The OBJ Situation is Another Chris Grier Failure

The Miami Dolphins moved on from Odell Beckham Jr on Friday morning, and you can add this to the list of offseason moves Dolphins General Manager Chris Grier made that haven’t panned out in 2024.

When Miami signed Beckham in May, there was hope he could complement Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle as the third option in the passing game. However, for many reasons, it never worked out that way. 

The main reason is that when Miami signed Beckham, he was injured, which wasn’t public knowledge at the time. He had just played in 14 games in 2023 and appeared to be healthy for his age. Chris Grier, though, knew Beckham was not 100% and decided to roll the dice and sign him anyway.

It didn’t work out.

I know some fans and media talking heads will say it was a low-risk, high-reward deal, so who cares? It’s not a big deal. Wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong! It is a big deal because of where this Miami franchise was entering the 2024 season.

Miami entered the 2024 season with high hopes and expectations, coming off back-to-back playoff appearances. Knowing Miami’s wide receiver depth was poor, Chris Grier decided to take a risk with OBJ instead of getting someone more reliable.

Granted, they did get OBJ at a bargain, but there were other healthy options they could have signed at a similar price point who could have been more of a contributor this season.

This is par for the course with Grier’s failures as Miami’s general manager—just this offseason alone.

Signing Shaq Barrett and letting Barrett use the Jets against the Dolphins to get more money out of Miami. Only then for Barrett to retire on the eve of training camp. Did Grier not vet Barrett and check in to see where his mindset was at after going through a family trauma to see if his heart was into playing?

Then there is the case of Jordan Poyer, who is 33 years old, and Chris Grier, found as a suitable replacement for Brandon Jones and DeShon Elliott. The fact Buffalo let him walk without even making him an offer should have been a red flag. Some people believe he was only signed because Poyer is very close friends with Tua, so this was a move to appease Tua. We cannot confirm or deny that report.

Either way, Poyer has been one of the worst safety’s in the NFL in 2024 (yes, the NFL) and has hurt Miami’s defense more than helped it.

The decision to re-sign Isaiah Wynn is also head-scratching, to say the least. Wynn was injured on Miami’s watch in October of 2023. He was a free agent after the season, and Miami re-signed him. Many insiders and fans believed Wynn was healthy and would compete for his starting left guard position.

Once again, much like with Beckham, the media and fans were in the dark, and Wynn was still injured and a long way from returning to the field. Chris Grier re-signed him anyway, and Wynn hasn’t played a single down for the Dolphins in 2024.

Remember in free agency when Miami signed Teair Tart, Benito Jones, Jonathan Harris, Neville Gallimore, and Isaiah Mack to help fill the void left by Christian Wilkins and Raekwon Davis? Benito is still here, but he lost his starting job because he played so poorly the first 2 months of the season, and the rest of those names never made it to September.

My point is that Chris Grier had a miserable offseason, to say the least, and it has hurt the Dolphins. This is why the news of OBJ being let go is just part of the course.

Yes, signing Jonnu Smith has worked out, and signing Aaron Brewer worked out for the most part, but if you can only count two hits among countless misses, that is a poor offseason, and that is a general manager who is bad at his job.

Seasons are won and lost in the offseason and when we get to March and April 2025, the Dolphins organization needs Chris Grier to be better at his job for any hope for the team to be better on the field next season.