Armando - These are some ways the Miami Dolphins plan to tank in 2019

[CF DolFan]

If you haven't been paying attention this article may come as a bit of a surprise.  Armando has a great article in regards to the Dolphins plans  .... and before you say Armando doesn't know anything .... people like Joe Rose and Channing Crowder have been talking about this for a while. They have also spoken about how Armando has more connections on top and inside the organization than anyone. Of course Joe Rose is BSing as he is best friends with Marino and the others. 

Honestly ... I didn't think they would use the word "tanking" but Armando has said several people inside the know have used that word. Go figure.

https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/armando-salguero/article225285760.html

ATLANTA
BY ARMANDO SALGUERO

JANUARY 31, 2019 01:25 AM


These are some ways the Miami Dolphins plan to tank in 2019

The Miami Dolphins will not be trading for Nick Foles this spring.

The Miami Dolphins will not be signing Foles, a Super Bowl winning quarterback, if he becomes available in free agency.

The Dolphins aren’t planning on bringing Teddy Bridgewater, a Miami native and scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent, back to South Florida as the starting quarterback of their 2019 team.

The Dolphins aren’t planning on letting Ryan Tannehill remain as the starter in 2019, either, by the way. After seven years with the club, the people who run the organization, including owner Stephen Ross, are agreed they are moving on from Tannehill.

That Tannehill part is not news. That was decided toward the end of last season and reported first in this space on Dec. 23.

What is new, however, is how the break is likely to happen: While the Dolphins hope they can trade Tannehill, thereby getting some sort of draft compensation for the quarterback in return, the chances of that happening are not great.

Trading a player, you see, requires multiple parties to agree -- the team trading him, the team acquiring him, and the player himself.

And because Tannehill’s contract would have to be traded along with the quarterback, it limits the number of teams who would be willing to accept Tannehill because he would cost $18.7 million in base salary in 2019 and $19.5 million in 2020.

That bitter financial pill could be a hard one to swallow for a team that must give up draft pick compensation for player who has been solid but not outstanding as a starter and probably isn’t the kind of quarterback a team brings aboard as their new and unquestioned starter.

Tannehill and his representatives could relieve this issue by agreeing to renegotiate his contract with a new team, but that’s not their priority. Their priority is not to ease the burden of trading for Tannehill or help the Dolphins trade him.

Their priority is to have Tannehill pick where he plays to maximize his chances of succeeding.

So the more likely scenario for resolving Tannehill’s departure from Miami is an outright release of the player at some point in the offseason.

Tannehill, by the way, is expecting that release.

All this from sources around the NFL, within the Dolphins organization, and others familiar with the Dolphins’ plans.

All this as part of a tanking philosophy the Dolphins are about to embark on this offseason.


There have been doubts among fans the Dolphins -- or any NFL team -- could actually plan to tank. Don’t doubt it.

Multiple sources have confirmed that the words “tank,” or “tanking” were used during Miami’s recent round of head coach interviews. It did not come up in every interview. But it came up.

It was discussed.

About that tanking ... It needs to be defined.


Many Dolphins fans believe “tanking” to mean that the coaching staff, players, and everyone in the organization will do what is necessary to lose. That is an artificial approach the Dolphins are definitely not going to take.

The Dolphins aren’t going to throw games on purpose.

Miami’s approach to tanking will be organic.

The club will not dive into the deep end of the free agency pool in 2019, as I reported inartfully in my column Tuesday morning.

So every significant roster need the Dolphins have now -- offensive line, defensive line, cornerback, quarterback -- will not be filled with the best (highest-priced) player available at the position.

That is a departure for Miami.

Recall the Dolphins chased Ndamukong Suh as a free agent in 2015 and he was the best defensive lineman available.

Remember the Dolphins paid exorbitantly for receiver Mike Wallace in 2013’s free agency period.

They not only paid big money for but gave up multiple drafts picks for receiver Brandon Marshall in 2010.

And they chased the best inside linebacker on the market in Karlos Dansby that same offseason.

The Dolphins have been no strangers to purchasing free agents at Saks. They’re going to be thrift store shopping if (big if) they enter the free agency market in 2019.

And the type of free agent the Dolphins are likely to value is changing also.

Last year the team added running back Frank Gore, guard Josh Sitton, and re-signed defensive lineman William Hayes. All those players were over 30 years old. All those players finished the season on injured reserve.

The Dolphins are no longer expected to sign aging free agents who pose a greater possibility of getting injured.

The Dolphins are also going to be shedding talent from their roster this offseason. Yes, Tannehill. But there will be others, too.

And while sources are not agreed on what names will be either cut or traded, the profile of those players is the same:

Think veterans with higher priced contracts that have not exceeded the value of their deals.

That puts a target on players such as Robert Quinn ($12.9 million cap hit in 2019), Andre Branch ($9 million), Sitton ($7 million), and obviously DeVante Parker ($9.4 million).

So with all this news about who the Dolphins are not going to have and not going to sign, the logical question is who the team will have.

It’s simple.

Young players.

Cheaper players.

Players who can be part of better Miami Dolphins teams in better days perhaps two or three years from now.

The Dolphins will be doing all they can to stock up on draft choices for a future date.

That might mean trading down in multiple rounds of the coming draft to add extra picks either this year or next year.

That means filling needs now with the best players available in the draft so they can form a foundation for a great team in the future.

So offensive linemen.

Defensive linemen.

Foundation pieces.

And what about the quarterback position?

A source within the team said this week that Ross loves the idea of Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa being on the Dolphins if he’s available in the 2020 draft. The source said he heard Ross say so.

So the #TankforTua social media movement isn’t just a hashtag birthed as a joke.

It’s real, folks.

And if not Tagovailoa in 2020 then maybe someone better in either 2020 or 2021.

The point is the Dolphins expect to maximize their chances to get to players such as Tagovailoa or maybe Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence in the 2021 draft by losing in 2019 and securing a high enough draft position to be in position to make such high picks.


Is that tanking? Not in the sense the Dolphins will be planning to lose.

But it is tanking in the sense the Dolphins will put a team on the field for at least one year that may not be able to help but lose.

And who will be that sacrificial team’s quarterback?

One source joked this week the Dolphins will give Luke Falk, who was on injured reserve as a rookie in 2018, and recently signed Jake Rudock, a chance to show their abilities. One of those might actually start games for the Dolphins in the coming season.

There probably will be other quarterback possibilities explored as well. But the plan with that quarterback will be apparent. He’s going to join the long line of quarterbacks who followed Dan Marino after he retired in 2000.

But he’s probably not going to remind anyone of Marino’s talent in any significant way.

And when he plays, it will be apparent that he’s trying. But it will also be apparent the Dolphins are tanking.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Then I have a different definition of tanking. 

By this definition when Bill Belichick trades a current 3rd round pick for a next years 2nd round pick, he is tanking.  Or when he trades down four spots in the fourth round to pick up a 6th round pick next year he is tanking.  Or when he traded Seymour or Moss or let Lawyer Milloy go he was tanking. 

That is not tanking in my book that is not tanking, that is thinking long term, tanking is purposefully losing games for a better draft position.

[Pappy13]

Not only do I not consider this tanking, I consider it a fairly reasonable approach to the 2019 season. Now I'm not exactly sure how anyone is willing to coach under these conditions because it will be an absolutely HORRIBLE first year for the head coach and I would not wish that on my worst enemy. To me it also means that whichever head coach they bring in, he will most likely be gone in a year or 2. Maybe the candidates are aware of this and are OK with this. Heck it might be the reason that some coaches said no or even didn't want to be interviewed for the job. It might be a reasonable approach, but it's not the most ethical thing to do in my opinion and like people have already mentioned, the chances this actually works out for the Dolphins in the future is very small, but hey no matter what they do at this point the chances of the Dolphins being relevant in a relatively short period of time are small.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Now I'm not exactly sure how anyone is willing to coach under these conditions because it will be an absolutely HORRIBLE first year for the head coach and I would not wish that on my worst enemy. To me it also means that whichever head coach they bring in, he will most likely be gone in a year or 2.

I think the idea is Ross is saying two things: 1. If you ask me to use next years draft picks to trade up this year or ask me to use draft picks to trade for vets or spend big in FA that aint happening, don’t ask.

2. Even if you go 2-14 and then 5-11 you are still going to be the coach year 3 unless you have gotten off the 5 year plan and are advocating for a win now plan as opposed a to the long term plan.

[CF DolFan]

Then I have a different definition of tanking.  

By this definition when Bill Belichick trades a current 3rd round pick for a next years 2nd round pick, he is tanking.  Or when he trades down four spots in the fourth round to pick up a 6th round pick next year he is tanking.  Or when he traded Seymour or Moss or let Lawyer Milloy go he was tanking.  

That is not tanking in my book that is not tanking, that is thinking long term, tanking is purposefully losing games for a better draft position.

I agree. To me this is rebuilding. If it was just a player or two then I'd consider it doing good business but the truth is we have a lot of change coming in order to be relevant in the future.

Obviously the new head coach and offensive coach can't speak on specifics but in speaking with Miami reporters at the SB ... it looks like defensively we will be similar to the Patriots in that it will be a hybrid capable of being 4-3 or 3-4. You can base the players on that which means bigger LBers and a big arse nose guard.

The new offensive coordinator said he likes to mold the offense to the strength of the players he has and not the other way around. Considering he was next in line to be O-coordinator in New England it sounds very similar to how they do things.  

Head coach Brian Flores is a no nonsense religious man ... very similar to Jim Caldwell who consequently is mentoring him. OJ McDuffie has some great stories about Caldwell and how much respect he has from players. It seems Flores is very similar.

Our new offensive coordinator has been in waiting for that job in New England for a while. Have to think if he is good enough for Bill then he might just know what he is doing.

The more I hear about these two the more I think they may be much more than gap coaches. We will see.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

The new offensive coordinator said he likes to mold the offense to the strength of the players he has and not the other way around. Considering he was next in line to be O-coordinator in New England it sounds very similar to how they do things.  

.

As best as I can tell that is the opposite of the way BB leans.  Granted with every team it is a hybrid, but as I understand it BB’s approach is we have a system and then he seeks players that have the skills to execute his system and if they can’t he tries to replace them.  He won’t give someone an assignment they can’t complete but he doesn’t design his system around his players, he selects his players around his system. 

I actually prefer the design the system around the players rather than the players around the system, but that is not the Patriots way.

[masterfins]

95% of what Armando is calling tanking, is what I'd call rebuilding.  If the Dolphins don't bring in a halfway decent journeyman QB, and they trade away multiple talented players, THEN I would call it tanking.

[CF DolFan]

95% of what Armando is calling tanking, is what I'd call rebuilding.  If the Dolphins don't bring in a halfway decent journeyman QB, and they trade away multiple talented players, THEN I would call it tanking.

Won't get a halfway decent journeyman QB as that is not their future. It would take a bigger contract and they won't want to do that. Besides ... going 8-8 next year defeats what they are trying to do. They could do that with Tannehill and save the money.

Word on note ... Mike Florio said that Dan Marino wouldn't commit this week to saying Tanny will be gone and left room for his return under the new coach. I think he was just being politically correct but who knows for sure at this point.

[Tenshot13]

I have to keep reminding people that Ryan Fitzpatrick, probably the best journeyman QB out there, made 3-4 million last year...very affordable.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I have to keep reminding people that Ryan Fitzpatrick, probably the best journeyman QB out there, made 3-4 million last year...very affordable.

I think the Bucs got a bargain. Might be hard to get a similar deal on a similar quality player. 

[Tenshot13]

maybe since he had a good start to the season last year...He'll likely go for 5-10 mill this year.  If it's on the low or mid of that range, great.  If not, then no thanks.

[stinkfish]

Can the Dolphins just keep Tannehill for one more season? There are no QB's to draft this year, and why spend money on a guy for one year?

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

maybe since he had a good start to the season last year...He'll likely go for 5-10 mill this year.  If it's on the low or mid of that range, great.  If not, then no thanks.

That is a wide range.  5 million on qb this year makes sense. 10 million on a player not part of the long term plan....not so much.

[Tenshot13]

Yeah, that's the reason my for reasoning.  

[Pappy13]

2. Even if you go 2-14 and then 5-11 you are still going to be the coach year 3 unless you have gotten off the 5 year plan and are advocating for a win now plan as opposed a to the long term plan.

Problem with this is what if you go 2-14 year 1 and 3-13 year 2? You sticking with him in year 3? That's an EXTREMELY tough sell to your fans who just watched the team go 5-27 in 2 years. You'd have to see SIGNIFICANT improvement in year 2 to keep him or your are looking for another new head coach. And remember it's in year 2 when you are expecting to have your brand spanking new ROOKIE QB starting for you. Good luck with that.