This can’t be it, can it?
This can’t be the entree of the Miami Dolphins’ three-course meal meant to fill up this floundering franchise with talent. The mediocre 9-8 team that Mike McDaniel inherited, which supposedly isn’t rebuilding, has high hopes of transforming into a perennial playoff contender.
But this has to be the appetizer, right?
No disrespect to anyone who just joined the Dolphins as a free agent, or re-signed for the latest era of this never-ending rebuild, but the eight returnees and eight newcomers hardly move the needle.
The most anyone added to this team has accomplished is scoring eight touchdowns in one of his seven seasons — Raheem Mostert in 2019 with the San Francisco 49ers. Mostert has played for seven teams, with Miami being one of them since he spent time on the Dolphins’ practice squad in 2015.
The Dolphins’ latest additions are solid players, but tapas items.
In fairness to the Dolphins, re-signing Emmanuel Ogbah was massive because of the person and player he’s shown himself to be the past two seasons. I believe Ogbah’s arrow is still pointing up, and I’m excited to see what comes next from him.
Retaining Mike Gesicki is a respectable move, one the Dolphins felt they had to make. The coaching staff’s desire to turn him into an adequate blocker, which could make him a legitimate tight end, is interesting to say the least. But Gesicki doesn’t fit this new-look, run-heavy offense McDaniel is clearly trying to install. We’ll see what comes of the one-season investment.
But as for the rest of the returning players, and especially the newcomers, this free-agency haul is a little underwhelming, especially considering Miami started the month with the most cap space in the NFL.
That’s like telling someone you know a restaurant that makes a phenomenal steak , drive for an hour, and then pull up to an Applebee’s.
Connor Williams was the fourth-best offensive lineman on a Cowboys line that was once elite.
Cedric Wilson Jr. was the fourth-best receiver in Dallas.
The 49ers rushing attack kept on churning out yards without Mostert, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first game of the 2021 season.
Tailback Chase Edmonds was a talent with the Arizona Cardinals, a team that struggled rushing the ball for years without Kyler Murray’s scrambling.
Could they all become better players in Miami? Absolutely.
Every newcomers could become the next Ogbah — a journeyman eager to prove his worth. But history isn’t on this franchise’s side, mainly because of general manager Chris Grier’s lackluster past few offseasons.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t need big-splash signings.
It would be ideal if the Dolphins added Terron Armstead, who is viewed as the top offensive lineman in free agency and was recognized as one of the NFL’s top 100 players last season.
It would be exciting for Miami to add an instinctive, playmaking inside linebacker like Bobby Wagner, Kwon Alexander, or a proven, established receiver like Jarvis Landry or Allen Robinson II.
Those are the equivalent of home runs that would exemplify the type of swing-for-the-fence approach we’re accustomed to seeing the Dolphins make under owner Steve Ross, who has had the propensity to sign big-name free agents.
I’ve never been a big believer in that approach, so I can live without it.
But I’m struggling to identify the upgrades this roster desperately needs if the Dolphins are going to compete for the AFC East title, which at the moment looks like a race for second place based on the jaw-dropping moves the Buffalo Bill have made this week, adding Von Miller, Rodger Safford III, O.J. Howard, Tim Settle and DaQuan Jones.
Miami’s moves makes me conclude coaching, or more importantly, player development is expected to transform Brian Flores’ 9-win team into an 11-win squad for McDaniel.
If Grier thought the free-agent assignment was to fill out the roster with guys in free agency, then I’m throwing my hands up in the air with my normal “here we go again” reaction.
There is only so much a five-star chef can make with ground beef, and that’s how I view the Dolphins’ existing roster because all I see is side dishes.
The talent on Miami’s offensive line after the first wave of free agency isn’t good enough because more than half of what’s on the roster — if not all of them — wouldn’t be a starter for 20 other NFL teams.
Jaylen Waddle is the only offensive player on Miami’s roster that an opposing defensive coordinator might fear and be forced to create a game plan for. And that level of concern is based on his talent, not past production.
While there’s hope that Tua Tagovailoa can become one of the NFL top-10 quarterbacks — we’re not even talking about one of the NFL’s elites — the odds of him doing that are slim if he’s not complemented with a forceful running game.
To make that happen, the Dolphins either need to add a pillar of granite for an offensive tackle (Armstead of Trent Brown would do), or a mastermind center like J.C. Tretter, who the Browns cut to create salary-cap space.
Let’s hope Grier is preserving the team’s remaining $22 million to use on trades, or sign other veterans cut before or after the NFL draft.
McDaniel’s past teams might have a history of possessing forceful rushing attacks, but that doesn’t happen without a reliable, consistent and impactful offensive line.
If the Dolphins think they built their run-game foundation from this initial wave of free agency, get ready for another spin on the mediocrity merry-go-round because Miami’s 2022 season now banks on these new coaches turning ground beef into filet mignon.
