Why are the Miami Dolphins shopping on the cheap? There are two plausible theories
Through two days of free agency, the Miami Dolphins have added four backups on bargain-basement contracts — most notably, quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who on Tuesday agreed to a one-year deal that will reportedly pay him no more than $7.5 million.
While two of their biggest rivals, the Jets and Patriots, are passing around team checks with seven zeroes, the Dolphins are shopping on the cheap.
So what’s going on?
Why is a team that was fortunate to go 10-6 last year acting like a 13-3 club loaded at every position?
Two theories:
1. The Dolphins are now among the most fiscally disciplined teams in the league and are waiting for the available players to grow desperate in a buyer’s market, creating the opportunity for great value.
2. The Dolphins are laying the groundwork to trade for Deshaun Watson in the franchise’s most consequential transaction since Miami surrendered first-round draft pick for Don Shula.
Theory No. 1 has been discussed at length, and makes plenty of sense.
After signing Brissett, Rams running back Malcolm Brown (for roughly $2 million APY, we’re told) and Bengals special teamer Cethan Carter — plus bringing back linebacker Vince Biegel basically at the minimum Tuesday — the Dolphins have somewhere in the neighborhood of $22 million in cap space.
But that’s not a fair representation of their buying power. If they wanted, they could clear out tens of millions more with targeted cuts and restructures. They are projected to have at least $40 million, and as much as $80 million, in cap space next year, and can easily borrow against that.
And yet they haven’t — despite a real need for playmakers on offense and defense. The edge defender pool is drying up, but the best wide receivers are still available, stuck in limbo as the market remains unsettled. Kenny Golladay needs a job. So do JuJu Smith-Schuster, Will Fuller and many others.
Any one of them would help Tua Tagovailaoa, which in a normal scenario would be the team’s No. 1 priority this offseason.
But so far, they purse strings have been knotted.
What’s more, the Dolphins have yet to sign a center, and while they have great interest in ex-Patriots David Andrews, they do not want to pay his current asking price, which some around the league believe is as much as $10 million annually.
Put it all together and the Dolphins are keeping their powder dry, and the belief by NFL insiders is it’s to make a run at Watson.
To be clear, Houston isn’t interested in trading him, at least not yet. But when the league year begins at 4 p.m. Wednesday, teams will begin signing these deals that have been negotiated the last two days, and the Texans’ leverage will begin to wane.
Plus, the way the backup quarterback market shook out Tuesday points to, at the very least, some doubt that Watson is definitely going to be in Houston in 2021.
The Dolphins signed Brissett — the Palm Beach County native who has started games for the Patriots and Colts — to a very team-friendly deal, and he apparently left his conversations with Dolphins brass with the sense the team did not have 100 percent conviction in Tagovailoa.
The Boston Globe’s Ben Volin, who was the first to report the terms of Brissett’s contract, said on Twitter that Brissett “has a good opportunity to see the field this year.” That does not appear to be idle speculation.
But that revelation was minor compared to the Texans’ decision to sign Tyrod Taylor, arguably the best quarterback still available, to a one-year deal that could reportedly pay him as much as $12.5 million if he hits certain performance and participation incentives. Taylor thinks reaching those benchmarks is, at the very least, plausible. But that would presuppose a starting role, and Watson off the team.
Granted, perhaps this is all too much dot connecting. Maybe the receiver market on Wednesday will drop to an appealing level for the Dolphins, and they start spending.
But until that happens, people will continue to wonder: Why are the Dolphins saving while their rivals are spending?
