Dolphins Are Rebuilding, Not Tanking

Dolphins Are Rebuilding, Not Tanking

A few weeks ago, the Cleveland Browns traded away their best player, Myles Garrett, to the Los Angeles Rams, sending shock waves through the NFL and its fans. I was listening to the Colin Cowherd show to hear his take on the trade, and his co-host Jason McIntyre chimed in as well, saying the Browns are tanking like the Arizona Cardinals and the Miami Dolphins this year. 

Wait what? Are the dolphins tanking? 

I don’t agree with that statement. Yes, the Dolphins are blowing up their roster and taking on $180 million in dead cap space this year, but that doesn’t mean they are tanking. 

The Dolphins have a new GM, John Eric Sullivan, and a new HC, Jeff Hafley. Sully is inheriting a team that was in salary cap hell and stuck in mediocrity for a once proud franchise that hasn’t won a playoff game in 26 years. Sully is trying to get the team’s finances in order and, in the process, has to absorb the dead money against the cap and also lose some talented players. That left the team with really no wiggle room to spend on free agents, so he must accumulate draft picks because rookie contracts are cheaper and sign free agents at a low bargain price. 

Sure, I can see the people’s point of view on the outside that they are tanking with that, but if you look closer, they aren’t.  

The Dolphins have been stuck in mediocrity for years and have had front office regimes and coaches that have lacked vision for the long-term success of the team that hasn’t had that since Don Shula frankly. Instead, they held on too long to people like former GM Chris Grier, who had been with the franchise for 25 years and had been part of the problem with the team, especially the last 7 years, when he had final say in all football decisions. 

Owner Stephen Ross finally decided that he had had enough and actually looked outside the organization and brought in a new GM and HC together with the same vision, which is something that hasn’t happened in years. 

 The first move Sully made this off season was to sign QB Malik Willis for a 3-year $63 million dollar extension. You don’t make that move if you are tanking. Sure, there are questions about Willis as he only has 6 NFL starts in his 4-year career, but he has a powerful arm and athletic ability that have the potential to be the QB of the future.

Plus, Sully and Hafley have known him since his two years with the Green Bay Packers, where Sully and Hafley came from. Now Sully could have taken the easy route and not signed Willis due to the team’s salary cap situation, but he had conviction on Willis, which is something no other regime the Dolphins have had since Dan Marino left on a QB. He could have gone with Quinn Ewers or some other free agent. If you are tanking, the Dolphins don’t touch Willis. 

Sully did trade Jaylen Waddle to the Denver Broncos for a 1st and 3rd round pick in this year’s draft, and that fueled the speculation of the Dolphins tanking, but the Dolphins got the best value they could for Waddle, and frankly, he hasn’t become the player the team hoped for when they picked him number 6 in the 2021 NFL draft.

The Dolphins needed to get more picks because they had the fewest draft picks of any team in the NFL from 2022 to 2024, and consequently, not a lot of young players to develop long-term due to the team’s spending big contracts and trading premium draft picks for players like Tyreek Hill, Bradley Chubb, and Jalen Ramsey.

Sully worked his way up the ranks through the Packers organization, which believed in drafting and developing players, which is something this franchise hasn’t done a good job of consistently. When they did draft some good players, like Christian Wilkins, Robert Hunt, and Andrew Van Ginkel, those players weren’t given second contracts due to the team’s spending on players outside the organization, and it has bitten the team in the ass.  

Now, after the draft, the Dolphins got some cap relief from a couple of players they released with the June 1st designation, which spreads the cap hit. The Dolphins had $20 million, but most of that is for their 13-player draft class and practice squad players this year. However, Sully used some of it to re-sign a few remaining players he has identified as core, including running back De’Von Achane and center Aaron Brewer. 

If the Dolphins were tanking, Sully wouldn’t have given extensions to Achane or Brewer, especially Achane. Think about Achane, who is one of the most explosive running backs in the NFL, who can run and catch the ball out of the backfield and is a threat to score anytime he touches the ball.

Sully could have tried to trade him this year before the draft or waited things out in training camp to get the best deal possible before the trading deadline for one of the best backs in the league and a player entering his prime.

That’s the time to make the trade when the value is high, but Sully isn’t doing that. He identified right away that Achane and Brewer are foundational pieces of this team; if he didn’t feel that way, those deals wouldn’t get done. He also said the same about linebacker Jordan Brooks, who is entering the final year of his contract and is one of the team’s leaders. Sully is trying to get him to resign now. If you are thanking all good players, go, and that’s not the case. 

I know Sully and Hafley don’t want to say this team is rebuilding, but that is what it is. They are also saying they are going to try and win as many games as they can, which I believe, but the reality is this teams is going to have a lot of young players playing this year and because they got rid of so many talented players to get their finances in order, they are short on talent in a lot of areas, such as wide receiver and the secondary for example.

While the team will try to win games, their depth will be tested for sure. 

Sully said he wants to get this team into a better, healthier salary cap situation, which he is doing by absorbing big cap hits this year and next year. He also said that he wants to build a solid foundation from the inside out through the draft, which he is starting to do. Now the question is how these players will perform when the season starts and how they will develop. 

This year is about player development and not winning games. That doesn’t mean they are tanking. People need to look at things more objectively and look at the franchise more closely, rather than say they are tanking.