What is the Dolphins off-season “plan”?

The Miami Dolphins have been quiet this free agency period. Quiet for them at least. It has left many fans wondering what exactly their off-season plan is.

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If you are looking for an answer to that question you won’t find it here. In reality, it’s likely no one really understands what the team is doing and there are plenty in the media who will wonder out loud, if the Dolphins even know what they are doing.

So what exactly are they doing? For starters if they are trying to “win” now, they haven’t taken that approach given the choices they have made so far. If they are building for the future, then their decisions to let players leave comes into question. If they are rebuilding then they have done nothing to show that is the case.

What Miami has done is sign players that would lead you to believe they are doing one of the three scenarios above but when compiled next to another signing or move it suddenly makes little sense.

The Dolphins opted to let Lamar Miller, Olivier Vernon, Derrick Shelby, Kelvin Sheppard, and Rishard Matthews leave via free agency. They also released Brent Grimes. The release of Grimes is sort of the exception here because there was a lot more going on behind the scenes than simply a refusal to restructure. The removal of the transition tag on Vernon was smart, it should be comped with a compensatory pick next year. Investing in your team’s future is one thing, investing $78 million on a player who really has only had 8 stellar games is throwing your future away.

Lamar Miller is a different story. The Dolphins probably should have kept him. They have the money and keeping him shows the team developing talent from within. The same can be said about Rishard Matthews. Matthews contract was nothing out of this world and Miami could have matched that easily. Derrick Shelby’s contract was another one that could have been matched. The Dolphins easily could have retained all three players for the foreseeable future.

Instead of keeping three young promising players they opted to restructure Jordan Cameron’s contract. Slightly. Not enough to really matter and he won’t be here any longer so where is the investment? Where is the investment in Mario Williams? The deal he signed is very team friendly and gives the Dolphins an out option after one season.

The trade for Bryon Maxwell and linebacker Kiko Alonso looks really good on paper. A drop of five spots in the draft for two starters. Both at positions of need. But. There is always a but. Maxwell is coming off a bad season in 2015 and carries a big 2017 contract number. His reported restructure was minimal. Minimal to the point no one can find out what it was. Alonso could be a big addition if he can stay healthy but he is playing on a one year deal that will pay him less than a million in 2016. In other words, the Dolphins are renting him with an opportunity to offer him another deal if he works out.

On the offensive line, a major problem for the Dolphins the past six or seven years has still been relatively untouched. Sam Young, a seven-year NFL tackle comes to the Dolphins cheap and with a big history of health issues. And he doesn’t play guard. Jermon Bushrad used to be a very good offensive lineman. Now he battles back injuries and lower body injuries. He comes to Miami cheap as well but again, he doesn’t play guard. Miami has said they will try to convert him.

When all of the moves are put together as one there is no rhyme or reason as to what the team is doing. They have replaced young players with aging veterans or not at all. They added two young starters with big contract question marks and have yet to touch a unit that has been consistently bad.

The best player Miami has added thus far may in fact be a guy no one heard about until he actually signed his deal. Safety Isa Abdul-Quddus.  Quddus is both young and relatively inexpensive and would be a perfect fit if your team was rebuilding, trying to win now, or building upon what they have for the future. And he is the only one.

Perhaps Miami is simply trying to get through 2016 so they can see what happens with several more players that could be replaced. In 2017 the Dolphins can release or trade Ryan Tannehill with little cap ramifications. Same with Branden Albert and Cameron Wake. Perhaps the Dolphins are simply trying to get to point Z directly from point A. Whatever they are doing, there isn’t a lot of fans buying into it right now. Not because fans hate the moves, they just don’t see a vision.