NFL
By: Rick
In an offseason that featured the firings of Sean McDermott and John Harbaugh, and Mike Tomlin stepping down as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, we have to wonder whether the Miami Dolphins made the right call in hiring Jeff Hafley. It’s a head-scratcher to fans who wanted big names such as Gruden or Harbaugh.
There are plenty of people who want to keep Mike McDaniel and see what he could do with either a new QB or by developing Quinn Ewers a bit more. There are half a dozen avenues Stephen Ross and company could have explored. Yet, they landed on the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator, Jeff Hafley.
No matter what the Dolphins do, there will be a side of the fandom that they cannot please. None of that actually matters. In theory, it does. Obviously, a coach matters to the team. His philosophies and culture will set the tone for game day. However, if the Miami Dolphins can’t change their offseason approach, no matter who’s running the show, they’ll continue to underperform.
It wasn’t too long ago that the Miami Dolphins had a ton of cap space and a handful of picks to shape their roster. They were stingy with money at first and traded some star power for wiggle room on draft day. The problem is that they chose to try to hit the fast-forward button and abandon their approach. They swung big with trades such as Tyreek Hill and Bradley Chubb. Don’t get it wrong: those two players improved their positions, but it didn’t mesh with their draft strategy. Miami would constantly gamble and reach for players while also limiting its draft picks.
The Dolphins have five picks in the top 100 of this year’s NFL Draft. They need to hit a home run on every single one of them. At least three of those picks need to be day one starters. Additionally, five need to make immediate contributions. That’s their biggest setback. The previous administration would draft players that they felt would eventually be stars.
The Dolphins can’t afford to keep using top-tier picks on players to develop. They need guys who are NFL-ready. No disrespect to the players, but from day one, all you heard about guys such as Chop Robinson or Jaelen Phillips was that they’d eventually be stars for this team. They did/still are developing.
Yet the Dolphins did them no favors. They knew all along they had talent. Furthermore, they knew their talent would take time to show on the field. However, with the moves they made, these players were never going to reach their potential. With Miami having a stretch in which they drafted only 8 players in two years, they never filled their roster with talent. The players they did have had to be rushed into immediate-impact roles.
That sounds a lot like what they need this offseason, but this year could be different. Miami often underrdrafts players, leaving them to shuffle the pool of undrafted free agents to compensate. Plenty of those players made an impact for the team, but again, their roles were rushed due to need. The Miami Dolphins need a better strategy in their first wave of free agency. They need to get solid players in the draft with all eight of their picks. Furthermore, they need to find a UDFA who can be developed.
There was no problem with the players the Miami Dolphins selected, signed, or traded for. No, it was their “good enough” approach that almost seemed as if they were trying to do the bare minimum to get by that kept the team from growing. There were never enough picks, too few players to fill too many holes, and slowed growth based on immediate need.
If they can stockpile players who can contribute and grow together, then each person’s role doesn’t have to be perfect. The previous approach would’ve worked if we lived in a perfect world and everything worked out perfectly. Too bad the NFL isn’t a perfect world, and the Dolphins can’t afford to keep gambling that often. New GM John-Eric Sullivan and HC Jeff Hafley need to bring in as much talent as they can muster under their current cap and take fewer risks. Their predecessors didn’t leave them much wiggle room.
