What the Wallace, Stills and Suh trades did for the Future of the Dolphins

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The Dolphins have been an extremely active player this free agency period, and that was very surprising for a team that had small wiggle room with their 2015 salary cap. Dawn Aponte and the rest of her team have done an outstanding job figuring out creative ways to structure contracts, and Tannenbaum and Hickey did a fantastic job taking two extremely expensive contracts in Wallace and Ellerbe and finding a way to trade them so they could relieve themselves of close to $20 million in cap space. Every one also did a great job in closing the Suh contract, and also structuring it so he would only count $6 million against the 2015 cap. Even though he will cost around $28 million in 2016, the Dolphins’ recent player subtractions have enabled them to shed over $30 million in contracts for 2016, giving us a lot of space next year even with Suh’s huge cap hit.

Most sports gambling fans would fault the Dolphins for only getting a 5th round draft pick for Wallace and giving up a 3rd round pick for Stills. However, the Dolphins were scheduled to pay Wallace and Ellerbe almost $20 million combined, and neither player was worth that type of money. If Miami was not lucky and creative enough to work out trades with the Saints and the Vikings, then there was a high probability that they were going to release both players and get nothing in return, and also get hit with paying dead money to both players. So in that regard it was a great trade for Miami to basically get Kenny Stills and a 5th round pick, in return for a third round pick giving away two players that they were willing to cut from the team for nothing.

In comparison with Wallace. Stills had a higher yards per catch  average (14.8 compared to 12.9), more receiving yards (931 to 862),  however Wallace had more Touchdowns (10 compared to 3) and more catches (67 compared to 63.) But in regard to catches, Wallace made only 67 catches on 115 of his targets, which in percentage terms means he caught only 58% of his targets, whereas Stills made 63 catches on 85 targets for a 74% completion percentage on his targets. That is a very telling statistic that shows that Wallace in terms of efficiency was inferior to Stills. Stills is a very young talent entering his third year in the league, which means he is still has a  rookie contract that will only pay him a combined total of $1.26 million over the next two seasons, whereas Wallace has been in the league for 6 years and he will be payed a combined total of $21.4 million over the next two seasons. Wallace is also an outspoken diva, whereas Stills is a quiet up and coming receiver. A receiver with more upside, so on many different levels this was an extremely profitable three team multi-player and draft pick trade for Miami.

So with all of these moves the Dolphins were able to get rid of a lot of high paid veterans that were not playing up to the worth of their contracts. Also let’s not forget that all of these contracts that Miami dumped were all courtesy of Jeff Ireland. Tannenbaum and Hickey have finally successfully unloaded all of the over paid mistakes of Ireland and have in the process given us an extra $16 million in cap space still to play with in 2105 (and that number could be higher if Clay leaves, because he is technically counting $7 million against the cap) and an extra $39 million in 2016 (and this includes Suh’s $28 million dollar cap figure). With all this cap space remaining, the Dolphins will most likely use a significant portion of it to strike long term deals with some of their key players that are still on their rookie contracts, such as Tannehill, Pouncey and Vernon.

All in all the Dolphins organization was stuck with a financial mess, and they were able to trade and release their way out of it, and in the process got younger, tougher and have given this team more room for growth. What does the rest of Miami Dolphins news gurus think about the Dolphins strategical moves?


 

13 comments

  • phinfreak

    The Suh signing was bold, and very risky, time will tell if this was a wise move. It is however a confirmation and indictment of the D in general especially vs run.

    It still remains that the Fins have done nothing that impacts the W column. Yeah, they’ll create matchup problems for G/T combos depending on where they line Suh up, but see Detroit over last 4 years for evidence that a DLman regardless of how dominant, has no impact on wins.

    So the Fins run D will look better on the stat sheet. Thats it.

    • Travis Lee

      If the run d was better last year we would have beat the bronco’s but that’s probably it. But Wake and Vernon are better than the ends they had in Detroit so they’ll be better vs the pass also assuming they get a quality cb and ss. They were already good vs the pass they could be as good as anyone vs the pass now with just a couple more pieces

    • Dunner

      Freak, DO you think Suh would have made a difference in the 2 games we lost on the last play of the game last year??? Ummm, answer is-you bet! Lost to Greenbay and Detroit on the last play of the game. Win one of those games and we are in the playoffs. He will make that kind of a difference.

  • Dunner

    All in All, one of the great master plans by this organization ever. The moves, trades, releases, signings have been great for a organization that looked to be in another downward spiral yet again in 2015 just a few weeks ago. WOW, what a quick turn around, the future looks brightest its looked in quit awhile.

  • ralph

    Great moves this off season
    Lots of people were commenting last year that we made a big mistake bringing in Hickey, and wanted farmer. All I can say is I think Hickey is doing a wonderful job – much better than anyone expected
    Of course we still have 6 holes to fill in the draft, unless we pull off a trade and get Mathis
    We still need a complimentary RB, an ILB a CB, and a Guard a Safety and an additional receiver.
    Lets hope we keep Clay or else that is another hole we need to fill. ;
    We do not have a 3rd round pick or a 7th round pick
    so that leaves us with 6 picks total (2 in the 5th) \
    We still need to sign one or 2 more free agents or trade to fill a couple of those needs.
    I wonder who we will try to get this week,
    I am really pleased with the job our front office has done so far. Keep up the good work.

    • Dunner

      We do have 7 picks, as we have the 49ers 7th round pick from the Martin trade last year. There are several second tier free agents left and there will be several more released in the near future. We are in good shape.

    • Jimmy Bourbon

      Yes there are a few more holes, and we can probably fill one more in free agency and at least try to fill a couple in the draft. We are getting closer to where we need to be

  • We need to look at the player that is available in the draft that ESPN was speaking of, from a division three player, offensive guard, I understand he may be a reach but he has speed and has excellent credentials! There is also a center that the Kansas City Chiefs are looking at. Maybe we should give him some major LOOKS!!!! There is also some great corners in the first round ,Two, that are rated very high! One has size and speed. They have been mentioned thru-out the top drafts coming into the league. Lastly look for middle linebackers with our 7,th & 8th round picks. Great choices so far for 2015. I understand and agree with every person we got so far, Please give our QB the chance to throw-long. Maybe even a great running back if we get lucky in the draft. I hope you will consider some of my choices for the team.

    • Dunner

      That would Ali Marpet of Hobart College, Geneva, NY. I live minutes from there and have seen him play, we will not go wrong with that pick, just that he may need a little time to adjust to the NFL speed/power. He did hold his own at the senior bowl.

    • Dunner

      There are only 7 rounds in the draft!

    • Jimmy Bourbon

      That player is Marpet and he could be an viable option for us