The Alliance of American Football league lasted just eight weeks, but the impression they’ve left on the NFL is now undeniable. Just hours after the league clarified that AAF players were relieved of all contractual obligations to the AAF, the NFL has begun hand-picking the best of the best.
The signings began with cornerback Keith Reaser, who is signing with the Kansas City Chiefs. And now, this morning, the latest domino has fallen: Orlando Apollos quarterback Garrett Gilbert.
And surely, given the Dolphins’ quarterback situation, Miami jumped at the chance to sign clearly the best quarterback from the AAF. Right? Wrong.
Gilbert will be signing with Cleveland, as first reported by Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot.
The inaction by the Dolphins on this front is frustrating. The team has 32 open spots on their 90-man roster and AAF talent will almost assuredly come cheap, preventing these signings from doing any notable damage to the compensatory pick formulas. What do the Dolphins have to lose by targeting top AAF talents? They’re a team who is going to thrive early on with competition and letting young players with a chip on their shoulder prove that they can play at a high level.
Each and every AAF player is in that mentality, any addition would be a perfect fit for the kind of players Miami needs early on in the rebuild process to help drive the urgency in the building.
But, at least for now, it appears as though the Dolphins aren’t interested in top AAF talent. If they are, they’re running out of time to sign anyone that could actually make the team.
