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The Miami Dolphins’ ongoing evaluation of their offensive line is going to prompt changes this offseason. The Dolphins spent heavily along the offensive line throughout the last offseason and endured some successes with adding young players into the mix — but the line is still not a finished product in any way. Miami must continue to improve the trenches if they hope to become a championship caliber program; no easy task.
One possible candidate for Miami is a player the team was closely tied to in the buildup to last year’s free agent window, offensive guard Joe Thuney. Thuney, who was hit with the franchise tag by the Patriots last year on the cusp of hitting the open market, is one again set for free agency after playing the year on the franchise tag in 2020. Does he make sense for the Dolphins?
Fit In Dolphins’ Scheme
The question of Thuney being a fit in Miami’s offense is yes, absolutely. He’s one of the better interior offensive linemen in all of football and Thuney undoubtedly would be an upgrade for the Dolphins’ line. He’d automatically become the team’s best offensive lineman. And it wouldn’t be especially close. The connection between Thuney and Brian Flores make this an obvious match to try to make — but there are hurdles to be found, mainly in the cost of bringing Thuney into the picture.
Fit In Dolphins’ Cap
Miami brought in Ereck Flowers last year in free agency on a 3-year, $30M contract after Thuney was snatched off the open market by the Patriots. Both Miami and the New York Jets were expected to compete for him closely. And now, with Thuney set to hit the open market once again, Miami does not have the same cash surplus to work with and throw money at luring him into the picture. Yes, Miami could afford Thuney no questions asked. But if they pursue that contract — which will likely be top dollar for interior lineman, they’ll need to shed away Flowers’ contract. The only way to avoid the dead cap space given to Flowers via guaranteed salary is to trade him to another team.
So that makes this move a risky one for Miami. You can sign Thuney to a record deal, assuming you can outbid the New York Jets and the New England Patriots (although they are, according to The Athletic, reportedly “nowhere close” on dollars now) and presumably other teams, but then if you can’t move Flowers you’re eating $9M in cap space to have one of the two (Flowers) ride the bench.
Final Verdict
Miami would be a great landing spot for Thuney and the team could certainly use the upgrade. But the cap situation and Thuney’s expected cost make this a challenging proposition — one that isn’t easily solved and would likely require too many steps to go right for the team to feel confident in their ability to successfully swing the transition. Given Flowers’ age, cost and level of play, Miami would probably have to give away a pick along with Flowers for a lesser pick in return to open up the cap space needed to aggressively and confidently pursue Thuney this spring.