Let Them All Walk And Take The Comp Picks

[MrEd]

The Dolphins have a legitimate opportunity to make their team better and at the same time secure for themselves the max 4 compensation picks in the 2014 draft; and not just comp picks, high comp picks.

There are a lot of teams with serious cap issues this offseason, far more than most years; aided by the NFL penalizing the Saints,Redskins, and Cowboys, but the Steelers, Giants,Raiders, and many other teams as well are also in big trouble when it comes to re-signing their free agents and avoiding having to cut players to get their team cap down.

The Dolphins have a unique opportunity with several marquee FA's and over 40 mil in cap to exploit the situation to their advantage.

I will offer a scenario of what could be done.

As the title indicated they all walk. Jake Long,Reggie Bush,Brian Hartline,Sean Smith,Anthony Fasano,Randy Starks,Chris Clemons,Tony McDaniel and Nate Garner.

Bring back guys who won't count like Jonathan Amaya and Brian McCann(who was a real bright spot by the way).

Trade John Jerry and Marcus Thigpen for a 5th and a 6th.

Move Jonathan Martin to RG. Why have the guy who led the league in QB hurries playing a position he can't physically handle when he could actually become a stud gaurd.

Move Nolan Carroll to safety. He has the size.

Lock up Reshad Jones and Paul Soliai. Hope that Richard Marshall returns 100% and plays kickass nickel all year long.

Sign free agents that get released/cut/cap casualities. They don't count against receiving comp, only the UFA's count.

Players like Mike Vick, Matt Cassell,Carson Palmer,Santana Moss,Mario Manningham,Chri Gamble,Chris Canty,James Harrison,Josh Wilson,DeAngelo Hall,Chris Johnson,Quentin Jammer,Anqhan Boldin,David Diehl,Kenny Phillips, and the list just goes on and on this year of guys who stand a very good chance of being released not because of bad play but because their teams are in cap hell.

Let's say the Dolphins sign Santana Moss and Mario Manningham to similar deals as they had last year. That's about 6 mil with a discount for Moss' age and Manningham's injury history. Let's say a 3year 15 mil incentive laden deal for Chris Gamble (one of the best cover corners in the NFL when healthy). Give James Harrison a fat 1 yr deal to play certain
downs especially if they do more hybrid stuff next year. This is a luxury thing but the Dolphins have to get to the cap minimum.

Dolphins could still sign a could still sign a couple mid tier and maybe one top tier FA and still get max comp so let's say The Dolphins sign CB Keenan Lewis, who I predict will be the next true shut down corner to arise in the NFL. Right now this would be a mid tier and may stand because their are a lot of FA CB's on the market this offseason.

Another must acquisition would be Desmand Bryant DT. Pro Football focus's top rated interior DL this offseason and like Lewis, is likely to hit the open market because of the Raider's cap situation.

I advocate a trade offer to the Giants for Victor Cruz. Because of the threat of a hold out(in the event of a RFA tender) and the fact that the Giants cap situation may be one of the worst in NFL history, I think there may be an outside chance of getting a deal done for players and our 2nd from Indy. Dolphins have some young inexpensive players that could really help the Giants keep their roster somewhat in tact.

The reason to trade for Cruz rather than sign Jennings are obvious. Cruz is younger and a 5 or 6 year deal makes sense; however the biggest reason IMO is that I totally believe that if Cruz is tendered, the Patriots will jump all over giving him offer. Their late 1st rounder carries way less value than other parties like the Browns or Dolphins who may be inteerested. Cruz would be absolutely a perfect target for Tom Brady and make winning the east a lot harder next year.

I think if Cruz is traded the trancaction would count against compensation but I'm not sure. This would see the Dolphins losing 8 free agents and adding 3. Maybe we could say that Hartline and Keenan Lewis get similar contracts(because that is the biggest factor in determining comp value) Desmond Bryant and Sean Smith cancel out, and Jake Long and Victor Cruz cancel out.

That would still leave the Dolphins getting comp for Randy Starks,Reggie Bush,Anthony Fasano(don't underestimate this one, Fasano had 0 drops last year and played over 900 snaps) and Chris Clemons and maybe some consideration for Tony McDaniel (who played a surprising numbeer of snaps last year, won the ED Block courage award, and could garner a pretty good contract from a 3-4 team, he is a natural 5-technique IMO)
This would obviously get us 4 comp picks and a sure 3rd for Starks, depending on how things go for the other guys next year we could even get another 3rd and two 4ths if one of these guys starts all year and goes to the post season.

Draft: Trade down with Seattle(or whoever) and add a 2nd.

1st..................................................Lane Johnson...............OT
2nd...................................................Tyler Eifert/Zach Ertz.......TE
2nd.......................................................Phillip Thomas..................S..........One of, if not thee biggest playmaker in this draft. 8 int's 4 ff's
3rd........................................................Travis Long........................LB/LS.......Brilliant kid, 4 year starter, pass rusher,special teams, may need to start if Misi is part of the Cruz trade
3rd...............Trade down and add a 4th........Marquies Goodwin...........WR/KR/RB..No more olympics, no more track and field. Look for Goodwin to add about 8-12 pounds
4th............................................................Dion Sims.......................TE.....Best TE in this year's draft IMO
4th............................................................Reid Fragel......................OT
5th............................................................Dwayne Gratz.................CB
5th.........................................................Brandon Kaufman...............WR.....The next Brandon Marshall...............don't laugh, wait 3 years
6th.......................................................Cooper Taylor....................LB.......Big safety I'd move to LB and teach him how to shutdown Gronk and Hernandez, academic all american
7th......................................................Caleb Schreibeiss................DE/OLB.........Buck Buchanon award winner, pass rusher, academic all american
7th.....................................................Mike Catapano.....................DE............Pass rusher, kicked ass at the Shrine game
FA...................................................Colby Cameron......................QB
FA...................................................Marquiess Gray.....................WR/TE/H-back/QB
FA....................................................Melvin White.......................DB

Roster:
QB.........Tannehill,Devlin,Cameron(PS)
RB.........Miller,Thomas,Gray,Thigpen,Goodwin
FB.........Lane,Clay
TE.........Sims,Eifert,Egnew
WR........Cruz,Moss,Bess,Manningham,Goodwin,Matthews
OT.........Lane,Fragel,Adams,Yeatmen
C/OG......Pouncey,Incognito,Martin,Samuda,Burden

DT........Soliai,Bryant,,Randall,Alexcinth
DE........Wake,Odrick,Harrison,Schreibeiss,Catapano,Vernon
LB........Dansby,Burnett,Misi,Long,Taylor,Trusnik
S.........Jones,Thomas,Marshall,Amaya,Carroll
CB.......Gamble,Lewis,Marshall,McCann,Gratz,White

K...Kaeding
P....Fields
LS...Denney

Dolphins in this scenario would be around the cap minimum meaning they could carry over the max allowed amount to add to next year's cap, leaving the Dolphins with a very nice situation again in next year's offseason, as well as having at least 11 picks in the 2014 draft.

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[moparman]

Nice job Elliot but we have Ireland making our moves enough said.

[maralieus]

Getting rid of Thigpen would be really dumb. He should be returning punts and kicks next year. Bess doesnt have big play potential at all, though he is consistent. Special teams may seem like a luxury, but if you have a gamebreaker returning kicks it can be huge. Especially when you get into punting battles like we tend to do.

[Phins89]

To that plan "Not blooday likely"

[Robonious]

I'm getting tired of these Madden-like offseason plans.

this.....

[TealAttack13]

Good work on the effort and detail.

Otherwise, this plan isn't realistic and any effort to pull this off would result in failure and steps backward.

Cruz is a good addition.

[Elliott 1]

Thanks for all the work you put in; I probably would agree with some of that, (although as someone pointed out, not so fast on compensatory picks as who we've signed is also factored in), but as soon as I read trading our first kick return threat in years who triples as a seam receiving and running threat who cost us nothing, frankly I stopped reading.
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Ya, you guys are right about Thigpen.

The comp issue was covered in the post. The biggest factor in determining the actual pick rounds given is contract. Playing time is a little part of it and even post season appearances have a little part, but the main issue is the contract given the player by his new team.

They actually do comparisons between the players lost and the new players added, so I went through that in the original post, estimating that Hartline's new contract would be similar to Desmond Bryant's and Cruz's would be similar to Jake Long's and cancel out any comp for Long or Hartline. I think I also cancelled out Sean Smith's value with the signing of Keenan Lewis, or something like that, whatever. The point is there were still 5 UFA's of significant value who would be getting nice contracts elsewhere and getting us comped because the players who get released/cut don't factor in to the issue of comp picks, only the UFA's; and like I wrote, I think when a RFA is traded they may factor into process, which is why I cancelled Jake Long's value in view of the proposed Cruz trade.

[Elliott 1]

To that plan "Not blooday likely"

Ya, I post a lot of radical things. Most of the time they are good, outside the box, thoughts; sometimes they aren't. For example:


I was the guy who, four years ago when Kap was a jr at Nevada, kept posting in the draft forum that Colin Kaepernick should be the Dolphins future at QB.

I even went as far as predicting that Kap would be a better QB and have a better career than John Elway. For this I was shredded and continually ridiculed fot the two years I continued to post until the stupendous idiot in charge drafted a center with 15th pick and the 49ers stole Kap with a trade up in the 2nd.

The Elway thing........Elway's carrer passing rating was in the 70's and he didn't get to the SB until late in his career. Kap has already posted a higher QB rating than Elway ever had in any year he played and Kap has, of course, has already been to the big one and almost pulled it out.

On the other hand, I also advocated very early on the drafting of Pat White to run the wildcat; not with an early 2nd mind you, but guilty just the same.

[TANanhasaBUSH]

Dion Sims? Dudes injured ALL THE TIME!

[UCF Nation]

No thanks.