Dolphins adding talent during training camp. What happened to March and April? | Opinion

The Miami Dolphins added tough, reliable wide receiver Allen Hurns as a free agent on Friday, and it’s a move to applaud because it stokes competition among the team’s receivers and such athletic conflict typically improves everyone involved and ultimately helps make the team better.

No, Hurns signing a one-year deal is not going to define the Dolphins’ season. It’s not going to change the season’s general direction. But the team’s depth on the outside just got better.

And if DeVante Parker gets injured (as he often is) or Albert Wilson doesn’t recover from being injured — which he was last year — the Dolphins now have insurance.

“The decision there was bring in competition, what we feel is a good player,” coach Brian Flores said.

So, cool. I get that.

What I don’t get is where were moves like this in March or April?

And how is this move in sync with all the others the Dolphins made prior to the start of training camp? Because most of those other moves didn’t seem intended to improve the team to any degree worth being excited about.

Oh, the Dolphins filled voids. They were not inactive. They signed quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, and he’s likely going to be the team’s starting quarterback in the regular-season opener if he continues his current arc as the best quarterback on the roster.

But am I the only one who remembers Fitzpatrick was Miami’s second or third quarterback choice after trading Ryan Tannehill?

We love the guy now because he’s a leader, he’s smart and he brings intangibles the Dolphins have lacked at quarterback for some time. But Miami was the only team offering Fitzpatrick a chance to start in 2019. So let’s keep perspective.

And what I’m wondering is why didn’t Miami seem to show the same desire to upgrade the roster — meaning improve — in March and April as it seemed to have Friday in signing Hurns? Why no March or April urgency to upgrade at right tackle or cornerback?

Another head-scratcher to me: The Dolphins put resources into signing Hurns at a position that doesn’t seem to have exigent need. Miami had Parker, Kenny Stills, Wilson, Brice Butler and Jakeem Grant on the roster before this signing.

The Dolphins strengthened a relatively strong position.

And yet Mike Daniels, a former Pro Bowl 3-4 defensive lineman, was available the past week, and he was not tied to the Dolphins in any significant way. Morris Claiborne is on the market as a cornerback, and the Dolphins have not been tied to him in any significant way.

And unlike wide receiver, Miami doesn’t have multiple proven 3-4 defensive tackles, much less any former Pro Bowl defensive tackles. And Miami has a significant need at cornerback, a position at which Claiborne has started 73 NFL games.

So there’s excitement about upgrading one spot of strength but not much excitement about upgrading spots that need, you know, upgrading.

And this is where a reader might argue the point for the Dolphins this season is not to get too good because this season isn’t about this season. This is where the idea of using 2019 as a stepping-stone to winning in the future can be made. I get that it would explain the relative inactivity in March and April.

So, why then, sign Hurns now?

Anyway, the Dolphins insist they’re not thinking about this as a throwaway season. As Flores said recently, “we’re going to go out and try to win every game.”

I don’t doubt Flores. I believe he wants to try to win. But I think if winning now is the plan, more of that trying should have been done in March and April when better players were available.

Miami’s roster confuses me. Because it’s a bulging muscle in some spots and quivering lip in others.

This team, for example, has many safeties. It has so many, Reshad Jones, a former Pro Bowl player, worked with the second unit Friday. Jones, T.J. McDonald, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Bobby McCain have all taken first-team repetitions at safety the first two days of camp.

But the riches of safeties is in stark contrast to the need for a proven boundary cornerback not named Xavien Howard.

Eric Rowe is working with the starters opposite Howard. He has had some rough moments and some good moments the first couple of days. And yet, beyond Rowe, the team is trying guys whose name you wouldn’t recognize because they’ve never really made an NFL mark.

The case can actually be made that Miami’s second-best cornerback is either Fitzpatrick or McCain — both safeties.

No wonder coaches have told secondary players no one should assume anything about where they’ll play.

“You’ve got to be able to wear multiple hats, like coach says,” McDonald said. “There are no spots. No positions. You have to be able to understand the defense fully, not just your position.”

This story was originally published July 26, 2019 at 2:50 PM.