Miami Dolphins needed to trade Kenny Stills for a lot of reasons

The Miami Dolphins on Saturday made a blockbuster trade that included wide receiver Kenny Stills and it was a trade that needed to happen.

When it was announced that the Miami Dolphins had trimmed the roster to 53 on Saturday, a lot of people assumed that the Dolphins were keeping six receivers, but then Kenny Stills got traded and everything blew up.

In 2015, I was sitting in a pizza parlor outside of Orlando when the news broke that the Dolphins had traded for wide receiver Kenny Stills. It was a really solid trade that brought a young talented guy to the Dolphins and brought some hope that the offense might turn around. It didn’t.

There are some in the local media that will not mention who will tell you that the release of Stills is race related. That his departure from the Dolphins has more to do with his comments about Stephen Ross and his support of Colin Kaepernick. They will say that his departure has nothing to do with football. Yet, it actually does.

There were rumors brewing prior to the start of free agency and the league new year back in March. Many wondered if he would be released prior to the start of free agency. Perhaps released outright. That was long before he opened his mouth.

No other Miami Dolphins player, perhaps in the history of the team, did more for the community in terms of race relations. Stills was fantastic in the community bridging the gaps between the citizens and the police force. That isn’t however, a reason to keep an overpaid receiver who wasn’t producing on the field.

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Make no mistake, Stills was traded because he was not in the long-term future of the Miami Dolphins new coaching staff. If they were wavering, maybe his comments tipped the scales. That being said, people will believe what they want.

On the field, Stills was average at his best. In his four seasons with the Dolphins, Stills posted 2,566 yards receiving on 164 receptions. He had 24 touchdowns in that time as well. His best year was in 2016 when he caught nine touchdown passes that included 726 yards receiving. A year later his TD’s decreased to 6 while his yards increased to 847.

Those numbers are good but they are not great. They are not number one receiver numbers and Stills, extended by Mike Tannenbaum, was overpaid.

It is not clear what the Dolphins actually received from the Texans for Stills. The bread and butter of that trade was Laremy Tunsil. Perhaps the two players that came to Miami was the compensation or maybe if it makes you feel better you can say that the 2nd round pick in 2021 was the compensation.

Fans are split on the trading of Stills but no matter how you honestly look at it yourself, his play on the field coupled with the distractions this off-season, and the Dolphins getting younger made his trade almost inevitable.

It is a traded that needed to happen. For both Stills and for the Dolphins. Unlike Tunsil, I don’t think Dolphins fans are going to miss him all that much in 2019