Chris Grier has put the Miami Dolphins in a good spot for the future
By George Keim
The Miami Dolphins front office has made questionable moves before, but Chris Grier and company should be applauded for the position the team is in now.
Let’s rewind. Last year at this time Miami Dolphins fans were excited by the prospects of a new leader in Brian Flores, but that excitement quickly turned to frustration as the team under Chris Grier began to sell off players who we thought were going to be cornerstones for this franchise. There were times when we all scratched our heads and wondered what the decision-makers in this organization were thinking.
Now, fast forward to the present. The fanbase of this 5-11 team couldn’t be more excited. When the smoke cleared Chris Grier and the Miami brain trust put the franchise in a great position to restock the shelves.
Starting with free agency. The Dolphins currently have an estimated $93 million in cap space two weeks before the start of free agency with the potential to clear even more once the inevitable cuts start. Grier and company have done a great job getting bad contracts off the books in an effort to clean up the Dolphin’s salary cap situation so that they can be players in the free-agent market if they so choose.
This year’s group of free agents is deep. It has just about anything you want. But, just because you have the money, doesn’t mean you have to spend it. More than once over the past decade the Dolphins have won the free agency period. Unfortunately, though that never panned out to what we all had hoped. I don’t think that’s the Grier/Flores way.
They aren’t going to chase the biggest names on the market, they are going to chase the names that will have the biggest impact on this team based on Flores’ vision. I want the Dolphins to spend money, but I want them to spend it wisely to ensure our cap situation remains healthy into the future.
After the free-agent frenzy is over the real fun begins. Again, I’m not sure the casual fan understands just how good of a position the front office has put the organization in as we transition over to the NFL draft. I think most everyone recognized that the Dolphins were making moves early on last season with an eye on this year’s draft. Not only was Grier able to gather draft picks, but he also turned over a roster to the point that many experts thought that a winless season wasn’t just a possibility, but was inevitable.
They were criticized to the point where some wanted the organization investigated and potentially punished for purposely losing. The thought was that the Miami Dolphins wanted the number one overall pick so that they could draft their franchise quarterback. Now, that may be the case, but someone forgot to tell Coach Flores and his team of this plan because the team went 5-4 over their last nine games ruining any chance at even a top-four draft pick.
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Don’t fret though, the Dolphins will have 14 picks in the draft in April. Six of which are in the top 70 (5th, 18th, 26th, 39th, 56th, and 70th). And here’s the great thing. This year’s draft is loaded with talent. I have done a lot of work around the draft (Keim’s Mock 3.0) and there are players that are bonafide first-round talents who will be available when the Dolphins pick in the second round at picks 39 and 56.
The thought was and still is, that Chris Grier gathered all of this draft capital so that he would have the ammunition he needed to move up in the first round, if needed, to get his quarterback. There is a lot of debate on whether he’s going to need to do that, my hope is that the Miami Dolphins stay put at number 5 and let the draft come to them.
The Dolphins are in a rare situation where they could potentially add five first-round graded players to their roster in one draft. We all know that draft picks are far from guaranteed but I like the Dolphins’ chances in this year’s crop of draftees. And, that is only this year. The Dolphins were also able to add an additional first and second-round pick in the 2021 draft bring the total to nine first and second-round picks over the next two drafts.
The 2020 and 2021 drafts have the potential to reset the course of the Miami Dolphins franchise. Not since the Herschel Walker trade has a team been able to gather the draft capital the Dolphins have. So, say what you want about what the organization has done in years past, trust me, any criticism is probably deserved. But sometimes in life, you need to learn lessons the hard way and maybe the Dolphins have finally done that.