Monday, March 8, 2010
What does the first weekend of free agency tells us to expect?
2:13 PM | Posted by
Phins 2 Phins
The first weekend of free agency is behind us and, call me crazy, but I’m pretty pleased with what I have seen so far. Not only did we get that big name signing we have been waiting for, but most importantly, in my opinion; I believe the front office showed us that they can see where our weaknesses are and they are ready to do something about them. Basically mediocrity is no longer good enough for this team and I like that.
Porter’s release didn’t come as a surprise, considering they had already tried to let him go, but Akin Ayodele and more so, Gibril Wilson were, at least to me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I expected or wanted them to be starters next season, but I definitely didn’t see the release coming that early into the offseason. The ILB position is something we all expected would be addressed if not in free agency, in the early rounds of the draft, but safety is something I honestly thought that we would consider in the later rounds with the expectation that Gibril would be the guy that we would rely on; we did after all spend a lot of money on him.
As I said before though, I do feel like the front office made a statement with those releases and I like the attitude. For the first time in a long time I feel like we are building a team to win, not one year but to dominate for years to come, and for this reason alone, I have a little more faith in Parcells and what he is doing, I feel as though he has a plan and he is in the process of executing it, so although I’m anxious, I’m not so worried anymore.
The Dansby signing is another big step and one that fans should be very happy about, and as I said in a previous post, one of the smartest investments we could’ve made. Dansby was signed to a five year deal for $43 million, with $27 million guaranteed in the first three years.
Most fans are ecstatic about the Dansby deal, as am I, but there are a few doubters out there. Let me just say that it’s not all about the numbers with Dansby, I read a report on ESPN were they compared his numbers to Ayodele’s and came up with something like a 5% difference in effectiveness. But have you seen this guy play? There will not be one game were you don’t hear Dansby’s name called, he is a machine and he doesn’t stop! I believe his addition to the defense will also help improve Crowder’s game; prior to last season he was able to come up with a big number of tackles and having Dansby play opposite him I believe will bring some of that back.
Another big smart move that might have gone a little unnoticed is the resigning of Chad Pennington. Pennington signed a one year deal for $2.5 million, with a $1.515 million “trade bonus” clause and the option of earning $5.75 million if he earns the starting job. Regardless of the salary incentive offered if he was to become a starter, I still believe that Pennington was resigned with the idea of being a back up to Henne. Some people might think that this might generate a QB controversy which will be detrimental to the team; I personally believe that Pennington being on board will bring Henne’s game up to the next level, especially if they get him that #1 WR. I do have to admit that although I wanted Pennington back, I didn’t think he would be, the fact that a deal has been worked out just shows that not only do the Dolphins respect Pennington as a player (unlike that other team that all of a sudden wanted him back), but also that Pennington’s heart is with the Dolphins.
Of course there are those people out there who are a little disappointed about the guys we didn’t sign, but I never really considered those guys to be the exact pieces that we needed. Out of the three WR I thought we would consider, I still stand by the fact that I think Marshall is our guy, trading in a #12 pick for Marshall gives you a player who has already proved he can make the plays and although I like Dez Bryant, if I had the choice I would pick Marshall, plus, if anyone does end up picking up Marshall then Bryant is sure to go to the Broncos. As far as the character issues go, I believe you have to take into account the role that McDaniel’s played in them, this is a different team and I believe Marshall would come with a change in attitude.
As far as Boldin goes, I did say he would be a trade I would consider for a third round pick and a lot of people thought that would never happen; the truth is I wasn’t too far off, Arizona traded Boldin and a 2010 fifth round pick to Baltimore for a 2010 third and fourth round pick. Yet I feel that not only is Boldin injury prone, but he also wouldn’t be as effective without a #1 guy, so I think we might have been disappointed if we had actually gotten him, but we’ll never know now.
As far as A. Rolle and his deal with the Giants, I personally think they overpaid for him, the deal we offered I thought was a fair one and although it was obviously not enough, I don’t think he merits more, but again we’ll see how that works out for the Giants. I actually believe that Ryan Clark will be our guy and I’m happy about that, I expect we’ll hear an update on that soon enough. I have heard some people are concerned about whether or not he’ll miss games due to his blood condition, and that is a possibility, but this guy is tough and hard hitting and definitely worth getting regardless. Different players miss games every season due to injury, this guy missed one game last season. The fact that the team is aware the player won’t make it to that game ahead of time should allow them to make adjustments.
The one move I wasn’t too happy about was the decision not to resign Nate Jones, Jones was one of the best special teams players we had and I was more than a little disappointed when I heard he had signed a four year deal with the Broncos. That however wasn’t the most disappointing news I heard all weekend; finding out about Jason Ferguson’s eight game suspension due to violation of the NFL’s substance abuse policy was. I really was hoping we would resign Ferguson for one more year if he chose not to retire, but the truth of the matter is, this is not a big a setback as a lot of people think. I believe we had every intention of drafting a nose tackle in the draft regardless because as it has been said many times, there are a couple available and these type of players do not come around to often; still I feel this is a horrible note for Ferguson to retire on, and I have to believe the substance abuse they’re reporting comes as a result of his injury and not performance enhancing drugs, although I don’t know that for sure.
It’s only been about 4 days but this free agency already has and will continue to give us much to talk about, I will continue to post updates as soon as they become available, remember phins2phins is now on twitter, follow us at www.twitter.com/phins2phins to get up to the minute news and feel free to share any comments below or send suggestions to phins2phins@gmail.com
Porter’s release didn’t come as a surprise, considering they had already tried to let him go, but Akin Ayodele and more so, Gibril Wilson were, at least to me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I expected or wanted them to be starters next season, but I definitely didn’t see the release coming that early into the offseason. The ILB position is something we all expected would be addressed if not in free agency, in the early rounds of the draft, but safety is something I honestly thought that we would consider in the later rounds with the expectation that Gibril would be the guy that we would rely on; we did after all spend a lot of money on him.
As I said before though, I do feel like the front office made a statement with those releases and I like the attitude. For the first time in a long time I feel like we are building a team to win, not one year but to dominate for years to come, and for this reason alone, I have a little more faith in Parcells and what he is doing, I feel as though he has a plan and he is in the process of executing it, so although I’m anxious, I’m not so worried anymore.
The Dansby signing is another big step and one that fans should be very happy about, and as I said in a previous post, one of the smartest investments we could’ve made. Dansby was signed to a five year deal for $43 million, with $27 million guaranteed in the first three years.
Most fans are ecstatic about the Dansby deal, as am I, but there are a few doubters out there. Let me just say that it’s not all about the numbers with Dansby, I read a report on ESPN were they compared his numbers to Ayodele’s and came up with something like a 5% difference in effectiveness. But have you seen this guy play? There will not be one game were you don’t hear Dansby’s name called, he is a machine and he doesn’t stop! I believe his addition to the defense will also help improve Crowder’s game; prior to last season he was able to come up with a big number of tackles and having Dansby play opposite him I believe will bring some of that back.
Another big smart move that might have gone a little unnoticed is the resigning of Chad Pennington. Pennington signed a one year deal for $2.5 million, with a $1.515 million “trade bonus” clause and the option of earning $5.75 million if he earns the starting job. Regardless of the salary incentive offered if he was to become a starter, I still believe that Pennington was resigned with the idea of being a back up to Henne. Some people might think that this might generate a QB controversy which will be detrimental to the team; I personally believe that Pennington being on board will bring Henne’s game up to the next level, especially if they get him that #1 WR. I do have to admit that although I wanted Pennington back, I didn’t think he would be, the fact that a deal has been worked out just shows that not only do the Dolphins respect Pennington as a player (unlike that other team that all of a sudden wanted him back), but also that Pennington’s heart is with the Dolphins.
Of course there are those people out there who are a little disappointed about the guys we didn’t sign, but I never really considered those guys to be the exact pieces that we needed. Out of the three WR I thought we would consider, I still stand by the fact that I think Marshall is our guy, trading in a #12 pick for Marshall gives you a player who has already proved he can make the plays and although I like Dez Bryant, if I had the choice I would pick Marshall, plus, if anyone does end up picking up Marshall then Bryant is sure to go to the Broncos. As far as the character issues go, I believe you have to take into account the role that McDaniel’s played in them, this is a different team and I believe Marshall would come with a change in attitude.
As far as Boldin goes, I did say he would be a trade I would consider for a third round pick and a lot of people thought that would never happen; the truth is I wasn’t too far off, Arizona traded Boldin and a 2010 fifth round pick to Baltimore for a 2010 third and fourth round pick. Yet I feel that not only is Boldin injury prone, but he also wouldn’t be as effective without a #1 guy, so I think we might have been disappointed if we had actually gotten him, but we’ll never know now.
As far as A. Rolle and his deal with the Giants, I personally think they overpaid for him, the deal we offered I thought was a fair one and although it was obviously not enough, I don’t think he merits more, but again we’ll see how that works out for the Giants. I actually believe that Ryan Clark will be our guy and I’m happy about that, I expect we’ll hear an update on that soon enough. I have heard some people are concerned about whether or not he’ll miss games due to his blood condition, and that is a possibility, but this guy is tough and hard hitting and definitely worth getting regardless. Different players miss games every season due to injury, this guy missed one game last season. The fact that the team is aware the player won’t make it to that game ahead of time should allow them to make adjustments.
The one move I wasn’t too happy about was the decision not to resign Nate Jones, Jones was one of the best special teams players we had and I was more than a little disappointed when I heard he had signed a four year deal with the Broncos. That however wasn’t the most disappointing news I heard all weekend; finding out about Jason Ferguson’s eight game suspension due to violation of the NFL’s substance abuse policy was. I really was hoping we would resign Ferguson for one more year if he chose not to retire, but the truth of the matter is, this is not a big a setback as a lot of people think. I believe we had every intention of drafting a nose tackle in the draft regardless because as it has been said many times, there are a couple available and these type of players do not come around to often; still I feel this is a horrible note for Ferguson to retire on, and I have to believe the substance abuse they’re reporting comes as a result of his injury and not performance enhancing drugs, although I don’t know that for sure.
It’s only been about 4 days but this free agency already has and will continue to give us much to talk about, I will continue to post updates as soon as they become available, remember phins2phins is now on twitter, follow us at www.twitter.com/phins2phins to get up to the minute news and feel free to share any comments below or send suggestions to phins2phins@gmail.com
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2 comments:
very good and pretty much what i was thinking. but i dont like the pennington signing not with incentives he should have been made clear he isnt the starter this is not good for the team.the first bad game henne has it'll start and there goes the season. and crowder is still and will be a bum and should trade him asap for anything sorry i got on my soap box TRADE CROWDER 2010
I agree with the last comment Crowder has to go. But I like Chad coming back. He is one of the smartest players in the nfl and Henne can only learn from him. We all know the only way Pennington starts is if Henne gets hurt.
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