Buckle up, Dolphins fans. 2019 going to be a rough one.
Tanking doesn’t happen by purposefully losing on the football field. It happens by roster construction — or rather deconstruction in the case of the 2019 Dolphins. The recent news of the blockbuster trade sending Laremy Tunsil and Kenny Stills to Houston for a QB-level ransom of draft picks sends a resounding message to NFL teams and fans alike. If you didn’t believe before, believe it now: This team is not going to be good in 2019.
By way of letting Ja’Wuan James walk in free agency and now trading Laremy Tunsil, the Dolphins’ offensive line could be historically bad in 2019. Bad enough to derail what appears to be an improved defense. Bad enough to outweigh good game planning. Bad enough to secure their bag for whichever players they deem vital to the Grier/Flores influenced rebuild.
Tunsil was the only player on the projected 2019 offensive line reliable enough to handle his assignment play in and play out. And even with him, you knew whichever QB the Dolphins planned on trotting out on any given Sunday was going to take a beating. Now amplify that because not only do you remove a lock-down left tackle but you weaken the entire left side of the ball. Rookie Michael Deiter, or whoever they play at left guard, is better with Tunsil next to him. No more.
Miami has been just “meh” enough to be outside of the top tier talent of NFL draft for what feels like forever. 8-8. 7-9. 6-10. Well, the front office brass have made moves that almost ensure they’ll be worse than that, no matter how good Flores’ coaching is. A roster devoid of talent can only take you so far.
2019 may be agonizing. We walk into the season still with many questions; the most pressing being what the plan was and is with Josh Rosen. As for a silver lining? Being bad for a year or two might actually be better than being mediocre for a decade. Grier and company MUST get it right with their draft evaluations. For now, Dolphins fans must embrace the tank.
