The Miami Dolphins' new regime said that running back De'Von Achane was their top offseason priority. The rest of the NFL media said they would trade him. On May 13th, the Dolphins kept their promise.
Achane's contract extension is good for the player and the team, but it hasn't stopped the talking heads of NFL media from chiming in about it. The latest? Bill Barnwell of ESPN, who believes it could have been more beneficial if they had traded him.
In a recent article, Barnwell listed Achane's extension as the worst move of the Dolphins offseason.
ESPN's Bill Barnwell believes the Miami Dolphins best value with De'Von Achane would have been a trade
The Dolphins listened to offers, and apparently, other teams tried to pry the young, productive runner away. The price was either not what the Dolphins wanted, or Jon-Eric Sullivan truly had no interest in trading him. Barnwell believes a second-round pick would have been sufficient.
"I don't know if these Dolphins will be able to get the most out of him. Achane could have thrived elsewhere. If the Dolphins could have landed a second-round pick for him, I would have preferred to see them move on and try to land the next Achane in the middle rounds of the draft over the years to come."
Would Achane have done better in a different system? Absolutely, but you could make that argument for just about any player who is on a struggling team. Barnwell also notes that Achane's production dipped from a 45% success rate to 40% when Tua Tagovailoa wasn't on the field.
To be fair, it's hard to judge success rates when Miami's quarterbacks were as bad as they have been the last two years alone. Miami was a turnstile at times with a lack of veteran support.
Finally, the proposed second-round compensation in a trade is frankly too low. Achane has proven to be an elite back, and if Barnwell believes he would be better off statistically and make more of an impact somewhere else, then that team should be willing to give up more, but nobody did.
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