Best Miami Dolphins defensive end isn’t on the teams roster
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins have such a bad defensive end issue that the best player at the position has yet to be added to the team’s roster.
Imagine a roster so devoid of talent at one position that you can’t actually decide who the best player at that position is. Now imagine the Miami Dolphins roster at the defensive end position and you can marry the two together and get a reality.
There is nothing great about the Miami Dolphins defensive end position. It starts with four players and ends with four players. Yes, under Brian Flores, linebacker are often used as an edge rusher or a pass rusher but that does not mean the position gets a pass. Far from it.
After losing Cameron Wake in free agency last year, releasing Andre Branch, and trading Robert Quinn, Miami let the bulk of their season rest on the abilities of Charles Harris, Jonathan Ledbetter, Avery Moss, and mid-season pick up Taco Charlton.
None of them singularly or combined added much to the defense. Given the situation of the team, everyone but Harris at least had moments through the season but clearly the drafting of Harris was a mistake by the Dolphins front office.
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Now, the Dolphins have to get better at the position and they probably should consider the position and priority in both free agency and in April’s draft. The production is non-existent and no matter what kind of defense Flores is running, you have to have reliable outside pressure and containment that you can’t always get from a 4-3 linebacker.
Whether or not Harris returns for another season is uncertain. The Dolphins still have him under his rookie contract but Harris is the 12th highest paid Dolphins player prior to free agency. He counts over $3 million on the cap and releasing him would save only around $291 thousand. That isn’t a lot and the dead cap is $3.1 million. Still, what value does he bring to the roster? Viable depth? Not really. Maybe the Dolphins do for him what they did for Parker. One last year to see what he can do but I would guess that if he makes it to 2020, it will be his last.