Remember back in September when the Miami Dolphins traded away 2018 1st-round pick Minkah Fitzpatrick to the Pittsburgh Steelers? The football world was so shellshocked by this latest brazen “tanking” move that the Dolphins were prompted to bring out general manager Chris Grier from behind the curtain to address the media and discuss the Dolphins’ long-term plans and why they’ve made some of the bold personnel decisions that they have.
That press conference, which was held on September 17th, can provide Dolphins fans with significant clues as to what the offseason holds for Miami — now that the Dolphins are two and a half weeks away from another year.
Grier, when asked about free agency and the the amount of cap space the Dolphins are projected to have, mentioned that Miami is going to spend.
“We’ve talked about building this long-term with sustained success right away and for us, we’ll be very aggressive (in free agency). We’re not going to sit here on a bunch of money or anything. The plan is to build a winner here,” said Grier.
“No one likes losing…again, long-term vision but we will be aggressive.”
What does that mean, exactly? It most likely means that the Dolphins will take advantage of the cap space they have at their disposal to start paying players up front. Too many players under Mike Tannenbaum’s watch signed big-money free agent contracts or contract extensions that had deferred guaranteed money to future years. When it came time to pay those players, the Dolphins habitually restructured the deals to further push back those commitments and create more cap space to sign more short-term fixes.
The end result of this type of approach is the roster purge you saw the Dolphins undergo this year. Miami had to pay, and pay dearly, to clear the books of their year by year mentality in 2019. No longer. Chris Grier’s Dolphins in 2020 are likely to spend to attract starters to play in Miami, but their guaranteed cash will be inserted at the front end of the deal. That way if a player underwhelms, Miami can cut bait after two seasons and have no lingering effects on their plentiful salary cap situation.
That’s how you be aggressive and simultaneously build a long-term winner.
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