Why the Ereck Flowers trade could be a Miami Dolphins diversion

On Tuesday, the Miami Dolphins traded starting guard Ereck Flowers to Washington. This was originally seen as a good piece of business, clearing his $9 million guaranteed off the books for 2021.

Then it was revealed that Miami agreed to lighten Washington’s burden by restructuring the deal to give Flowers $6 million in the form of a signing bonus. The trade certainly wasn’t counterbalanced in draft capital, as Miami is only moving up 14 spots in the 7th round.

The move did save the team $3 million in cap room, helping them accrue the cap room necessary to sign the incoming rookies. For what it’s worth, the front office owns its mistakes earlier than most franchises. Flowers joins the ranks of Jordan Howard, Kyle Van Noy and Shaq Lawson as overpaid 2020 free agents who are no longer with the team. It beats doubling down and eating all the money.

One possible externality to the Flowers deal is that it could serve a head-fake for Chris Grier to signal that we want Penei Sewell with the 6th pick. Maybe this could entice Cincinnati to take Sewell at 5, or more realistically, coax a tackle-desperate team like Carolina or LA Chargers to trade up if they want him.

Sports columnist for the Sun-Sentinel, Dave Hyde, raised an interesting point on his podcast today. He noted how Miami’s front office, along with the Flowers trade news, let it be known their intention of moving Robert Hunt inside to guard.

This was an unnecessary footnote that is out of step with Grier’s typically reserved style. We saw how tight-lipped he was in the lead-up to drafting Tua Tagovailoa last year. He used trade rumors and vague comments to create an aura of ambiguity that lasted up until Roger Goodell announced the pick. Could something similar be happening again?