The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/1387054669332054023?s=21 (https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/1387054669332054023?s=21)

Salary dump, we save around $10 million and he'll be replaced with a rookie that could probably play just as well.  This might shake things up a little more at #6 though, and it justifies taking Sewell a bit more.  Or they could draft multiple centers and guards in the 2nd round and beyond.

Doesn't seem like a bad deal to make.

Off topic. When the fuck is Washington going to get a name. WFT? More like WTF? They should have just kept their name until they decided on a replacement. Washington Redskins Pigskins, see how easy that was? And only had to change 3 letters. Get on with it already...

He wasn't terrible but he definitely wasn't worth his salary either. This does open up some options for us too. We could've drafted Sewell anyway but now it makes a bit more sense. If we draft a center too, our line is set for years. It's not glamorous but the games are won in the trenches. I still don't think we pass on Pitts or Chase if they are available but if we go Sewell, say goodbye to drafting a top running back because we will draft one of the secondary receivers instead.

If he's available.  There's a good chance Cinci could take Sewell, and we could take Slater who is pretty good in his own right.

I don't think we are getting Slater unless we trade up because there is little chance we will be passing on Pitts or Chase if they are available. Like I said elsewhere, I am a big fan of moving up. Our whole free agency was basically depth signings so let's use our draft picks for the best players we can get. If we get 4 top starters, I don't care if our draft ends in the 2nd round. WR/RT/DE/Center. Get those and we don't need any other picks.

Hell, I would trade Xavier to Detroit for their 1st rounder if Flores was confident that Noah could take over.

I know a lot here are down on the Offensive Line guys that we drafted last year.  I think OL positions are definitely spots that take more than 1 year of experience to see what they are.  I think we drafted really well at OL last year.  I think the fact that the Dolphins traded Flowers is more than just a salary dump (although i do think that was a factor).  I think it also shows that the Dolphins also have confidence in the last year's rookie OL guys that they drafted.  I think in another year or two, Jackson, Kindley, and Hunt are all three going to be very solid. 

Solomon was definitely good, Hunt played quite well at RT the last half of the year and Jackson was always going to develop slower and we knew that when we drafted him. Hunt was always projected to be a Guard anyway due to his size and now he will eb this season. Tkaing everything into account, I thought they did a good job last year and expect improvement. Even if we draft 2 rookies at RT and Center, I still think they improve.

Looks like Miami is targeting Sewell now with this trade.  Which makes me wonder why they traded back from #3.  Now Cincy is in a position to fleece them.

The Dolphins could do a number of things, it doesn't mean they are targeting Sewell.  They could draft Sewell at #6 and take Bateman at #18.  They could draft Pitts/Chase at #6 and take Alex Leatherwood at #18, or trade up for Slater.  They could get another veteran OT FA to plug the hole for now.  They could keep Hunt at RT and draft another guard to go with the likely pick of a center in round 2.  They've left themselves open to a lot of different options.

Yeah, they aren't targeting Sewell but are probably more comfortable now drafting him if Pitts and Chase go 4 and 5. Atlanta isn't taking a QB, their only chance of not taking Pitts is if some team trades with them to take a QB.

I honestly have no idea what we are going to do and that's exciting and a bit nerve racking too. I am pretty sure we will be making moves on Draft Day though, whether trading up or down. I just hope we get starters from our first 4 picks, no projects or drafting players we are already set at like CB.

If the Dolphins draft another first round offensive lineman then Grier is admitting he failed. I know I'm in the minority here but I honestly don't see him doing that.

That's a bad take my friend.  None of the guys we drafted last year are going anywhere, we'd just make our offensive line stronger and phase out veterans guys.

How so? There are 5 line positions, he drafted 3 last year and those guys are all coming back this year. We tore down the whole team and had to rebuild almost every position. Now, if he drafts Sewell this year and in 2022 we take O-Line with our first rounder, then something went wrong.

Also, just to prepare you, we are very likely going to take a Center in Round 2.

According to "The Spun", the Dolphins are paying $6M of the $9M that Flowers will be paid this year.  So much for it being a salary dump.  Assuming that the report is true of course. 

It is my understanding that Washington has researched 2,478 potential names in an attempt to find one that doesn't offend anyone.  Each of the 2,478 potential names were offensive to at least one person.  So of course they can't use any of those.  It is damn near impossible to not offend someone these days. 

They can still have a Native American name but I don't see how they can have any sort of logo and not have people feign outrage. So, might as well just be the Washington Buffaloes or something lame.

That would be incredibly stupid and not at all worth it, so I'm hoping it isn't true and will wait on others to comment. Flowers was not worth his salary but he was definitely worth $3 Million. I didn't even know the NFL allowed teams to move cash around, thought that was just an MLB thing.

Leatherwood at 18?  I can name at least three more OTs that will go before him.  I'd grab an edge rusher at 18 and wait till the top of the second round to draft Leatherwood.  He will be there at 36

"The first bit of disconcerting news came from ESPN's Adam Schefter, citing agent Drew Rosenhaus, that the Dolphins agreed to give Flowers a $6 million bonus to facilitate the trade and Washington will pick up a $3 million tab to give Flowers $9 million guaranteed in 2021.

The end result for the Dolphins is a cap savings of $2 million for 2021, as explained by overthecap.com.

"Miami will have $8 million in dead money for Flowers — $6 million from this year's restructure and $2 million remaining from last year's signing bonus," Jason Fitzgerald wrote. "Flowers was going to count for $10 million on the cap for the Dolphins, so it will be about $2 million in savings this year on the cap and $3 million in cash."

When it comes to 2021, all the Dolphins would have been on the books for had they moved on from Flowers next offseason would have been $1 million in remaining signing bonus cap obligation."

What the hell did we just do? We accumulated dead money and saved basically no cash just to move a perfectly reasonable Guard? I'm going to need further details to see how this makes any sense. We didn't gain a damn thing, not even a salary dump.

Supposedly there was a swap of 2022 late round picks as well.  Maybe when that info comes out it will make a little more sense.  At least i hope so. 

We moved up 14 spots in the 7th round, which is basically the least amount you can give in a trade that the league would allow. I'm still waiting to hear more but as of right now, we put our team in worse shape for no real reason.

I'm seeing reports the move is an $8M cap savings.  Who knows?

I haven't seen any Miami Dolphin fan sites talk about money changing hands so I don't know at this point. Hope these were false rumors.

Miami will have $8 million in dead money for Flowers- $6 million from this years restructure and $2 million remaining from last years signing bonus. Flowers was going to count for $10 million on the cap for the Dolphins so it will be about $2 million in savings this year on the cap and $3 million in cash. This move now gives the Dolphins the extra cap room needed to sign their rookie class this summer.

...On the other hand you have to really like the Dolphins approach to admitting a mistake and finding a way to move on. $6 million on Flowers is better than $9 million for a player you do not want on the team. More often than not teams chase the sunk costs on these mistake signings and wind up spending even more on the cap by hoping things improve in the second year. In the studies we ran in the OTC Free Agency Guide it is usually year one that sees the best results for most players with declining production from that point forward so Miami is ahead of the curve with their strategy. That should be encouraging for Dolphins fans.

https://overthecap.com/dolphins-trade-ereck-flowers-to-washington/ (https://overthecap.com/dolphins-trade-ereck-flowers-to-washington/)

That's a positive way to look at it, but with what they are saving, they should've just kept him for depth. That's what it comes down to, was Flowers worth $2 Million? The answer is yes. I'm glad we don't hold onto bad players but we are basically admitting the whole 2020 Free Agent Class minus a player or two was a bust. That's not good either.

I don't see it that way.  I see it as veterans that held down the fort while younger guys progressed.

https://dolphinswire.usatoday.com/2021/04/28/no-the-dolphins-shouldnt-regret-outcome-of-2020-spending-spree/ (https://dolphinswire.usatoday.com/2021/04/28/no-the-dolphins-shouldnt-regret-outcome-of-2020-spending-spree/)

Kyle Crabbs
April 28, 2021 7:20 am
The Miami Dolphins reverted back to some poor habits with their decision to go on a free agency spending spree in 2020 — the team aggressively added talent in an effort to kickstart their rebuilding process and, sure enough, the Dolphins were able to double their win total in Year 2 under Brian Flores and continue to develop many of their young, promising talents.

But the shine on the team’s free agency class of 2020 has already worn completely off — because the Dolphins are cutting ties with their headline signings left and right just one year later. Miami cut RB Jordan Howard in season. In March, we learned that LB Kyle Van Noy would join him. DE Shaq Lawson was promptly traded to Houston. And now OG Ereck Flowers has been dealt as well.

In all, those four members of the Dolphins’ 2020 roster were paid over $45.5M for their services.


But despite that costly sum, the Dolphins shouldn’t feel a single ounce of regret for their decisions in the 2020 offseason. No team is ever going to bat 1.000 with their personnel decisions and for a then 5-11 Miami Dolphins team, kickstarting your rebuild by competing in free agency only further amplified how costly such an approach was going to be. But ultimately someone had to play left guard for the young 2020 Miami Dolphins. And if Miami wasn’t going to convince players to come into town for a realistic shot at a championship, financials inevitably had to play a part.

But here’s where the moves by GM Chris Grier are different than the moves past regimes have made — and why Miami should have no regrets:

Flowers is the first Dolphins player of the bunch to be traded and provide Miami with a major dead-cap figure for the 2021 season. Miami, in all, totals $13.5M in dead cap for 2021 as things currently stand. Half of that number ($6M) comes directly from Miami’s agreement to restructure Flowers with a signing bonus upon trading him to Washington to clear him off the books.

The Dolphins paid handsomely for talent, but they’re not helplessly clinging to contracts because they don’t have to fear the long-term cap ramifications of going a different direction. And the Dolphins got twice as many wins as they got in 2019 for their money — a total of 10 that in just about any other NFL season would have been good for a trip to the postseason.

There’s not much else you could have asked for in Year 2 of a rebuild, even if you had to spend big to get there.

^^^^^

The 2020 class was a bust but we did sign them with the ability to move on from them after one year, so that was very smart. It just sucks that so many of them underperformed. I guess that is why in 2021 we focused almost entirely on depth signings. You can whiff on a free agent class when you have cap space due to having so many rookies. Eventually, those rookies start making money and you can't bat .200 without it severely hurting your team.

2 out of 5 and a pretty big salary to boot is pretty bad FA class. I'm sure Ross is happy about that.  This is why I hated dropping in the draft like we are draft gurus or something. We pretty much suck at  trying to evaluate talent so we need to take the actual football player when we can rather than thinking we are more intelligent than others and going for the steal. Outside of drafting college superstar LTs which takes no talent we have a piss poor draft record in recent years and seem to be continuing that trend.  Our free agents have been even worse if that is possible.

If we lost out on Chase or Pitts for a 2023 1st rounder that might be in the high 20's, I'm not really pleased with that even if I feel Sewell is going to make a lot of things better.

But you're right, we don't have great track records with drafting or free agency so take the "sure thing" talent where you can. I don't think we will be picking this high any time soon unless we pull off another miracle trade. That's why I want us to go all in with this draft and use extra capital to move up. You can do well with a 4th rounder like we did last year but odds are the 2nd rounder will be better so move up.

At 3 we pretty much could have drafted anyone not named Trevor Lawrence. I still think we were dumb to trade out of that spot at this point in time. Pitts would have been such a great long term option for Tua. Watching him in Atlanta is going to hurt.

Y'all are the worst lmao.  Forget the extra first rounder we got, or the fact that we have the niners first rounder next season which I'll come out and say will be a better draft pick than our own. 

The only way Miami finishes ahead of SF next season is if Miami beats SF in the Super Bowl.  That's a bold call for this young Miami squad... ;)

We had to trade our 1st rounder next year to the Eagles to move up so we moved down to 6 and got a 2023 1st rounder that is very likely in the 20s and essentially a swap of next year's 1st rounders which I think could be a hidden gem depending on what the Niners do at QB. I am honestly more excited about that than the 2023 pick. Could be in the low 10's if they start a rookie QB the whole way and he has growing pains while in a tough division.

At the end of the day, we will be a much better team once the draft is over and good on Grier for doing well with acquiring draft capital but I didn't like the trade when we made it and I don't like it now. If it works out for the best, then awesome. I am already talking myself into Sewell and how awesome our line will be with him and hopefully the top center in Round 2.

Sooner or later we have to draft for the here and now. We've been drafting and bringing in free agents for the future .... all of which has been questionable results at best.

100%. We are 10-6 with a young team and a promising QB. You can't think about 2023 right now, every decision in this draft has to be for the 2021 team. Windows in the NFL are short for every team except whoever Brady is on. Strike now.

The best aspect of the SF trade is that extra first in 2023, and I'm glad they gave PHI a 2022 pick instead of that one.  That gives MIA two solid years to evaluate Tua, with some assets to move up in 2023 if need be.

The difference between Pitts, Chase, and Smith is not worth more than that extra first in 2023.  Not with the jury still being out on Tua.

I heard today that the Flowers trade has been in the works for several weeks and that Miami had been shopping him. The same person said that last years busts in the FA market is what kept the Dolphins pretty much silent this year. There is some internal concern this team is relying on so much youth so look for them to make moves and go after impact players to make up for that.

Impact players in the draft or trades? I can see that for the draft but impactful trades for players rarely happen in the NFL. I'd rather see us just move up a bunch and make all of our selections in the first 2 rounds. I don't care if our draft ends tomorrow night as long as we get quality players.

When Flowers was signed I thought it was an expensive mistake, and while he did play a lot better than I expected in the games I saw, I still thought he was the weakest point in our O-Line.

The news that we traded him away for not much (and that we shopped him around since the end of last season) should not be a huge shock - especially after we traded for D.J. Fluker (and previously Isaiah Wilson which didn't work out).

I just don't get why we paid so much to ship him out. He wasn't worth what we paid him but he was perfectly serviceable. We shouldn't have had to pay the majority of his 2021 salary.