How to Replace Charles Clay
The Dolphins placed Charles Clay on the transition tag, which would pay him just over $7 million and give them the right to match any offer. When this first came out last week I truly thought this move signified that we would be able to keep Clay for this season, and then work out a long term deal. However, I will be the first to admit that I miscalculated the demand and market for Charles Clay and there have been recent reports that he has been house hunting in Buffalo recently. The division rivals, the Buffalo Bills have been licking their chops ever since the Dolphins placed Clay on the transition tag, and they are aggressively planning to make Clay an offer any moment that Miami will not be able to match.
Obviously Clay going to the Bills is a double negative, because the Dolphins will lose their number one tight end on the team, and to add insult to injury he will be going to their division rivals and they will have to face him two times a year. I like Clay a lot and I do believe he can rebound from last year’s sub-par performance, because he was battling injuries all year long. He is also a tough hard working player, something a team can never have enough of. But that is the way of the NFL, where players move from team to team all the time, and now Miami must find a suitable replacement for him.
Well Miami has not wasted any time, because they already have a visit scheduled with Jordan Cameron the tight end from the Cleveland Browns. Cameron is a very interesting player, because some football gambling fans would argue that he is even better than Charles Clay, however the only knock on him is that he has already suffered 3 concussions in his career and last season he missed 5 games because of a concussion and 1 game with a shoulder injury. Off the bat I do not like the idea of acquiring players with a history of injuries, but he would be replacing a player in Clay that had his own injury concerns.
In Cameron’s 10 games last year he caught 24 passes for 424 yards, 2 touchdowns, and a yards per catch average of 17.7 yards, and he led the league at the TE position with 4 receptions of 40 yards of more. Just as a comparison, Clay played 14 games last year and caught 58 passes for 605 yards, 3 touchdowns, and a yards per catch average of 10.4 yards per game. Their statistics are pretty similar, but the biggest notable difference is that Cameron had a significantly better yards per catch average of 17.7 yards, which would add a big play element to the Dolphins offense. The year before in 2013 when both players were considered healthy and at their best Cameron had 80 catches for 917 yards, 7 touchdowns and a 11.3 yards per catch average, whereas Clay had 69 catches for 759 yards, 6 touchdowns, and a 11.0 yards per catch average. As football gambling fans can see, these two players have very similar statistics and on paper Cameron would be an almost identical replacement to Clay. In addition, with Cameron’s recent string of concussions, his contract should not be as pricey as Clay’s.
If the Dolphins can get Cameron for $7 million or less then I would say it is a move they have to make, because the tight end is an important position in Lazor’s offense, and the Dolphins can not afford to lose their number one tight end, without having a comparable replacement. Cameron is the best tight end option on the market, and would be the perfect replacement for Clay, and he would be a good fit with Dion Sims and Arthur Lynch. What does the rest of Miami Dolphins news fans think about signing Cameron to replace Clay?
