The first day of free agency negotiations came and went for the Miami Dolphins and I'm going to give you a hard-nosed, dispassionate, unsympathetic view of what the team did.
Ready? Here it is:
All good.
Nothing wrong.
No major screw-ups.
No obvious mistakes.
I can't find a negative word to say _ although I will offer some caution in a minute _ about agreeing to sign five good players, with four of those already penciled in as starters and significant upgrades for the coming season.
The Dolphins agreed on contracts with man-to-man cornerback Byron Jones, versatile linebacker and edge player Kyle Van Noy, solid defensive lineman Shaq Lawson, promising left guard Ereck Flowers and safety and special teams player Clay Fejedelem on Monday.
And every one of those guys fills a need. And every one of those guys make the Dolphins better. And every one of those guys in some form or fashion can help the Dolphins do the two things that most decide if NFL teams win ...
... And that is throw the football or defend against the pass.
It's obvious Jones does that because he was the best cover corner available in free agency and got paid like it. Miami made him the highest-paid cornerback in the league at $16.5 million per season.
But think of Jones as more than just one cover guy. He's a force multiplier when you consider the Dolphins can deploy him at one corner and Xavien Howard, who is outstanding in his own right when he's healthy, at the other corner spot.
You're now an opposing quarterback. Do you test Jones or Howard?
And good luck with whatever you decide.
I had been told Jones would be on Miami's radar last week and didn't believe it because his price was expected to reach the stratosphere that it obviously did. But the Dolphins outbid the Las Vegas Raiders among others in offering Jones a stunning $57 million in guaranteed money.
Now I'm hearing grumblings the Dolphins made this move because they might try to trade Howard in the coming weeks. Dangle him to the Bengals on draft day as part of a package to land that No. 1 pick perhaps?
That's not currently the plan, according to people familiar with the Dolphins' plans.
And if it remains that way, the Dolphins thus have the NFL's best cover corner tandem on their roster.
The additions of Van Noy and Lawson are also welcome. Both make the Dolphins better at attacking the quarterback while also weakening division opponents, as Van Noy played for New England and Lawson for Buffalo.
Neither is, shall we say, a splash player. They combined for 13 sacks last season. But these additions, along with some much-expected improvement from 2019 first-rounder Christian Wilkins should give the Dolphins a good core on the defense's front seven.
Flowers? He's likely displacing incumbent Michael Deiter as the team's starting left guard. I mean, it would be really curious if the Dolphins saw Flowers playing left guard for the Washington Redskins last year, deemed him worthy of a three-year, $30 million deal, and then decided to move him from the position where he intrigued them.
So Deiter, a 2019 third-round selection who struggled, is going to have to compete to find his place somewhere on that line _ maybe as the starting right guard or perhaps as a young depth option.
The Dolphins, by the way, are not done rebuilding their offensive line, according to a person familiar with the team's plans.
There is a desire to add a veteran center, perhaps Ted Karras of the Patriots. And there is a deep desire if not outright need to add a tackle in the draft. And we're talking drafting a tackle quite early _ like in the first round.
So the picture of that future Miami offensive line seems very different and brighter if the Dolphins follow through with upgrading at center and get that tackle draft pick right.
And you're reading this and starting to think maybe the Dolphins are turning the corner. Maybe this team that won five of its final nine games last year with a roster of "no-names," as owner Stephen Ross noted, is headed toward some consistent success.
And that's where the caution I promised earlier comes into play.
Look, winning with a roster of no-names is hard. But sometimes it's just as hard winning with a roster that is well stocked with players from other teams.
Because getting those desperate no-names to run to the Takes-No-Talent wall in August is much easier than convincing well-paid veterans to do it. And getting eager youngsters to play the technique exactly as coaches ask is sometimes easier than convincing a veteran to forget old techniques and adopt new ones _ especially when you've already paid him and he has all the leverage.
The Dolphins obviously agreed to pay a mint on the first day of the NFL's negotiation period. The team with the greatest salary cap space this free agency period agreed to pay $202 million in new salaries that includes approximately $120 million in guaranteed money.
The Dolphins rolled the armored truck out of Ross's garage and put it to use.
And they're not done.
So this team is well on its way to winning the offseason championship.
But with such spending and offseason accomplishments comes expectations. And those are a dangerous thing, Brian Flores.
The team with 14 draft picks that spent at least $120 million in guaranteed free agency money Monday is now expected to compete for stuff.
No, not the Super Bowl. Expectations aren't that nutty.
But the Dolphins will be expected to matter during the 2020 regular season. This club that practically ignored free agency last year after merely playing on its margins during the Adam Gase era is now expected to do something it hasn't done since 2016.
Win.
And Mondays additions seems to be a good start toward that.
