think we overpay all the time and when i saw the Monroe deal i figured we did again. Im concerned about Albert though, both his play and his medical.....and his age. His play last year was not as good as his stats showed. KC ran the ball a lot, which helped, and his QB is very good at getting the ball out quick. Had Albert been blocking for other teams/QBs, his stats would not have been as good. He's an upgrade but i still think he's down a bit compared to other NFL left tackles, maybe mid pack, definitely not Top 10. Back injuries scare the hell out of me. I know, b/c i have one.

Other younger players out there might have been better, safer players for a longer time.....something we need at LT, stability.

 

[JakeMcAwful]

If your asking for the general numbers: Monroe received a 5 year, $37.5 million deal. How that breaks down, i dont know, but as hes 27 years old he has the potential to play at a fairly high level through the entirety of that deal.

Jared Veldheer(who was my personal choice) and Anthony Collins, on top of Monroe, were the other "top tier" tackles. Veldheer will be 27 and Collins will be 28. Those 3 players are in the prime of the careers and still have some great days in front of them. That they would all come cheaper(assuming Collins doesnt get some massive deal, a fair assumption seeing as how no one dropped huge money right off the bat) should have been even more incentive to go with one of them.
Albert, at 30 and with a suspect back, is on the decline. We've already seen his run blocking fall off, especially last season. Maybe Albert will beat the odds and his back will have no problems going forward. Perhaps he will be here until hes 35 and will make many more probowls. But history definitely is against him.

Albert might be the most productive player right now but its easy to assume he wont be for long. Perhaps even as soon as this season depending on how motivated he is after cashing in. Value matters, and we could have secured a very good tackle that would locked down that position for at least the next half a decade at a very reasonable cost. Instead we decided to gamble big. Many of us just dont see much upside with picking Albert.

Note, i left off Saffold. I consider him a guard. I have no explanation for his contract other then: its Oakland.

My issue with Monroe (purely financial) is that we would not have gotten him for the price the Ravens paid.. It would have been the same or larger than Alberts deal imo, and that's what scared off suitors. The only reason the ravens got him so cheap is the tackle market got cleaned out really quickly and all the high bidders got their guys, so he was left with the deal the ravens had put forward the week before.. I agree, he's the safer option - but financially it would have been equal or worse bringing him in (I would lean towards it being worse given how little action he got - potentially $10m/year).

As for Veldheer.. He's got his own injury problems and less of a proven track record than Albert. He showed huge promise in 2012 no doubt, and could return to that form - but there are the same questions with him as there are with Albert, health-wise. Given the state of our o-line, and how Hickeys career could very well depend on fixing it.. I think they go for the proven guy 100% of the time in this situation. That also goes for Anthony Collins, who is largely projection for high-end starting LT at this point.

I'm not saying I think Albert was the best option at the best price, I'm just trying to show why our FO could have come to this decision..

Edit - I agree with you on Saffold... Holy hell, $8.5m/year for an injury-prone guard?? Oakland.

 

[circumstances]

all the whining about how we're overpaying all the time, yet we had the 4th or 5th most cap room in the league. whatever you think ireland effed up that needed to be unfacked, it wasn't our salary cap position. you can't have it both ways either. you can't cry "stop using free agency to build the team" then say "he's 30 and he will only be here 2 or 3 years, why can't we sign a bunch of younger guys." which is it? we have to draft well and develop our own players. until then we have to spend money on free agents to hold down the positions until we get there. i could almost understand this incessant nonsense if we were strapped for money. almost.