As the world of the Dolphins turns, or the soap opera that we constantly watch at about noon daily that is Ross and Ireland; Miami Dolphins fans have been greeted with a couple of rude and yet surprising messages.
The juggernaut of them all was when we as Dolfans, who are hooked into the Sun-Sentinel’s Dolphins news text message service were greeted with this message:
Miami Dolphins to meet with free agent Alex Smith today in Davie.
The next message that hit us about over 1 hour ago by ESPN’s Adam Schefter:
Matt Flynn has agreed with the Seattle Seahawks to a deal for 3 years at $26 million and $10 million guaranteed!
Whoa!
This was not what was expected by the media or the fans of Miami. The national media delivered hit after hit that I am not sure I should mention on this family viewed website, but some of it got even worse.
One twitter follower tweeted (who will remain nameless for his safety):
“I think I am going to be a Jets Fan.”
As bad as all of this sounds, the Dolphins who are already left with limited free agent options at QB, have David Garrard visiting tomorrow for a workout and physical.
What’s going on in Davie is appalling, but in reality is it that unexpected?
First, the Dolphins are a flagship franchise who’s motto this off season was to get a QB. They jumped in the Manning chase, but only after getting some help from Jason Taylor and Dan Marino to get Peyton Manning to agree to a meeting. The media from Chris Mortensen of ESPN to Armando Salguero painted it as a sure thing that Miami was in on Peyton. If that were truly the case, he would have visited Miami. He did not.
Second, the Dolphins could not get Manning so they went after Flynn after publicly and privately saying they wanted Manning. Plan A didn’t work so now on to plan B.
Let’s consider for a moment that the Dolphins have a rookie head coach running a system that features elements of the West Coast offense. Be prepared to judge, but keeping Brandon Marshall base on his past history with inexperienced QBs would have poisoned the waters in Davie and eventually the team. Not a good situation for either party involved. The incident in NYC made it easier for the Dolphins to justify the trade of Marshall to Chicago, but they had planned to trade Marshall since the combine.
Consequently, going after the QB in reality, while important became a secondary necessity because without Marshall, a QB such as Manning or
Flynn would not thrive with a pass catcher who doesn’t play a team game. Not to mention a headache that Philbin would not want to have during the season once Brandon could lose it and curse out his team after beginning 1-5.
So, now the search turns to QB. Flynn is in Seattle and will get a chance to start. He’s the highest paid QB, but a lot of his contract includes incentives that if he starts are achievable.
Miami is looking at Alex Smith as a potential competition with Matt Moore. Matt Moore right now is the starter and when the team gets competition for Moore, we will all see the plan unfold.
In addition, the Dolphins have Garrard in town tomorrow for a workout and maybe a possible deal with the thought of backup.
Ireland and Ross deserve blame sure. They do right now. However, Ireland can erase or save face if he follows through on his promise to get the Dolphins a QB. Whether it’s now with Smith or other potential QBs that will be available from the Manning Mystery Free Agency tour or the draft.
Remember Dolfans, getting Weeden, Tannehill, or Nick Foles, is essentially the same as getting Flynn or having Pat Devlin start.
No matter what, the draft is where you should judge Ireland, because his move for Marshall was draft related as was he and Ross passing on a back up QB in Matt Flynn.
Dolphins have a couple of more critical holes to fill, but let’s judge the finished product in August and continue cheering on the aqua and orange because no matter what, we cannot stop watching the soap opera that continues weekly.
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