Measuring Up – A Look at Miami’s Offense

WR – BETTER

Immeasurably better. The key pieces of the room are still there. Hill, Waddle, Berrios, and blocking expert Cracraft. They all bring important things to the room, some more obvious than others. Just losing the expendable, replaceable players like Cedrick Wilson and Chase Claypool. The replacements are fantastic. OBJ is the obvious one. We get a WR3 who has a Super Bowl ring and an extensive amount of top-end NFL experience.

He has played in winning cultures, he has high standards, and he chose Miami over money because of how he fits into this offense. We are not getting Prime NYG OBJ; we know that. But we are getting a guy who will likely line up against 3rd-choice cornerbacks often and who can run beautiful routes with safe hands. As a WR3, it’s hard to imagine better.

And then we add Malik Washington, too. Now, there will be a reason all GMs passed on him until the 6th round. That reason will be there, but if we can unlock his undoubted potential, we add a true slot receiver to an already electric WR room. This is crazy exciting to think about.

TE – BETTER

Tight End wasn’t a major note in the offense last year. They were rarely targeted and primarily used as extra linemen. That will no doubt be the case again. Durham Smythe was the most used target in this position group, but that paled compared to tight ends across the league.

After losing Mike Gesicki, Smythe became the top guy but still played and produced like a TE2 despite us not having a TE1. Now I like Durham Smythe. He has good chemistry with Tua, he plays like a Dolphin, and he rarely lets us down. He isn’t a needle mover in this position.

So enter Jonnu Smith. He hasn’t lived up to the promise of some of his days at the Titans. He got his big deal in New England and didn’t live up to that there. But when you think about TEs and a fit for an offense, you can see why Coach McDaniel would have been alive when Smith became available. Leading all TEs in Yards After Catch by some margin, Smith allows us to keep our TE room intact whilst adding a TE1 in addition to Smythe and gives Tua a new big body weapon and Coach Mike ANOTHER YAC option.

OFFENSIVE LINE – WORSE

Unsurprising with the lack of attention Miami made to this position group. And I don’t think there will be anyone out there disagreeing. You can’t lose a top-end Center and a $100m guard and not be affected. Aside from our two Tackles, we have players who would be depth options on most other rosters, filling our interior offensive line.

Brewer came in at center, and his production to date has been far from dominant, seeming to grade in the lower half of most offensive line categories. There are some intriguing scheme fits where he is concerned, and his mobility could be a great asset to Mike McDaniel. But his addition alone doesn’t calm my nerves.

I, for one, was really happy with the Patrick Paul selection. He has some great pass protection statistics from college, works hard, is humble and ready to be coached, and really wants to be coached by our coaching staff. There is a lot to like, in my opinion. But he won’t start above Terron Armstead, and there are concerns about his ability to start at guard in the meantime, so it’s hard to say he helps us be better yet.

That said, we have cap space opening up around the corner. The money freed up by cutting Xavien Howard is on the horizon, and extending Tua will also help our situation in the short term. Now that those extension talks are underway, it gives confidence that we will have space for some more acquisitions. Chris Grier already made it known that they spoke to some guards ahead of the draft about the possibility of signing for Miami if the position wasn’t addressed through that process. He also made it known that they are closely monitoring the situation with Connor Williams. So I completely believe this room is not yet complete… but for now… it is in worse shape, in my opinion.

So there we have it. It is hard to look at last year’s offense and not see them as electric. There are questions about them in big games and in cold conditions, and they have to live with those questions until they provide the answers for them.

But in my opinion, all but one of our position groups are in equal or better shape than they were last season, which makes for an extremely exciting time being a fan of the Dolphins, with big play potential on almost every snap of the football.