Flowers traded to WFT for a swap of late round picks

[EDGECRUSHER]

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.

[EDGECRUSHER]

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. 

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.

[ArtieChokePhin]

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.

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

[EDGECRUSHER]

"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.

[Dolphster]

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. 

[EDGECRUSHER]

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.

[Phishfan]

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

[EDGECRUSHER]

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.

[Tenshot13]

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/

[EDGECRUSHER]

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/

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.

[Tenshot13]

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

[Tenshot13]

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.

[EDGECRUSHER]

^^^^^

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.

[CF DolFan]

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.

[EDGECRUSHER]

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.