As a team are the Dolphins top-heavy on offense?
This last draft was said to be one were the pickings were better on the defensive side yet the Dolphins only picked two players of the eight picks on defense selecting Xavien Howard and Jordan Lucas this played a factor into a notion that the offense had become top-heavy.
Because of the draft results it may seem like the Dolphins offense had become top-heavy however during free agency there were ample additions and a trade moving the Dolphins down 4 spots in the draft netting two players in Byron Maxwell and Kiko Alonso.However the offensive line was beefed up with free agents and Arian Foster was recently brought on.
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Those that feel this defense is depleted look mostly to the loss of Olivier Vernon on top of this list might be the NY Giants who signed him to a five-year $85 million contract with $40 million fully guaranteed. On the other side of this debate you have a notion that Olivier Vernon was a product of his surroundings and that Suh and Wake had set him up to succeed by creating the lanes in which most of his sacks came from, the greater loss when you look at value may have been Derrick Shelby who would have been the next man up.
If the Dolphins are going to possibly compensate extra spots to cater to Gase’s style on offense with the RB/WR/TE and possibly QB positions then it could come at a deterrent to on already depleted defense.
Then there is the already questionable dept at defense with Xavien Howard/Zach Vigil on the PUP list entering into camp however it was just conditioning in the case of Zach Vigil on the other hand Xavien Howard is said to miss all of camp if not the pre season, so far this has caused some movement to acquire someone to fill the void but as yet no one of note.
The new style defense is said to be running a more attacking fashion rather than the bend don’t beak style that the Dolphins have seemed to run in the past. Would this new attack first style need to have an added layer of depth? If that is the case there just might not be enough slots slated to do so given the style of offense that coach Gase wants to put in place if all accounts are correct.
One way to make the pieces fit would be to incorporate players in and out of the special teams unit if it turns out there is no room to keep extra players on many defensive squads from the extras that might be on the RB/WR/TE/QB squads.
On the defensive line there are older players with Wake, Williams and Suh who will turn 30 near the end of the season. This unit should hold up for this season and open up lanes for a younger player to get the accolades, last season it was Vernon.
Even the younger players cleaning up things will get gassed along with Wake, Williams and Suh so debt here is important to keep the 3 second buffer getting after the QB going that Vance Joseph wants in order to keep his secondary from too much harm.
On the surface it does appear that the offense is top-heavy compared to the defense even more so now with the injuries and the scramble to fill the void, but this season there is a lot of juggling going on making things not so apparent and should everything pan out it wouldn’t matter much.