Miami unlikely to spend heavily
INDIANAPOLIS — The days of the big-spending, free-wheeling Miami Dolphins in free agency are pretty much over. That means free-agent contracts such as the ones given to Mike Wallace and Ndamukong Suh are relics of a bygone era.
And that could also mean there’s no way the Dolphins spend big bucks on, say, New England Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower this offseason.
“I don’t think anything is ever left off the table,” coach Adam Gase said about landing a so-called “big fish” in free agency. “I just know what our philosophy is going to be.”
Gase, general manager Chris Grier and executive vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum, who are attending the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis this week, have decided they’d rather have a few medium-sized fish than the big one.
To that end, the Dolphins might not even spend all the way up to the $167 million salary cap. They spent less than the cap last year, too.
“You look at some of the teams that are winning, they’re not spending [to the cap],” Grier said. “For here, for so long, always the big fish — go out and spend all the money on everybody.
“For us, we’re just trying to build the team the right way and trying to spread it now with us. We have no set plan in terms of how much we’re going to spend. We’re just working right now on our plan of who we’re going to target in free agency.”
Although the Dolphins could sign a big-money free agent, it’s more doubtful now than in recent years. They’d rather get serious about building through the draft.
“We talked about it last year,” Gase said. “We just felt like that’s just not something we’re looking to do between Chris, Mike and myself. We want to build through the draft, and especially with Chris running the draft, our trust level in him, he’s an unbelievable evaluator of talent . ...
“Free agency sometimes is a crapshoot. We don’t know what you’re getting, and all of a sudden, you’ve got guys coming in that are bringing their ideas and things like that. Sometimes it’s easier just training guys the way you want them and how they’re supposed to think and how they’re supposed to do their job.” safety
availability in question for the season after shoulder surgery, Gase said that position is a possibility in the first round of the draft despite most thinking linebacker and defensive line are the likely inclinations.
“Our secondary will take whatever help they can get right now,” Gase said. “As many corners as you can get, and safeties ... The way the league’s going right now, you better have guys that can play both post safety and come down and tackle, and at corner, you need as many as you can.” With Defensive end
who had 5.5 sacks last season, is a potential free agent. The Dolphins aren’t sure whether he’ll test the market.
“We’ve been in communication with his agent; we’ve been talking back and forth,” Grier said.