Whenever I write an article, I feel the need to come clean on any bias I may have right off the bat. I’m a Gesicki guy! I’m a Penn State fan, so I watched Mike during his college years and was ecstatic when the Dolphins selected him. Hence I was also upset when Adam Gase darn near destroyed him right out of the gate. I’m no football expert, but I know enough to have coached it and officiate it; there was never a doubt in my mind that Mike Gesicki would be a matchup problem in the NFL if used the correct way.
Fast forward a few years, and I’m starting to feel the same way about Kyle Pitts. Now that the Miami Dolphins have seemed to settle into a draft spot, at least for now, Dolphins fans seem to be split into three different camps. Draft Penei Sewell if there, draft one of the big three wide receivers, or draft Kyle Pitts. It’s hard to blame anyone for how they feel. You can make an argument, a powerful one at that, for any of those options.
My inner self says you build a football team from the inside out, so Penei Sewell, if there at six, makes all kinds of sense. A strong offensive line makes the running game better; it makes the passing game better; it makes the time of possession better, making the defense more rested and theoretically better. Therefore strengthening the line is not a crazy thought.
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What’s also obvious is the Dolphins need some wide receiver help. This is not breaking news to anyone who follows this team. Although, Miami did lessen the urgency with the addition of Will Fuller in free agency. Fuller signed a one-year prove it deal, and early indications seem like he wants to, in fact, prove it and stay in Miami in the future. Just adding Fuller has made the Dolphins wide receiver room much stronger.
This is the part of the article where I argue for the Dolphins drafting Kyle Pitts, assuming he’s there when pick number six rolls around. If you really stop and think about it, it makes a lot of sense. The National Football League has become a league of matchups. The Dolphins like to run 12 personnel on offense (two tight ends and one running back). Defenses typically counter this by running their base personnel (4-3 or 3-4) as the tendencies often lean toward running the football. The Dolphins’ advantage of having a tight end combination of Gesicki and Pitts is their athletic abilities puts stress on a base personnel defense. They both have the ability to work from the slot or the boundary.
— DolphinsTalk.com (@DolphinsTalk) March 31, 2021
The defense then has to either cover them with safeties, thus opening up deep parts of the field for Fuller, or try and cover them with linebackers, and well, good luck with that. If the defense counters with a nickel package, the offense then can go with a typical two-tight end set (Ace formation), where both tight ends are on either side of the line of scrimmage and run the ball down against a smaller set. The argument will be that neither Gesicki or Pitts are known for the blocking, and that’s true, but in a nickel defense, they won’t necessarily be asked aren’t to block guys that are bigger than them. Gesicki and Pitts are 250 and 240, respectively, and would have to block safeties and corners. Again, matchups should favor them.
The other part that should be taken into consideration is the financial aspect. Miami needs to start drafting players, developing them, then signing them to long-term second contracts. Kenny Golladay, a good, not great, receiver just signed a contract with the NY Giants with cap hits of $21 million in 2022, 2023, and 2024. That’s the cost for a Kenny Golladay-type receiver. You could look at it another way by using the franchise tag. Wide receivers, under the franchise tag, cost nearly $16 million ($15.98). Compare that to a tight end, whose tag comes in only above special teams and running back at $9.6 million. In this made-up scenario, for the cost of a Kenny Golladay, you could franchise tag a Gesicki and a Pitts (I know you only get one franchise tag) and still have a few bucks leftover for dinner. The point is, if you paired these two and together and they panned out as we think they could, the Dolphins could keep both players for the cost of one good wide receiver.
In the end, I will trust what Grier and Flores do; it is, after all, their vision we have all come to love. The fact is I can probably speak for all Dolphins fans and say…bring on April 29th!
Yes they should. But Pitts might no make it to Miami to draft. You never know how the draft is going to go until it happens.
Pitts and Chase will be there at 6 guaranteed. The Bengals want to protect Burrows so Sewell will be gone. It will be a flip of the coin once the Dolphins are on the clock and I won’t be disappointed by either pick…. Speaking of Pitts or Chase. Then grab Najee Harris at 18 or Travis Etienne who I think will be there at 35 speaking of Etienne. What great position to be in I’m so excited
I like the fact that you mentioned free agent value by position. I’ve made the same argument in posts and no-one seems to pay much attention. My contention was that, theoretically, you were better off getting lineman through free agency and drafting QB’s, WR’s, and Corners. Once a skill player comes off of his rookie deal, he becomes significantly more expensive than a DL or OL coming off of his rookie contract.
Thanks. That’s why I wanted Aaron Jones in FA. At 10 or 12 per year he’s MUCH cheaper than a WR. You could double up in the draft on WR.