Free agent news - Dolphins and general NFL

Figured I'd start a catch-all thread for all things free agency around the NFL.

I'll start off by saying that the Bucs have released edge rusher Shaq Barrett. While he has never come close to repeating his 19.5 sack season from a few years ago, he's a solid veteran and could be a nice pickup for the Phins. It's possible that he's out of Miami's price range, but I hope they at least kick the tires.

The Kansas City Chiefs have informed L'Jarius Sneed they are prepared to use the franchise tag and are open to consummating a trade if no long-term deal is reached, a source told ESPN's Jeremy Fowler on Tuesday.

Sneed is agreeable to the scenario, which gives him a chance to talk with other teams while the Chiefs remain in play for his services for the 2024 season. Pending league approval, a new contract for Sneed, a free agent, could be worked out as part of a trade to kick in at the start of the new league year. The source stressed that a trade is very much on the table.

The Chiefs are expected to use the nonexclusive franchise tag, which would cost about $19 million for the 2024 season.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39610705/chiefs-prep-tag-ljarius-sneed-open-trade

just posting as this is an approach some have suggested that Miami might have to take regarding Wilkins.

Oh hell...Grier's actually going to trade for Sneed isn't he? ISN'T HE?!?!

(And when it happens just remember who called it first.)

BTW when are the Bills going to break out the scissors and start cutting? They don't have a whole lot of time left to get that cap down

Well I can't complain if we bring in another stud at CB.

Not sure if it's wise to allocate so much money in the secondary, but if this is Grier's strategy - ride or die with it I guess

A Dolphins trade for Snead won't happen, but like white said - two stud corners isn't a bad thing. But again, Grier isn't trading for Snead.

On another note, Dolphins free agent DT Raekwon Davis said that he wants to remain a Dolphin and really isn't interested in testing the FA market. If he wants to come back on a team-friendly deal as a role player, I'm in - but we'd still need a behemoth NT for Weaver's D.

JMP wrote:but we'd still need a behemoth NT for Weaver's D.

I Knew it!!!

JMP is advocating for the Phins to draft T'Vondre Sweat!!!

Settle down, DF316! Settle down!

Just expect to be devastated by the Phins draft and you will not be surprised.



W1 - I'd rather have Chris Jones than Snead. Let Wilkins go, scrape up enough cap to get Jones in Miami for a couple of seasons. Let Tua play out and then tag him maybe? Maybe win a SB and then rebuild everything and start over. The real "Live-for-today" approach as done by the Rams a few season ago. Except, the Rams needed a QB, not a great DT. SO... I doubt even if the Phins had Jones on the DLine they could field enough around him to win it all. Or could they??

Grier said today that the Dolphins are not closing the door on bringing back...Xavien Howard! I'd be fine bringing the X Man back on a cheap deal...but I have to believe he'll get a much bigger payday somewhere else.

finfanatic wrote:

JMP wrote:but we'd still need a behemoth NT for Weaver's D.

I Knew it!!!

JMP is advocating for the Phins to draft T'Vondre Sweat!!!      

Settle down, DF316! Settle down!  

Just expect to be devastated by the Phins draft and you will not be surprised.

   

W1 - I'd rather have Chris Jones than Snead. Let Wilkins go, scrape up enough cap to get Jones in Miami for a couple of seasons. Let Tua play out and then tag him maybe? Maybe win a SB and then rebuild everything and start over. The real "Live-for-today" approach as done by the Rams a few season ago. Except, the Rams needed a QB, not a great DT. SO... I doubt even if the Phins had Jones on the DLine they could field enough around him to win it all. Or could they??  

LOL I'm certainly not pounding the table for T'Vondre Sweat - but I'd definitely be happy with him in the 2nd round.

Chris Jones supposedly is close to signing a long-term deal with the Chiefs.

JMP wrote:Grier said today that the Dolphins are not closing the door on bringing back...Xavien Howard!  I'd be fine bringing the X Man back on a cheap deal...but I have to believe he'll get a much bigger payday somewhere else.

GM Speak......Because if that was the case he would have tried to keep him.  But X said he wont take less money. He tried to get more a couple years ago after he got the re-up. More dumbshit we don't need.

I don't blame X for striking while the iron was hot, things change quickly in the NFL. He had a great 8 year run here, certainly one to rival what Madison or Surtain did. But both of those guys eventually found more $$ elsewhere as veterans and I believe JMP is right, it'll be the same way with X.

I'm now hearing that Baker actually wants to come back and would be amenable to a pay cut/restructuring/extension, but I'm still not seeing any way he can be kept. Even if I'm wrong this team still needs another LB in a bad way.

I'm also hearing that Raekwon Davis, who I just assumed was gone for probably 2 years now, also wants to stay.

Oui shall see...

Robert Hunt is going to test the free agency market - which means his time as a Dolphin is over.

Really good player that I like a lot, but I'm in the "never overpay guards" camp.

JMP wrote:but I'm in the "never overpay guards" camp.

While I agree with you about positions having certain values, you cannot make this an absolute hard and fast rule IMO. If you do, it leads to sheer unadulterated dumbarseness sometimes ...For instance, it was following one of these hard and fast rules from Parcells that led to the idiocy of taking the good possibly great LT over a potential franchise QB!

The Phins were STARVING for a whiff of franchise QB and had the #1 overall pick and bypassed the QB to take a LT!! Talk about abject stupidity IMO!

The team situation, the personnel, the cap, the position strength or weakness all have to be factored in before you start sticking to general principle rules IMO.

Consider: The Miami Dolphins Oline has been a weakness on the team for years. It might be posited that the weak Oline which ONE, unable to get any traction in the run game versus strong defenses and TWO, could not pass block said teams and give the pass offense time to work...was the main reason the Phins had a losing record against teams with a winning record! Not because of Hunt, who is one of the Oline's best players. The other best Olineman on the team (Williams) is also a free agent. The Phins have already locked in Jackson at RT, Armstead is returning. Do you take the chance of making the major weak unit on the team (The Oline) even weaker by letting Hunt go in free agency due to this rule about overpaying OGs? When possibly faced with having to rebuild the entire interior Oline?

Let's suppose that just like the last two seasons, that the Phins future next season will ride or die with the performance of the Oline. How much would it be worth to ensure you had a RG of Hunt's caliber starting?

I suspect you are correct, JMP, and Hunt has played his last day for the Phins. I really HOPE Grier and others have considered this decision though.

What with the cap situation though, I don't see much the Phins can do.

Good post, FF, and I agree in principle. But unless you are talking about a Hall of Fame-caliber player, the idea of paying a guard upwards of $15 million a year (as has been speculated for Hunt) is insane to me. We're talking about a player that, while good, has never sniffed a Pro Bowl let alone an All Pro. Those distinctions aren't the be all, end all of course, but it is clear that Hunt is not viewed as a top player at his position. Even if we had tons of available cap space, I wouldn't want to pay a guard that much.

As far as losing Hunt making the OL worse, we don't know that at all. Our next RG could be just as good as, or even an upgrade to, Hunt. Just as one example, we could sign old man Kevin Zeitler for a year or two at a fraction of the cost and get more or less the same level of play.

Interesting:

FinsXtra
@FinsXtra

Chris Grier on Isaiah Wynn: "Isaiah's in everyday rehabbing in the facility. He said he loved it here so we're going to see if we can get something done there." #FinsUp

6:12 PM · Feb 28, 2024

If Wynn is healthy, I'd welcome him back. He was pretty good before the injury. Still need better guard depth, though.

Good news on Wynn. My only concern is that I think the Pats let Wynn go because he kept getting injured (IIRC) ? I think I read that on a Pats fan site so... Yeah, He's only managed 17 games in one season... 2021... in 2019 he played in 8 games... in 2020 he played in 10, in 2022 he played in 10 and of course in 7 for the Phins in 2023. In his five seasons he is averaging 58% playing!!! That's not very reliable. The best ability is AVAILABILITY!! Still he played well when he was in at LG.

I agree on Hunt PROBABLY not being worth 13-15 mill. But let's say he doesn't get the big offer and is willing to sign for 9-10 mill per?

I think the cap problems are going to mean the Phins couldn't even match that.

My point was that you just can't set a hard and fast rule on OG pay and not look at the team's situation. That is the way Dave Dumbstedt ran the Dolphins and who in their right mind would attempt to emulate his personnel policies!!

Sometimes... Paying a OG more than you want to is the right thing to do. But in this case... with the cap like it is, and having to try and sign Tua and Wilkins, AVG, etc... I do think Hunt is going to get paid far more than Miami wants to pay to keep him.

I can see why the mocks are tending to say Miami goes for Troy Fautanu or Graham Barton at #21!!

finfanatic wrote:

I agree on Hunt PROBABLY not being worth 13-15 mill. But let's say he doesn't get the big offer and is willing to sign for 9-10 mill per?

I think the cap problems are going to mean the Phins couldn't even match that.

If Hunt only expected to get $9-10 million, he'd be a Dolphin right now. But you never know what will happen on the open market. If he can't find more money than that, the Dolphins will almost certainly bring him back. And they'll have plenty of cap space to do whatever they need to do.

You had to know they'd lose at least ONE of the Big Three (Wilkins, AVG and Hunt). If Grier actually manages to keep the other two I promise everybody that I will make a thread praising him for once. Seriously.

I have to agree with Jmp that guard is the one position you don't want to overpay for and as FF said, this team likely can't afford him even at a discount. At least we know the Bills won't be able to afford him either. And yes, as much as I liked him Hunt isn't exactly Quenton Nelson (who hasn't exactly been himself either the last 3 seasons).

Here are the yearly averages for left and right guards (they're split for some odd reason).

https://overthecap.com/position/left-guard

https://overthecap.com/position/right-guard

Is Hunt in the same class as the top moneymakers on either list? I say no, but he sure wants to be paid like it.

The thinking likely is to replace Hunt with Wynn, which makes sense. Still need at least two interior O-linemen from somewhere else, though.

Also, this is what I was talking about in terms of Grier's mistakes stacking up. Had they drafted O'Cyrus Torrence last year like I (and FF apparently) wanted then it would be a simple matter of re-signing Wynn and POOF~! there's your two starting guards. But now they'll need to fill the hole left by Hunt *and* get a new center and whatever else.

DolFan 316 wrote:Also, this is what I was talking about in trms of Grier's mistakes stacking up. Had they drafted O'Cyrus Torrence last year like I (and FF apparently) wanted then it would be a simple matter of re-signing Wynn and POOF~! there's your two starting guards. But now they'll need to fill the hole left by Hunt *and* get a new center and whatever else.

Only so much you can do with limited draft picks. And Torrence had medical and conditioning concerns - that's why he fell all the way to 59 after being almost universally mocked as a mid-late first rounder. Every team in the league passed on him (including the Bills), some more than once.

I still expect Cam Smith to pan out - and we'll see how Torrence holds up long-term.

And don't forget I wanted the Phins to get OG Trey Smith when he came out in 2021. That was the draft with the infamous trade of a 2nd and 3rd to move up 8 spots to get Eichenberg trade.

Heck, I would have used the 3rd rounder on Smith instead of taking TE Hunter Long!!!

The Phins did not have a 4th, 5th, or 6th rounder that year. Trey Smith went # 226 overall in the bottom of the 6th to the Chiefs and Grier and Co. took Larnel Coleman OT at #231 overall in the top of the 7th!!

I doubt Grier would have drafted Smith anyway, but...

Sometimes it is not the moves you DO make that get you canned, it is the moves you DO NOT Make that are so costly.

Of course, I readily admit that all these decisions are very easy to evaluate with the benefit of hindsight!

finfanatic wrote:And don't forget I wanted the Phins to get OG Trey Smith when he came out in 2021. That was the draft with the infamous trade of a 2nd and 3rd to move up 8 spots to get Eichenberg trade.  

Heck, I would have used the 3rd rounder on Smith instead of taking TE Hunter Long!!!

Now that I can get behind. The trade up for Eich was really bad, and Long was a wasted pick.

We cant change the past because if we signed Drew Brees instead of Culpepper we wouldn't be in this situation. LMAO

Hunt......geez what can I say. HMMMMMM.....Our Oline was so atrocious for years, do we really know what good Oline play is anymore? Have we even seen the likes of Richmond Webb or Keith Sims in the last 20-30 years? When I look at Hunt, and compare him to the rest I can say that he is by far the best lineman on the Line when Terron don't play. But that's not saying much when you compare him to Eich, Jones, Cotton. I am not sure I would give him the payday. Shit, I wouldn't have given Jackson anything either. I just think that Mcdaniel designed something that protected their weaknesses. Schemed protection with a quicker passing game than anyone esle was ready for. But when Tua dropped back longer than 5steps we got in trouble.

Umix makes a good point. Maybe the scheme McD is running which relies on quick passing and the ability to screen a defender or control your zone rather than brute force or a sizeable streak of orneryness/meaness is why Grier doesn't seem to prioritize the Oline in the draft like he should IMO.

I am still a proponent for planning this year to lose the valuable starter who will be big money free agent next season. Get someone in that can study and learn behind that player and maybe be the backup this year. Hard to do when you have traded away most of your picks or the idiot owner has lost you some picks, but...

Grier has not done that on the Oline so far...unless Hayes, or Kion Smith for example turn out to be very good?

If Cam Smith takes over for Howard that would an example of a Grier draft pick taking over for a big money player.

Good insight, Umix.

The quick passing game definitely hides some OL warts. But it isn't sustainable, especially against good teams. It's great to get the ball out quickly, but you can't have your offense disappear on plays where getting the ball out fast just isn't possible. The line has to be able to sustain blocks when they need to - you can't rely on a pass coming out in 2 seconds on every single dropback.

I thought Austin Jackson had a fantastic season - for the most part. At the end of the year it seemed like he ran out of gas a bit. I know he was banged up a bit, but his play clearly dropped off late in the season. Still, from my perspective he was our top lineman all season.