Last week, I asked the question: So, am I out of my mind, or are we looking at our next rebuild yet again? The question itself was in reference to my overly long-winded post (HERE).
Below are some of your answers and thoughts on the QOTD-
bring back the whalers believes that we have too much talent to face a teardown in 2026. I agree in principle, but I also see a situation where the GM and HC are shown the door. If that happens, I think the roster is somewhat blown up. A new staff will want their own players, which they chose for various reasons.
I think we have too much talent for a tear down next year. If we had snoop day 1 we would have made the playoffs even though wouldn’t have gotten very far. Any meaningful tear down includes Tua and his contract which will obliterate that year, and while that may eventually be a good thing, I’d like to see one more shot with our core group.
I think our biggest need is to reinvent the offensive system. Even with Tua they just seemed to be in a funk this year. A better OL will help (please draft interior OL), but I think there’s something more fundamentally wrong going on that needs to get addressed. Start with McD giving up play calling.
I think our D held up decently. I’d consider franchise tagging holland as it might be worth paying up for the optionality of a one-year deal.
Yarganaught doesn’t want a guard in the first or second round. That is not what I mean. If they were looking at one at 13, I would prefer they trade down, add picks, and grab one in the late first. Ideally, they would use that first pick for another need and grab a guard in the second or third round, but this front office does not seem to make the best decisions at times.
While I’m not opposed to seeing them draft Guards in BOTH the 1st and 2nd round, I see them going with a Safety for that 1st pick @ #13. But for the love of god… no more high picks spent on “projects” or players coming off an injury. It their head is right, they should be starters on Day 1.
sdphinsfan thinks I am crazy, but I still argue that if we wind up with a new staff in 2026, much more change will happen than would have otherwise. Depending on who they let walk or trade away, some might see that as a teardown and rebuild. I’m not sure why my “hope” is “poppycock.” Hope implies that I hope, not knowing or even believing it will happen. My “hope” is based on the fact that there are some holes, especially at depth positions that need to be filled as many guys will move on. The bottom line is that the cap is real at some point, no matter what people feel, so the remaining spots outside of who they can potentially draft and whoever they give some reasonable money to or re-sign will have to be filled on the cheap. I doubt that all or even the majority of those will be some bargain gem, but I still reserve the right to hope. As to Ross, I don’t see him as the kind of owner who profoundly understands how to build a roster adequately, or Grier would most likely already be on the outs. I don’t see him telling Grier to fill a particular position with a good player, even if that’s been clearly needed more times than once. Ross is very intelligent, but we all have our nitch in life, and his is business and real estate. Ross has figured out how to make a ton more money from owning the team while never having a solid product on the field for any substantial period.
James (and the rest of you that agree with him), you’re crazy. Changes have to be made, but an entire teardown and rebuild is not necessary. But it is time to rip off the band aid. It’s gonna hurt a little, you’ll lose a few hairs on your arm, but grit your teeth and bear it and rip it off. A total teardown is just a perpetuation of the cycle this team has been on for 25 years. And they’ve shown no ability to get it right so please spare me having to go through all of that ONE MORE TIME.
There are many other gaps to fill, but I hope they can find some bargains in free agency.
This notion is poppycock. It’s not a reliable plan for building a roster. Now, I know that 1 in a thousand times, you can go to the flea market and find a gem. But the notion that you’re going find quality players for cheap in the NFL is about like finding a gem at the flea market. You might catch lightning in the bottle and get great play for a year from a vet (see Calais Campbell), but this isn’t a plan for building a roster. It’s patch work. It doesn’t build continuity or culture.
This isn’t hard. Rip the band aid off. If you’re Steve Ross, tell Grier going into this draft that you get at least one quality G, a S, and a LB. Tell MM that these players will earn their way on to the roster and they WILL not only play, but the coaching staff WILL have them prepared to play. If they balk, they’re fired, you promote Weaver, and you run the FO the best you can for the rest of 2025 unless you’ve already got a plan for a new GM. There’s talent on this roster, but it’s not spread evenly enough across all positions. The roster, with a few key additions, will be fine. This is a leadership issue. He elected not to deal with that this year so this is what we’re left with.
Left Shark, I think, agrees.
Spot on!
dedstrk316 says it’s a culture issue. Hard to disagree. We need more guys like Campbell but ones who are not 80 years old in football years.
You aren’t out of your mind at all. The only way to build a culture, which has been our problem for 30 years, is to have a philosophy that works draft guys that fit that culture to build it up. Hire coaches to build that foundation. They go from inexperienced defensive guy to inexperienced offensive guy back and forth again and again.
MiMiami seems to have kicked me off the wagon. Currently seeking a new ride!
“Unfortunately, I think it’s time for a teardown and a rebuild”
I’ve been calling for this over a year on this SB page. Get off my bandwagon!
SabanpickedCulpepper, who possibly has the funniest screen name, says just get it done!
Draft, sign, resign, hire, fire, whatever it takes to build a team that can beat Buffalo. If we can’t do that then nothing else matters. Buffalo is the elephant in the room, if they keep beating you every time season after season, then do something different because it’s not working
21Dave says I’m out of my mind, but also correct!?!
Yes Sexy-Texy you are out of your mind, but we all are.
Next year will be the burn it down and rebuild. Coaches and GMs gone. High priced players gone with post June cuts, and traded. We will start this thing all over again and I hope we don’t it with a HC with balls and a GM built the same way.
SlayerNation1 is out on Grier and the whole thing. I, too, was hoping that Grier was gone after this past season, but I’m not ready to tear the entire thing down, even if that’s where we may very well wind up.
A GM-down rebuild is necessary and anyone believing so should be vindicated on the heels of watching the playoffs as they progressed.
This current Miami construct is a world away from Conference Championship Weekend team and frankly, not very close to winning the division.
Need I remind that deep playoff accomplishments were the bar at this stage of the current regime. They are trending back towards Earth after never reaching the bar.
phinette thinks I’m an optimist, but my wife would disagree. Beyond that, it may be true that Tua is not the long-term answer most of us either still hope he is or hoped he would be.
You’re not crazy, just an optimist. Nothing wrong with that as long as you leave Fairyland before the season starts. I do not see us as a playoff team next year because of our QB and OL situation. Tua is not going anywhere, so we have to look at every option to strengthen the line. We’re probably going to let Holland walk, so drafting a safety should be a priority. Also, we need to get a decent backup QB and not worry about Tua’s feelings. Flores mishandled the situation, but he was correct in his assessment. Do you think Broadway directors hire understudies who suck? I say audition free agents and look to the draft. I like the potential of Will Howard. I know, now you can call me crazy, but he really made significant improvement throughout the year and will likely be around to grab in the third or fourth round. Heck, why not think about Zach Wilson or Kyle Trask? At least Wilson is mobile.
Thomas23059 disagrees with me across the board. Fair enough!
“am I out of my mind”
Isn’t everyone on here to one extent or another?
“I’m not sure that free agency will be the best option for a starter at guard, as the team faces challenges with the salary cap, but I’ll return to the cap issues later. Therefore, the other option is through the draft.”
Absolutely not. Free agency is a great place to be looking for a starting guard. Only 25 or so guards make more than $7 million a year. And we saw with Brewer that you can get $7 million a year for a cap hit under $3 million the first year. So starting guards are just not that expensive. And linemen are notoriously unreliable in the draft. Spend the money, it is worth it.
“they should be able to find a viable starter at guard with the 13th pick or even with a second”
If you spend the 13th overall pick on a guard, he better be playing like a HOFer from day one. A 2nd round pick is more likely.
“in a move that only made it worse, they gave Tua enough money to buy a small country”
That move made it better, not worse. Now instead of either tagging Tua for $40 million or finding a new QB, Miami can restructure Tua and get his cap hit down below $25 million.
“The key thing they need to do is stop deferring money for older vets who won’t likely be here”
And yet you still complain. They didn’t defer more money for Hill, they moved it up. They can easily move on in 2026. Big deals went to Tua and Waddle, young players that can be the foundation for the team. They had some shiny toy problems, but are working through those. Chubb has no guaranteed money, Hill has none in 2026, Armstead has none. They are positioned to move on from these contracts in the next two years.
“develop your own draft picks, keep your own guys”
Yes, but you can’t keep everyone. Wilkins and Hunt got ludicrous deals.
“but a good front office should have anticipated it and drafted the replacement beforehand in most cases”
And maybe they are learning. Paul, Wright, and Washington are all potentially replacements for vets who are on their way out in the next year or two.
“They can not continue this habit of developing their own drafted guys for other teams and then singing other teams’ free agents to giant deals or trading for and then giving giant deals to other teams’ players.”
Am I missing something? Have they continued this? Last time I can remember a trade with a big new deal was Ramsey in March of 2023.
MIAMI235 says I’m crazy but probably correct. It seems right, maybe.
You are Crazy!
Probably right about a lot of good points and strategy.
It’s ultimately hard to no where to begin, since there is always a possibility of getting worse!
Jptapt agrees with me that the cap situation is bad-bad. Only one team has less cap space than us, who was in the playoffs, and it was the Buffalo Bills. We are both in the negative going into the offseason. Both Super Bowl teams are in the positive.
I think the immediate priority is getting the cap under control. I don’t have any confidence that Grier can make the right personell decisions that would see the team going anywhere meaningful next year. Having said that, I don’t have any confidence that he can fix the cap either. I think the only alternative is to draft as best we can, primarily offensive line, and wait for a GM that hopefully can do the job properly.
dolphinfan1323 does not see tearing down and rebuilding regularly as a recipe for success. I agree, but does anyone see Grier following the model below? The sad truth is that once Grier is eventually gone, the chances that the teardown and rebuilding will happen are higher than not, as they will not ask us our opinions.
The thing of it is the constant tear down and completely rebuilding doesn’t bring success does kc bills ravens 49ers steelers eagles consistently tear the team down and rebuild from scratch no they are constantly retooling and drafting good players miamis problem is they let the players they hit on in the draft walk and give 2nd contacts to the average picks miami can’t get out of tuas contact after this year his 56 million is fully guaranteed in 2026 also chris grier is going to restructure contracts this year to free up cap space so they won’t be able to move on from other contracts next year we need to find a way to start moving some of these contracts like hill take a 4th if you can get rid of most his cap hit start building the trenches if this off-season is managed right this team can get back on track and be a payoff team a couple of great drafts and maybe a super bowl contend can grier do it probably not
Dolfanjoe says I am crazy but that we probably all are.
Are you crazy ? Are you a Fin Fan ? Insanity, believing over and over again and expecting a different result ! We saw years of rebuilds. We saw years of partial rebuilds ! Grier did do a complete dismantling of this team and started over. Hey made the playoff’s a couple of times. So what a GM on his most likely final year supposed to do ? Anything he can ! Kick the salary cap even further down the road is most like a thing to happen. Get different and more free agents. Draft picks, trade back and get more. Use next years # 1 and obtain more picks for this year. Helping much need and balance of salary cap ! Win Baby Win ! At any cost ! Will it work ? No telling ! New backup QB ? Why not draft one and develop. Good move if they do win this year and can say , Hey we are looking at the future too, not just this year ! Oh but back to the question. Yes you are Crazy ! But you seem like a pretty well written fella, so you already know that !
Well, as I expected, that was a fair mix of opinions. At the end of the day, none of us know the exact formula that this team should follow, but none of us are in the position to make those calls anyway. As a guy who joined this site in his 30s and is now in his 50s who has also been a fan since a very early age, I don’t know anything but to root for my Dolphins as crazy as it makes us all! As always, thank you to each of you who took the time to answer the question of the day and give us your thoughts and opinions.
