The Miami Dolphins will play the New York Jets twice next season and when they do the team is going to look a lot different.
Over the past couple of weeks the New York Jets have been discarding high-priced and in some cases still productive veterans as they get their salary cap situation under control. Each move however leaves a hole that the Jets will need to fill. Either from within, the draft, or free agency.
As Dolphins fans know, filling gaping holes at any position is difficult. Although it’s pretty safe to assume the Dolphins fans really don’t care about how tough it will be for the Jets to fill these gaps.
The changes being made to the team are pretty significant to say the least. Here is a look at the Dolphins division rivals current roster shake-up.
Offensive tackle Ryan Clady was released to save $10 million in cap space. Darrelle Revis who was recently arrested and has long since left his personal “island” was released to save $9.3 million but his release also came with a $6 million dollar dead cap hit.
Long time veteran center Nick Mangold was given his release and he found out about it while with his family vacationing at Disney World. Guard/tackle Breno Giacomini was let go as was place kicker Nick Folk and linebacker Erin Henderson. Earlier this off-season they voided the contract of QB Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Today it has been reported that after asking for his release, wide-receiver Brandon Marshall was granted his request.
What is interesting about this purge is that some believed head coach Todd Bowles could have lost his job after last season given the poor play of the football team. He was retained but the recent rash of releases suggest that he is not going to be in a terrific position to succeed in 2017 at the rate the roster is being gutted.
The roster wasn’t the only purge either. Chan Gailey announced his retirement as offensive coordinator and the team fired quarterback coach Kevin Petullo, RB coach Marcel Shipp, Dline coach Pepper Johnson, OLB coach Mark Collins and DB coach Joe Danna.
Dolphins fans know all too well the consequences that often follow a partial coaching overhaul witnessing that with both Tony Sparano and Joe Philbin. It’s common for teams to overhaul their coaching staff but the exodus of players, well-recognized veterans with years of service is unusual.
For the Dolphins it’s obviously too early to tell how the Jets will match-up with Miami in 2017 but it appears that one of their division rivals is entering a serious rebuild and that is typically a good thing. If they fail it could cost Bowles his job and another coach would enter the picture thus setting the Jets back another year or two.
And to think they could have had Bill Belichick.