Free-agency flops can’t be repeated

MIAMI GARDENS — Just imagine the Miami Dolphins having a reliable, consistent and durable starting receiver who could stretch the field with the skill set to complement Jaylen Waddle and DeVante Parker.

Or a veteran right tackle who is a pillar of granite, able to protect Tua Tagovailoa’s blindside.

Maybe an inside linebacker who doesn’t need to come off the field on passing downs, or a veteran center who could minimize the communication breakdowns the struggling offensive line has had issues with.

Those needs should all be high on the priority list in the 2022 offseason, and the unfortunate thing is they were also high on the list this past offseason. But the team’s decision-makers failed to address them properly, and it resulted in a limited roster and contributed to a 1-7 start.

Receiver Will Fuller, offensive lineman D.J. Fluker, linebacker Benardrick McKinney and center Matt Skura all were expected to be major contributors, but none of them paid dividends.

Fuller, who was signed to an incentive-laden one-year deal worth $10.6 million, has played one full game this season. And there’s no reason to believe he will end 2021 on the field wearing a Dolphins jersey because of his mysterious hand injury, which has required three months to heal.

At this point, Fuller will likely end his tenure in Miami averaging $2.6 million per catch this season.

Fluker suffered a knee injury before training camp and received an injury settlement from the Dolphins. He joined with the Las Vegas Raiders’

practice squad, but was waived earlier this month.

McKinney, a former Pro Bowl player who the Dolphins traded for in the offseason, was cut before the season opener, as was Skura. Both are playing for other teams now.

Those decisions wouldn’t be so troubling if there was better talent on the roster, which hasn’t always been the case.

So last year’s needs carry over to this year, and now we should worry about history repeating itself.

“There’s a number of ways to try to build a roster and free agency is just one of them,” said coach Brian Flores, who has a say, but not the final vote, on all roster decisions. “If we go through every free-agent deal from last year, we have the guys we have. We’re working with them and that’s kind of what my focus is.”

Can we trust Flores and general manager Chris Grier to address the missing pieces when they failed last offseason — and seemingly had buyer’s remorse with the offseason before that?

In 2020, the Dolphins unleashed a spending spree like the NFL had never seen. Miami spent what was then an unparalleled $147 million in guaranteed money, and most of it went to big-ticket items like cornerback Byron Jones, defensive linemen Emanuel Ogbah and Shaq Lawson, offensive linemen Ereck Flowers and Ted Karras, tailbacks Jordan Howard and Matt Breida, linebacker Kyle Van Noy, Elandon Roberts and Kamu Grugier-Hill and safeties Kavon Frazier and Clayton Fejedelem.

Many of those free-agent signees landed multi-year deals that featured guaranteed money that extended into this season. But that didn’t stop the Dolphins from dumping them anyway.

All that remains from last year’s massive haul is Jones, who is arguably one of the most overpaid defenders in the NFL, Ogbah, an impending free agent, Roberts, who re-signed after tearing his ACL at the end of last season, and Fejedelem.

No matter how this season ends there will be a stench of desperation coming from the front office because of past failures.

We got a taste of that with Miami’s pursuit of Houston embattled quarterback Deshaun Watson before the trade deadline in October, and the fact that owner Steve Ross is growing impatient with the rebuild.

Can they spend what’s projected to be $77 million in cap space this coming offseason wisely? That’s slated to be the largest budget in the NFL in 2022. So, let’s hope someone helps this regime do a better job of player evaluation and talent acquisition because the franchise can’t survive a third round of free-agent failures.