Not too many outright surprises over the weekend, but a few moves that made us go “Hmmm.”
The first thing that caught my attention ( and I mildly disagree with this move) was that the Dolphins kept WR Matt Hazel. Management explained that Hazel played well in the pre-season and deserved the roster spot.
I agree that he played well. But so did Mike Hull. So did Mike Gillislee. And Sam Brenner. Playing well is expected. That should not give you a roster spot, especially at a position where we were already extremely deep.
We should have kept five. Six WRs is unheard of. Miami runs a lot of 4-wide sets. That means if one gets hurt, you go to the fifth WR. If another gets hurt, you put a TE in the WR slot. New England does that a lot with a certain TE named Gronk, and you tell me if he’s had any success.
Sorry Matt Hazel, but 6 WRs is simply too many, especially when we need more depth at other positions.
Like offensive line. Cutting Sam Brenner was a mistake. Paying a premium to keep him on the taxi squad was the best way to right that wrong. I’m glad Sam will be available to us when Albert’s knee or Fox’s head goes through its annual injury. Meanwhile, Samson Satelle did nothing wrong last year and he’s sitting out there for the taking.
Only keeping two tight ends could prove to be problematic, especially if an injury occurs. We have no fullback, so our TE lines up in the backfield a lot (remember Clay last year?). If a TE gets hurt, we’re suddenly down to one.
Jay Ajayi is one the mini-Injured-Reserve list, meaning he has to sit out half the season. Team doctors must have seen something serious in his broken rib. I give the staff credit for not putting Ajayi on fill IR. We don’t have a bruising RB, and we need one. If we can stay in contention for 8 games, then Jay Ajayi joining the team fresh could push us over the top.
Safety/Special teamer Don Jones was cut, and some in the media have called this a mistake. I would simply ask them if they can name ONE impactful play Jones ever had? He’s had three years to shine, and he never does. Sorry, Don. After we cut him the first time, he latched onto New England, who then cut him. We tried him again and then cut him again. I like the guy, but I do not think he’ll be missed.
Jordan Tripp falls into this category too. He’s kinda versatile, but has he ever produced? I can’t fault the Dolphins for cutting him. You sometimes have to release so-so players to see if the guy behind him will be exceptional.
Caleb Strurgis? I’ve never been a fan, and this Franks kid might just stick around. I heard he made a 64-yarder in practice. That’s important, because we know Philbin likes to try 60-plus-yard field goals when it’s 4th-and-inches.
I open it up to our fans: what do you guys think of our completed roster?
The important thing is that we kept a lot of those guys on the practice squad. Hull was one that we brought back. Would have liked to have also kept Tripp & Ced Thompson, & Luc but we are now at a point where we have good depth. It was time for Gillislee to go… Not sure why they didn’t keep Brenner over some of the other backup OLs like Linkenbach, McClendon, etc.
Overall no big disappointments. If Hickey believes in keeping the best players and one or two happen to be a WR then I’m fine with that. It’s kind of like taking the best available player in the draft… we need to keep the best players on the team. Are we thin at places like TE? One thing I admire about Belichekis that he makes it known that roster spots 50-53 are always interchangeable based upon need.
Dunno. Having an undrafted rookie at both kicker and punter has to come back to haunt us.
Brenner hasn’t done shit in his tenure here. Consistently gets beat. Why is Admins defending him?
Dunno that WR is “extremely deep” . If that were the case they never would’ve used a first rd draft choice at that position. We have a bunch but most are question marks as to how they’ll perform.