Thanks to reader Sean for first alerting me to this trade as it occurred on Sunday.
The Dolphins became the second team in as many years to give up on Shaq Lawson. I think Lawson was adequate, but he was the stud DE we were hoping for. By the way, I call him a DE. There is no such thing as an “Edge” like all the millenials like to call a defensive end nowadays! 🙂
So in the course of a week, the Dolphins cut a starting linebacker in Kyle Van Noy and a pass-rushing DE in Lawson. McKinney had some pro bowl years in the past, but has been limited lately. trading “similar” players for each other is not uncommon. My best guess is that Brian Flores saw a little more versatility in McKinney.
The Dolphins also signed a new punter form the Panthers. This probably means Matt Haack will be cut soon. Haack was good. He seemed to specialize in pinning teams inside their own 10 or 20. He was great at lofting a ball so the defenders could get under it and prevent it from going into the endzone. BUT…and here is a point I made very often during our season chats…he was not good when we needed him to boom the ball. He rarely changed field position. When you punt from your own 20, you don’t have to worry about placing the ball inside the opponent’s 10 yardline. You just drill the ball as far as you can, and this is where Haack was at his weakest. He was a finesse punter and not a power punter.
Still, let’s see how this plays out.
All this and Davon Godchaux going to the patsies….🤦♂️
And Fitzmagic going to Washington Football Club.
Hate seeing Fitz go… he was so huge for Tua and for the team but I am happy for him personally to land a role where he at least has a chance to be the starter for another year while they try to find a long term starter.
Yeah, I’m surprised to see Godchaux go to the Pats, as they are in a major rebuild, their coach is a tyrant, their city is cold and gloomy, with extremely high state income tax, etc.
It HAD to be all about the money. For the past decade, we all understood why people wanted to go play for the Pats and win titles. Those days are long gone.
Unfortunately for us and the rest of the AFC East the Pats are suddenly going on a spending spree. But we will see how it all plays out…. Miami used to do this kind of spending all the time and it didn’t get us very far. The key though, is you have to have a very strong nucleus that you can just fill in around. Guess Bill realized he didn’t have that anymore and also didn’t like the “was it Brady or Bill” debate getting a big vote in the Brady direction last season.
With big names flying fast, what does everyone think Miami needs to come away with? Overall in the off-season Miami DESPERATELY needs play-makers on offense, and center, and guys that can get after the QB. So you need to come away with two upper tier receivers (note I didn’t necessarily say WR), a workhorse RB (or at least a guy that compliment Gaskin well enough that they can have an effective RB by committee), and call it whatever you want but a DE/OLB guy that can wreak havoc in the backfield of the opponent.
But with all the draft picks we have it will be interesting to see how they play it. If, for example we get a guy like Curtis Samuel that can stretch the field and create separation I could see going after a Kyle Pitts. But if we get one someone like JuJu who is a great #2 and can work inside…. we still need an alpha dog WR on the outside and need to go after Chase or Smith. That still leaves us plenty of picks to go after some of those other needs (you can get the top C in the draft usually in the 2nd round for example). But ideally so we can pick the best player available I would love to get at least one of those receivers and “edge rusher” in FA to give us more flexibility in the draft. Thoughts?
The lack of any big Dolphins splash in the early hour of free agency is very uninspiring and underwhelming. However, it’s not neccessarily a bad thing.
I’m putting faith in our coaches, and hope they know what’s best. Jetisoning a champion-caliber LB in Van Noy, a potential stud pass rusher in Lawson, and letting Godchaux and Grugier-Hill just walk away without no compensation? That is FOUR starters we need to fill. We got one back in McKinney, so that leaves 3. A lot of work still to go, and we don’t seem too interested in signing any new FAs. Seems like they are planning to replenish vi the draft. Let’s hope the new rookies learn fast and produce fast!
And really I think McKinney is really more in a role where he would be an upgrade to Elandon Roberts… I think we still have a hole to fill with KVN unless they are expecting Van Ginkel to become the full time starter there. Which that I am okay with I think… he flashed enough last year to think he could have been a steal in the draft a couple years ago. But we REALLY need to get at least one of the top receivers left in FA. You can’t expect every rookie to come in and perform at a high level in year one (looking at you Noah Igbinoghene).