In part 1 I looked at the years 2010-15 and reviewed Miami’s past draft picks and free Agent signings and asked you to decide weather they succeeded of failed and by the end of this series I will give you your Dolphins Seer opinion.
Lets pick up with the 2016 seaseon….
2016
On January 2, 2016, two-year general manager Dennis Hickey was fired.[1] On January 4, the Dolphins promoted director of college scouting Chris Grier to replace Hickey as the new general manager. Grier has been with the Dolphins for the past sixteen seasons, nine as the director of scouting (The beginning of what I considered a De Facto position (In Name Only) for Chris Grier. As Dolphins owner also promoted Mike Tannenbaum as executive vice president of football operations.)
Despite the desire by many to keep interim HC Dan Campbell as Head Coach (I did not want Campbell as our next full time HC) On January 9, Adam Gase was hired as the twelfth head coach in Dolphins history.
The Dolphins once again spent big money in the 2016 Free Agent market:
March 7, 2016 – The Dolphins acquire LB Kiko Alonso and CB Byron Maxwell from the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for swapping first round picks (8 and 13).[12]
March 8, 2016 – The Dolphins sign DE Mario Williams on a 2-year, $16 million contract.[13]
March 9, 2016 – The Dolphins sign S Isa Abdul-Quddus on a 3-year, $12.75 million contract.[14]
May 13, 2016 – The Dolphins sign DE Jason Jones on a 1-year, $1.5 million contract.[15]
In 2016 before everybody’s eyes just about 15 minutes prior to the Draft taking place a video surfaced showing top rated OT Laremy Tunsil wearing a facemask and smoking pot it was one of the most bizarre events to ever take place and whoever did that was truly the scum of the earth.
Needless to say Laremy Tunsil took a dive as his draft stock plummeted and he began to free-fall down the draft board much to the Dolphins delight he fell all the way down to the 13th pick (How Ironic given the significance of the Number 13 to the Dolphins) and with the 13th pick of the 2016 NFL draft Miami select Laremy Tunsil and boy did he pay off! As we will later see….
2017
After a 10-6 first season under new HC Adam Gase there was plenty of optimism as we entered the 2017 season. The Dolphins were seen as potential playoff contenders and looked to make consecutive playoff seasons for the first time since the 2000 and 2001 seasons.
Top Free Agents signed:
Lawrence Timmons 2 years, $12 million, Jay Cutler 1 year 10 million Dollars
On April 27th 2017 the Miami Dolphins Drafted DE Charles Harris out of Missouri
Ryan Tannehill, tore his ACL during practice and was ruled out for the season. The team turned to former Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, who came out of retirement to become Tannehill’s replacement. After Tannehill got injured, coach Adam Gase called former Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning about possibly coming out of retirement and taking Tannehill’s place. However Manning later declined the idea of coming out of retirement.
Jay Cutler did not play good and the season was sunk!
Injuries and Adam Gase’s personality derailed the season and that started the beginning of the end for Adam Gase
To red the full review of 2017 click HERE
2018
Ryan Tannehill returns after his knee injury and there was some optimism that he would have a very good year after being with Adam Gase 3 years
There was some activity in the free agent market as they brought in Danny Amendola, Frank Gore, Josh Sitton and Albert Wilson as top free agents in 2018. Miami also dumped Ndomukong Suh and Mike Pouncey.
This was Adam Gase’s last year as Miami’s head coach as his failure to respect the Owner of the team and his constant rift with star players lead to his demise and a 7-9 finish did not help especially when after the “Miami Miracle” game where the Dolphins win a game in the final seconds vs the Patriots on December 9th 2018.
Unfortunately for Gase his team did not play well after that Miracle in Miami game getting blown out the next week by the Vikings 41-17 and losing to Jacksonville the following week 17-7 and the nial that finally sealed their coffin was the blow up in Buffalo where reports surfaced that the team quit on him as they lost 42-17!
At seasons end there was a feeling of Major Changes on the horizon and that is exactly what happened!
For more on the 2018 season click HERE
2019
During the end of 2018 HOUSE CLEANING finally took place as Miami finally fired the much hated Adam Gase and Owner Stephen Ross finally put the horse in front of the cart when he also relieved or as was said reassigned Executive Vice President of Football Operations Mike Tannenbaum who held that position since 2015 and was really the guy calling the shots thus I always felt GM Chris Grier was never truly free to do as he seen fit for the team.
Chris Grier proceeded to make his moves to finally get away from the narrative that the Dolphins were a player away from being a playoff contender and he decided (correctly) to just tear everything down to the studs and rebuild the roster.
So he began to purge the roster of players whose contracts just made the cap space a mess thanks mostly to Mike Tannenbaum foolish spending money on players who did not deserve to be compensated as much as he did.
The Dolphins fired head coach Adam Gase on December 31, 2018, after the team missed the playoffs for a second-straight season and finished 2018 with a 7–9 record.[8] The Dolphins conducted multiple interviews, but were linked to New England Patriots linebackers coach and defensive play caller Brian Flores but had to wait to hire him until after the Patriots were out of the NFL playoffs due to league rules. On February 4, 2019, the day after Super Bowl LIII, the team announced Flores as their thirteenth head coach.[9] The Dolphins announced the majority of Flores’ coaching staff on February 8, 2019, including Chad O’Shea as offensive coordinator, Patrick Graham as defensive coordinator, Danny Crossman as special teams coordinator, and former Indianapolis Colts/Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell as assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach.[10] On July 29, 2019, just four days into Dolphins camp, Flores sent a quick message by firing the OL Coach Pat Flaherty that he had hired in the spring and replacing him with team analyst Dave DeGuglielmo. Flores had deemed Flaherty to be ineffective in implementing the team’s new system.
Chris Grier purged the roster of veteran players:
Released OT Josh Sitton, Traded QB Ryan Tannehill to the Tennessee Titans,
Traded DE Robert Quinn to the Dallas Cowboys. Waived OG Isaac Asiata from Injured Reserve, Released OT Jordan Mills and DT Akeem Spence. Waived LB Chase Allen (injured) and TE Clive Walford, Released DB T.J. McDonald. Waived OT Will Holden, Waived LB Jayrone Elliott, Waived DB Rob Rolle from Injured Reserve. Also parted ways with FA Cameron Wake.
2019m was year one of the rebuild and it started out with demolition and just filling the roster with a bunch of young players that really did not qualify to be on a legitimate NFL roster.
Miami brought in players like: DB Eric Rowe and TE Clive Walford, QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and OL Christopher Reed,
They also took a chance on young players who were draft bust with the hope that some would make good on a second chance. Player like:
Draft 2019
Miami Acquired QB Josh Rosen via trade from the Arizona Cardinals
signed draft picks RB Chandler Cox, RB Myles Gaskin, OT Isaiah Prince, LB Andrew Van Ginkel and DT Christian Wilkins. Signed undrafted free agents C Ryan Anderson, OG Deion Calhoun, LS Wes Farnsworth, LB Terrill Hanks, DB Montre Hartage, DE Dewayne Hendrix, DB Tyler Horton, WR Trenton Irwin, RB Patrick Laird, DE Jonathan Ledbetter, OT Aaron Monteiro, TE Chris Myarick, DB Nik Needham, DB Rob Rolle, DT Cory Thomas, LB Tre Watson, WR Preston Williams and P Stone Wilson.
Early in the season, the Dolphins were criticized for allegedly losing games on purpose in hopes of getting a better draft position. [1][2] Through Week 8, the Dolphins traded key contributors including recent first round picks Laremy Tunsil[3] and Minkah Fitzpatrick,[4] along with Kenyan Drake, and Ryan Tannehill.[5]
It was the Dolphins’ first season since 2011 without Ryan Tannehill, as he was traded to the Tennessee Titans during the offseason. After Tannehill was traded, the Dolphins would go on to sign journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and trade for Arizona Cardinals quarterback Josh Rosen in a move that sportswriter Bucky Brooks compared to the Atlanta Falcons‘ trade of Brett Favre to the Green Bay Packers in 1992.[6] As he outplayed Rosen during training camp, Fitzpatrick started the majority of the season, with Rosen starting from Weeks 3 to 6.[7] On December 22, Fitzpatrick became the first Dolphins quarterback since Dan Marino to pass for 400 yards and 4 touchdowns. Despite defeating the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 13, the Dolphins were eliminated from playoff contention for the third consecutive year after the Pittsburgh Steelers won that same day.
They also failed to improve their 7–9 record from the previous season after losing to the New York Jets in Week 14. Following a Week 17 win over the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, not only was it their first win in Gillette Stadium since 2008, but they also denied the New England dynasty a playoff bye week for the first time in 10 years.
The team started the season 0–7, with some believing they would possibly become the 3rd 0-16 team in the NFL, but rallied to win 5 of their last 9, going 5-4 after a winless start.
This was their first season with exactly 5 wins since 1968 and their first since the league expanded to 16 games in 1978. It was also their first season winning fewer than 6 games since 2007.
The season was a relative success when you consider how they started off the season and the players they had to work with so Miami will enter the 2020 season armed with plenty of cap money and draft picks to make improvements to their roster…….
As you can see Miami over the years took quite a few risk spending money to try to buy a team and basically squandered owner Stephen Ross’s money (He is a multi billionaire) to no avail. Finally in 2019 they began to process of building a team the correct way and as the 2020 season will tell us it seems to be finally pointing Miami in the right direction!
STAY TUNED!!!!!
******Check Out My Podcast and get my weekly Predictions and Power Rankings******
Please help create better content in the future as well as giveaways such as upcoming TDS T-Shirts, Game Tickets, Giveaways and cash back opportunities. For as little as .99 cents a month you can contribute to the growth of TDS and it’s podcast.
So click on sponsor, there are 3 monthly price ranges to choose from .99 basic content /4 .99 with special content with more giveaways / 9.99 premium that will get you even more special content as well as many more giveaways others will not enjoy! (Click Here To Support!)
PLEASE GRADE THE ARTICLE AT THE TOP (1-5 STARS)!
((((Please support my site by listening to my podcast I have sponsors!))))
Get your Joke of the day and Dolphin history/Trivia on TDS Podcast below!
The Dolphin Seer 