Vic Fangio is gone, and Anthony Weaver is here. This is the perfect time to overhaul the defense and start over.
I know, I know, some of you are saying, but wait, we were a Top 10 defense this past season. Why blow it up? This is a valid question, but the answer is simple…this defense, not only from a coaching standpoint, will look totally different this upcoming season. It will look totally different on the field as well with the number of free agents Miami has on that side of the football. And let’s not try to play whack a mole here, overpaying to keep guys in the hope of building off of last year; let’s blow it up, start fresh, and build around our core players who will be here long term and cut ties with the dead weight.
The Miami Dolphins have countless pending free agents on the defensive side of the ball, such as Christian Wilkins, Raekwon Davis, Andrew Van Ginkel, DeShone Elliott, Brandon Jones, Eli Apple, Nik Needham, Melvin Ingram, and Justin Bethel.
There are expected cuts with Emmanual Ogbah and Xavien Howard due to salary cap issues and Miami needing to shed their salary to be cap-compliant by March 13th.
Oh yeah, and linebacker Jerome Baker, due to the amount of money he is due, maybe a cap casualty as well and be shown the door.
So, as they say…there is no time like the present.
Blow things up on this side of the ball, and let’s get a fresh start on defense.
And honestly, it wouldn’t be that difficult.
Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb will not play a full season next year and in the case of Chubb, who knows if he will play at all in 2024? But we have to factor both in as long-term pieces moving forward.
Your building blocks on defense are Chubb, Phillips, Zach Sieler, Jalen Ramsey, and Jevon Holland.
Sieler, Chubb, and Ramsey have all gotten new deals recently. Phillips, you have a 5th-year option to use to see how he recovers from his Achilles injury, and Miami should be proactive this offseason to give Holland an extension and lock him up long-term.
Out of all those pending free agents on defense, I only see three names that really matter: Wilkins, Raekwon, and Elliott (and if you are screaming, “What about Andrew Van Ginkel?”). Hold your horses; I will address that.
The Wilkins situation, Miami really can’t screw this up. They can either keep him or get a long-term deal with him and have him be a building block for years to come. Or they use a franchise tag on him and find a way to trade him to get draft capital to use this year to help replace him. I would love to keep Wilkins, but there is a limit on how much he should get paid. He only had one season with sack production, and his tackles dropped dramatically this season. By letting him go or with a tag and trade, it does free up a lot of money for Miami to replace him and sign free agents to fill other needs such as linebacker, center, tight end, and wide receiver depth.
The only way Chris Grier can really screw this up is if he lets Wilkins walk as a free agent, and they get a compensatory pick in the 2025 draft. This means you have to replace him this year, and a comp pick won’t come until a full draft from now.
In regards to Davis and Elliott, it really comes down to how Anthony Weaver and the new assistants on defense view them. I don’t think Davis was a great fit for what Vic Fangio ran, but with Weaver, he may be a perfect fit, especially if we take Weaver at his word that Miami will be “multiple and flexible” on defense. I also don’t think keeping him will cost an arm or a leg, either. But if the market is higher than I think for Raekwon, by all means, let him walk and move on from him.
With Elliott, I know I am higher on him than some, but I think he is a perfect complementary player to Jevon Holland. He has size, length, range, and good speed. I think he is a good fit for any scheme Miami wants to run, and Weaver will want to keep him. But again, as much as I like Elliott, I wouldn’t go nuts trying to keep him. He is a “nice to have,” not a “must have,” as they say in business.
Other than that, every other potential free agent can go; let’s not lose sleep over any of them leaving. And by no means, let’s not try to re-work the deals of Ogbah, Howard, or Baker to keep them; they can go too as it’s time for a fresh start on defense and some new blood.
But let’s address Andrew Van Ginkel.
I love Andrew Van Ginkel; from the moment we drafted him, I have loved him. If you listen to our DolphinsTalk.com Podcast Network, you have heard me praise him since day 1. With that said, there is a limit on how much you pay a guy like him with the skill set he brings to the table. It’s around $10 million per season; if he wants much more than that or is offered much more than that from other teams, wish him well, and don’t fight to keep him.
If you can keep him at or around $10 million (give or take), then by all means, keep him.
And I know this is tough because Phillips will probably miss the first half of next season and Chubb, maybe all of next season, so having AVG around is key. It would be nice, but in reality, you can get a comparable player who brings the same skill set for half the money to replace him as well.
And since we have picks in Rounds 1 and 2 this year, we could use that to replace him as well.
The status quo on defense for the Dolphins isn’t an option. Miami is in the perfect situation with a new defensive coordinator coming and with multiple free agents on defense to hit the reset button.
The Dolphins can get younger and faster on defense and possibly drop a lot of dead weight with guys who just bring little to the table at this point in their careers. And in the process, have this defense set up for success for years to come.
How can you guarantee younger, faster, better at a lower salary? Are you better on the lowest paid defense in the league to get the job done just because we have a new coordinator? You’d better let that new guy see who fits in the puzzle before throwing out the pieces.
First off if you can’t re-sign Christian Wilkens. If need be franchise the man of if he does get away they’ll have something to show for it. Also, it’s amazing what a well-functioning ball-control offense can do for a defense.
Going to try this post again I hate these phones. This is not for the miami dolphin organization this is for The so called fans of today i’ve been one since nineteen sixty eight, So I’ve watched pro football when it was real football. Not today’s headcases soft cases cry baby cases bitch in moaning cases. I don’t know what’s worse, fans that think because they’re podcast available and that can do that, or because they have a phone or a tablet or a compete computer that it makes them experts at chiming in especially when probably 95% of them never played pro football never never. Coached pro football never never was a trainer or a even A War boy. Yeah, you got freedom of speech. I fought for 32 years in the military and went through combat so that this country could have these freedoms. But we don’t use theincorrectly I’ll use the sad shooting experience after the Super Bowl when we’ve had 48 shootings prior To the Kansas City parade and the year is not even 2 months old yet. So why did we feel we needed to Go out in a massive crowd, which is like shooting fish in a pond or should I say a barrel? Actually, it’s pitiful. We can’t stop guns. There will always be in existence. I don’t care if you take them away from good citizens like me or whoever, but we can stop the. Reasons, people are killing in masses. By not getting together in masses, especially for something like a Super Bowl. Parade, is that Worth it?Nooooooo! Back to pro football , if you want to call it that I’ll tell you players of yesteryearof the real football like jack tatum, Walter payton, Ray lewis, Hacks aw Reynolds, Deacon jones, Walt garrison, Lawrence taylor, Randy white, The bruise brothers glen and Lyle blackwood, Earl campbell, Ken anderson, Mike ditka, Etc, etc, etc. I could go on till jesus comes back and he needs to come back soon. Pro football has become a joke. Players can’t tackle, but they can bump their coaches because they want to be seen and be a hero for their superstar girlfriend.