Team focused on adding ‘ playmakers’ this offseason
Doubling a team’s win total in one season is a major accomplishment.
There’s no denying that. But as impressed as general manager Chris Grier was with the 2020 Miami Dolphins team that fell short of qualifying for the playoffs despite winning 10 games, the man responsible for rebuilding the Dolphins knows they haven’t yet arrived.
Year 1 was spent finding usable pieces from the leftover roster and fine- tuning the coaching staff.
In Year 2 the Dolphins fortified the trenches on offense and defense and added a young quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, in whom the organization believes.
According to Grier, this offseason will seemingly be about adding “playmakers.”
“Competition makes everyone better,” Grier said Tuesday. “We always talk about competition makes everyone better. We always talk about upgrading the roster in all areas.
“There’s places that we want to upgrade at all parts of the roster, and obviously having playmakers on offense and defense is what the great teams have.”
That’s how the Buffalo Bills dominated the Dolphins ( 10- 6) in the regular- season finale and kept them out of the playoffs. It’s also how the Bills, Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs — the three playoffs teams Miami lost to this past season — pulled out victories over the Dolphins.
Those teams had playmakers such as Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, Josh Allen and Russell Wilson, who delivered big plays.
An infusion of playmakers who create more turnovers and produce more sacks without the need to blitz, and players who can deliver yards after a catch and yards after contract on runs are on the organization’s must- find list.
Coach Brian Flores, who owns a 15- 17 record in his two seasons in Miami, and Grier, the man put in charge of the football side of the organization two years ago, will evaluate every aspect of the roster over the next month and create an organizational game plan to improve it through free agency and the 2021 NFL draft.
The Dolphins have roughly $ 33 million in cap space before releasing any players or restructuring contracts, and they possess seven draft selections overall this year: two first- round picks ( No. 3 and No. 18) and four selections in the top- 50 picks courtesy of the trade that sent Laremy Tunsil and Kenny Stills to Houston before last season.
“We’re going to figure out what we can do to improve the roster,” said Flores, who stated he doesn’t envision making changes to his coaching staff. “We will try to create a vision for what we’d like the 2021 team to look like.”
The Dolphins were one of the NFL’s worst teams when it came to big- play production on offense, which indicates they need to add better tailbacks and receivers this offseason.
There’s also work to be done to improve the offensive and defensive lines to help those units take the next step forward and become better in the trenches.
The Dolphins offense finished 29th in the NFL in yards per carry, averaging 3.9 yards per attempt, and the Dolphins defense finished 18th, allowing 4.5 yards per attempt.
“We’re not satisfied with where we ended up and we need to do better,” Flores said addressing the offensive line, which underwent a massive overhaul last offseason when center Ted Karras and left guard Ereck Flowers were added as free agents, and Miami selected Austin Jackson, Robert Hunt and Solomon Kindley in the first three rounds of the 2020 draft.
Jackson, Hunt and Kindley got on the field plenty as rookie starters, but each of them experienced growing pains. The hope is that all three will take a step forward, much like tailback Myles Gaskin, cornerback Nik Needham, defensive tackle Christian Wilkins and pass rusher Andrew Van Ginkel did in 2020 in becoming reliable starters in their second season.
Player development has been one the most impressive aspects of Flores’ tenure, and Grier said that’s one of the reasons Flores deserves to be a Coach of the Year candidate.
“For what he did with this roster and team, to go through this with the pandemic, the young players, how young we were with no offseason and a completely new roster, to win 10 games with what we have and a rookie quarterback, eight rookie players on offense playing,” Grier said, referring to the fact that the Dolphins had the second- youngest roster in the NFL, trailing only the Los Angeles Rams.
“Brian and his staff did an unbelievable job.”
The hope is that everyone in the organization continues to take the next step, addressing areas of weakness and fine- tuning their craft. That includes the coaches and front- office executives, who will be responsible for replenishing a roster that features 13 unrestricted free agents, six of whom were 2020 starters.
“At the end of the day, it’s about building the [ team] right and winning games,” Grier said. “We never set a timetable for anything. It was always about getting better every day.”