In shocking, laughable news, the Raiders have hired Queasy Joey Philbin as an offensive assistant. Now back to our regular article:

Getting away from the Tua debate for a while, the Dolphins have other choices to make.

First of all, it’s interesting that the two most-talked-about Dolphins this off-season are Tua and Xavien Howard. BOTH of those guys are locked into their contracts. We keep hearing about them as if they’re free agents, but they’re not. They are both in the news because of questions about how to handle their deals. It’s unlikely, but possible…but the Dolphins can just sit back and not lift a finger or redo contracts for either man. Honestly, these two guys are low priorities because they cannot go elsewhere.

Onto the real free agents. I’ve been back and forth on Christian Wilkins in his career. I think he’s steady and plays well, but not elite. Still, I think it’s important to keep him.

In Week 18, the way he sacked Josh Allen while literally taking the ball away from him in the middle of a spin move was one of the best defensive plays I’ve ever seen. A fumble recovery without the ball ever hitting the ground. Just incredible. That turnover turned out to be meaningless because of a shitty 95-yard punt return, but it was still great.

Time for my annual message about the salary cap being a somewhat arbitrary number. There are ALWAYS ways to move money around, to give raises, to sign new rookie draft picks and veteran free agents alike. All it takes is some creativity, and this happens all the time. So if we end up letting Wilkins walk, I will state that there are reasons behind the scenes for this, rather than the cliche “oh, we wanted to keep him, but it’s a business decision.”

Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts on these other pending free agents as well. It’s pretty frightening to see more than 20 guys on this list. That’s potentially 20 guys who could walk away, requiring us to bring in 20 more brand new players: This is a lot!

RB Salvon Ahmed

CB Eli Apple

P Jake Bailey

LB Jerome Baker

WR Braxton Berrios

CB Justin Bethel

S Elijah Campbell

WR Chase Claypool

WR River Cracraft

DT Raekwon Davis

S DeShon Elliott

C Jonotthan Harrison

G Robert Hunt

S Brandon Jones

TE Tyler Kroft

OT Kendall Lamm

LB Calvin Munson

LB Andrew Van Ginkle

DL Christian Wilkins

OL Connor Williams

WR Cedrick Wilson

OT Isaiah Wynn

6 Comments

  1. I don’t follow the salary cap math and don’t fully understand it, but i did read today the NFL increased it by ~30mill, so that helps the Dolphins’ negative position.

    I like Wilkins, but if we reward him with a big contract, will he perform lackluster poorly like X did after his big contract?

    I also see they are releasing Ogbah, which will save us some $$$

    1. Author

      I was so glad when we paid Ogbah for an extension a year or two ago, but he was a letdown. Perhaps it was the way Fangio used him, I don’t know. But he just wasn’t productive this year. It was devastating to lose both Phillips and Chubb for December…but it was an opportunity for Ogbah to step up…and he didn’t. Melvin Ingram and Malik Reid got signed as emergency backups, came in off their couches midweek, and outplayed Ogbah. That’s pretty sad.

        1. Author

          I hope the new DC has a better philosophy than Fangio. Sitting back and hoping for coverage sacks does not work. We lost the Titan game, the AFC East, and a home playoff game on Monday Night Football, because Fangio went into prevent in the 4th quarter. 14-point lead with 3 minutes left. Disgusting to lose that game. That reversed our whole season. Not a gradual turning point, but a gigantic 180.

  2. There was a post somewhere that stated Fangio wants to bring AVG and DeShon Elliot to Philly. I would hate to lose those guys. As you know, we almost lost AVG to the patsies last year. It will be interesting to see how the Eagles Defense does next season and how X will perform.

    1. Author

      I think AVG has produced from day one. I give Fangio credit for realizing it more than Boyer or Flores did. Fangio gave him tons of playing time, and it paid off. Boyer/Flores kept him on the bench a lot more. My buddy the Ram fan said he got some inside info that the Rams want AVG badly. Elliot was steady, but I wouldn’t be sad if he left. I like Brandon Jones as the #2 safety, but we need depth. Because of that need, I prefer to keep Elliott if he’s not too expensive. Our backup safeties simply don’t get the job done, so more depth is so important.

Leave a Reply