A torn ACL for Bradley Chubb and an exploded Achilles for Jalen Phillips were bad, but those injuries were nothing compared to the damage being done by Chris Grier this off season.

Andrew Van Ginkel is gone. Xavien Howard is gone. Christian Wilkins is gone. Jerome Baker is gone. Emanuel Ogbah is gone. Brandon Jones is gone. That’s 4 starters and their primary backups…all gone without seemingly an effort from Grief to retain them.

There’s tons of coverage on Wilkins and Howard, so I won’t bore you here. But letting Brandon Jones go will be lost in the shuffle. That will hurt. I always liked him. I don’t know why Fangio preferred DeShon Elliot over Jones, but then again, Fangio did a lot of things wrong. We now have zero depth (again) at safety, and Jones would have been cheap to keep. Oh well. I can’t remember a single meaningful play from Elliot all year long.

AVG’s loss will be huge as well. These guys aren’t immediately replaceable.

And the offense is getting crushed too. Robert Hunt is a Panther, and Connor Williams will be abandoning ship asap.

I feel okay about Wilkins leaving, and here’s why. By signing with the Raiders, Wilkins proved 100% that he doesn’t care about winning. He is satisfied playing for a horrible team with zero chance of a playoff run. Winning and loyalty are not important to him, but money is.

I would feel terrible and blame Grier IF the Dolphins were just inches away from retaining Wilkins. Maybe we could have bent over a little bit and offered more money if we were close. But apparently, we were not close. You can’t negotiate with a man who is simply after the largest payday he can find, and Wilkins proved this by signing with the lowly Raiders. Bottom line: We never had a chance of re-signing Wilkins, and that is evident now, so I’m okay with it.

In the meantime, the Dolphins re-signed the worst punter in team history, and this one is baffling. In a league where punters are a dime a dozen, why on earth would Grier give $5 million to Bailey when the money could have been use to keep Jones or Baker? This is a terrible usage of cap money.

But don’t worry, Grier also wasted $10 million on a tight end. Mike McDaniel refuses to use a tight end. Let the impasse begin! Jonnu Smith cannot help the Dolphins if our head coach ignores him. Or asks him to block 99% of the time. Week after week, we see what Kittle or Kelce or Dawson Knox can do, and then we sit back and watch the Dolphins’ TEs do none of that.

$15 millions dollars spent on two free agents who will have negligible impact on the team. While Ross spends millions paying Chris Grier to work his nonsensical vision.

It’s gonna be a long year

8 Comments

  1. I’ve always gone back and forth with Grier, sometimes he seems like a mad genius and other times he seems like he is just winging it in the FO. I am going to give it a few days before I really form an opinion, but hoo boy does this look bad. I fully understand our cap issues, but the FA losses today don’t all point to that. Some of these guys got paid ridiculous money that we couldn’t match even if we wanted to, but Van Ginkel? We could have easily matched that and had some insurance for Chubb/Phillips. Grier needs to be on the hottest of seats if we go down the toilet this year

    1. Author

      Back and forth is a fair way to assess him. He’s been good at getting us into favorable positions. There was a time when we had stockpiled about 5 upcoming first-round picks. And things looked promising. But then a few trades happened. Noah Igbinoghene and Austin Jackson happened. Hunter Long and Charles Harris.
      Trading Laremy Tunsil gave us a treasure chest of draft picks, and now a few years later, Tunsil has a playoff win under his belt and no Dolphin does. So acquiring the picks isn’t good enough unless they are used wisely.
      In Grier’s defense, he’s hit some winners in Waddle and Phillips. Grier also suffered a gut-punch devastating blow when Stephen Ross meddled and cost us a #1 pick. All our scouting and all the areas we need upgrades and all the hard work that goes into the rebuild…suddenly Ross throws a monkey wrench at Grier’s face.
      But that’s all in the past. It’s now the present and Grier is letting our best players walk away, seemingly without even trying to stop them. Greedy Hunt and Wilkins can be replaced. But AVG and Brandon Jones would have been cheap to re-sign. WTF was Grier thinking?

      1. Author

        Oh, I cannot give Grier a free pass without mentioning his disastrous 2022 draft: Tindall, Ezukanma, Goode, and Thompson. An entire draft wasted without achieving a single starter…or even a second stringer. Practice squadders all of them

  2. Author

    Mack Hollins is now on the Bills

  3. Does anyone else find it odd that X, Ogbah, and Baker are still free agents?

    1. Baker getting signed by the Seahawks.

      1. Author

        Yep, the Seahawks just signed him, thanks Sean! So far, no one is willing to pay Howard what he is demanding, LOL. Ogbah might be back here, as no one else wants him apparently.

  4. Here is my comment: Grier has to go, needs to go and should have gone! One or two big hits don’t make job security. And wish we could throw Ross out with that trash as well. We fans have been patient enough with Grier and Ross, the two biggest joke tandem of owner and GM. The defense has been crippled; he f’d up not signing Van Ginkel; and we still have Tua and his contract is still in flux. Not that I want Tua back mind you, but cut bait at this point. The dude is NOT THAT GOOD. Trying to jam his capabilities down everyone’s gullet is getting very old! You either have “it” or you don’t by now…and Tua don’t!

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