WR Will Fuller a nice get for Dolphins. Will it rekindle Deshaun Watson-to-Miami talk? | Opinion
Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores tried to warn us. After his team led the NFL in free agency spending a year ago, owner Stephen Ross throwing around Monopoly money, this figured as a quieter offseason building to the draft in six weeks.
“I’m going to be playing the song, ‘You can’t always get what you want’,” Flores said. “We may get priced out on some guys we’re looking at that we’d like to have.”
And so they have in a first wave of free agency that has been active for Miami but without big-splash moves.
Signing still-available wide receiver Kenny Golladay — that would have made a splash. Bringing in a starting tackle the likes of Mitchell Schwartz or Alejandro Villanueva would be a sizable ripple. Signing edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney? Cannonball.
Instead salary cap-limited Miami so far is making strategic little moves aimed at shoring up depth more than instant impact — although getting receiver Will Fuller on Thursday might have been Miami’s most notable addition yet.
Flores referenced a Rolling Stones song that follows you-can’t-always-get-what-you-want with, “But if you try sometime, you might find you get what you need.”
Are the Dolphins doing that, at least, as they try to improve on a 10-win season that narrowly missed the playoffs?
Sizing up the notable changes thus far to Miami’s roster:
▪ Adding quarterback Jacoby Brissett: With Ryan Fitzpatrick gone to Washington, Miami needed a proven backup to Tua Tagovailoa and gets one here. Brissett has 32 career starts with a decent 31-13 TD-INT ratio, and he’s young and good enough to be a viable option if Flores continues with a quick trigger should Tua struggle. enough.
All of this presumes that long-rumored megatrade for Deshaun Watson ain’t-a-gonna happen, although Houston failing to re-sign receiver Fuller (see below) will only underline Watson’s desire to be traded — and perhaps increase his interest in Miami as a landing spot).
▪ Adding receivers Will Fuller and Robert Foster: Fuller, signed Thursday, is a notable get. Turning 27 in April, he caught 53 balls for 879 yards and eight TDs last season. If not quite WR1 tier, he will challenge DeVante Parker for the best Miami has. Foster? He averaged 20.1 yards on 34 career catches so shows deep potential. And he played with Tua at Alabama, so in that he’s a security blanket.
▪ Adding running back Malcolm Brown: Journeyman ex-Ram has done little in six NFL seasons to suggest he’s anything more than fodder behind Myles Gaskin and Salvon Ahmed for carries. After last season’s Jordan Howard/Matt Breida double bust — a bonfire of Ross’ money — the Fins’ RB room remains weak and in serious need of strong draft remedy. Alabama’s Najee Harris , perhaps?
▪ Losing linebacker Kyle van Noy, center Ted Karras and defensive tackle Davon Godchaux to New England: Ouch. Pretty big poaches by an active, big-spending Bill Belichick. That’s 35 productive 2020 starts gone to a division rival. And Van Noy they just let go, after spending big and getting six sacks from him last year.
▪ Adding center Matt Skura: Signed the ex-Raven on Thursday as Karras’ replacement. But Skura suffered season-ending knee injury in 2019 and in ‘20 lost his starting job after a spate of bad snaps.
▪ Adding cornerback Justin Coleman: Could replace Nik Needham as a slot corner. But with quality starters Xavien Howard and Byron Jones and promising young backup Noah Igbinoghene in place, it could be considered a luxury to add depth at such a solid position. (And Coleman had a fat 135 passer rating against him in coverage last season).
▪ Adding defensive tackle Adam Butler: Flores poaches a former Patriot, as he likes to do. And solid DT rotation gets better. Butler has squeezed 15 sacks out of 12 career starts — numbers that reflect a guy who’s productive off the bench.
▪ The punter swap: Bills poach Matt Haack, so Fins sign Michael Palardy. The concern: Palardy is coming off an ACL injury and didn’t play in 2020.
▪ Trading for offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson: Titans made him a late first-round draft pick just a year ago, but his rookie season was a nightmare, with two COVID positives, a team suspension, a DUI, only one game played and a scathing here’s-the-door from Titans GM Jon Robinson. If there’s first-round talent and Fins can mine it, a steal of a trade. Otherwise, more trouble and a quick departure.
▪ The linebacker swap: Miami sends OLB/DE Shaq Lawson to Houston for ILB Benardrick McKinney. McKinney made the Pro Bowl in 2018 and is a productive run stopper, though he missed much of last season with a shoulder injury. If healthy, McKinney pairs with Jerome Baker to give Fins a formidable pair of inside linebackers.
A fair question is whether the Dolphins have done enough thus far to make up AFC East ground on the Buffalo Bills and quarterback Josh Allen? And to stay ahead of the big-spending, fast-rebuilding Patriots? (The latter looms scary if the re-signed quarterback Cam Newton, with several added weapons in free agency, is much better in Year 2 in New England, as might be expected).
The answer to those questions is that Miami has not done enough in free agency thus far to catch the Bills as division favorite, or to appreciably stay clearly ahead of the Pats.
But the answer to those questions remains incomplete.
Miami will assert itself in the coming NFL Draft if it hits big with the third and 18th overall picks — four of the top 50 picks in all. And that third overall pick is looking more and more like Alabama receiver DeVonta Smith, despite the addition of Fuller being a notable signing.
More than anything else, of course — more than this free agency, more than the coming draft — the Dolphins’ fortunes now and for the foreseeable future rest disproportionately with the one question hovering over everything, and the one answer still unknowable:
How good is Tagovailoa, and how great might he become?
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 12:07 PM.
