5 Live: Has the Dolphins’ Tank Already Gone Too Far?

After the Dolphins’ franchise-worst 59-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, fans are showing more fight on Twitter than their team showed in the game.

So it raises a question:

Has the Dolphins’ tank already gone too far?

Time for 5 Live.

Chris Kouffman (@CKParrot) of Three Yards Per Carry: “The Dolphins are spending 67% of the average league AAV this season, which is $27 million worse than the next cheapest team out there. They’re spending $36 million less than the next cheapest team out there in cash payroll. They have the 3rd most salary cap space in the league at $38 million. They flushed Laremy Tunsil, Kenny Stills, Kiko Alonso, TJ McDonald, Tank Carradine, and 26% of the roster days before the season began. The entire right side of the offensive line (Danny Isidora & Julie’n Davenport) didn’t even have their parking space yet, and they had a career right guard playing left tackle. They had a slow 5’9” experimental career slot corner manning the last line of defense at free safety, a coverage linebacker from the CFL playing Edge defender, and a defensive lineman that similarly hasn’t found his parking space Avery Moss playing 46 snaps (poorly). None of this has anything to do with Nick Foles, nor will it be helpful in any way to the effort in 2020+. All of it could’ve been prevented with basic roster management. Choosing this resulted in the worst home loss in franchise history, a fan base that will probably not go to any more home games, and (evidently) multiple players complaining they want out. This was a choice, it had nothing to do with Nick Foles, and we shouldn’t pretend there was only one way to do a rebuild, or even one way to tank. They chose THIS way, and they’re gonna have to live with the consequences, and I’d just assume stop playing holier than thou with the people that are upset about it.”

Luis Sung (@LuisDSung), Dolphins writer for 5 Reasons and Dolphin Maven: “As someone who despised the idea of tanking from the very beginning, the Miami Dolphins have indeed gone too far with their tanking process. And in some ways, they also haven’t gone far enough. If the goal is to be back on their feet by 2020, they can’t go so far as to completely remove any and all talent that’s found throughout the offseason. Cutting Nate Orchard, their top pass rusher in the preseason, serves what purpose other than to make sure they fail? Could he not have played an Andre Branch role when Miami decided to contend again? By the same token, if tanking is the goal, why are the young players not playing? Isaiah Prince was inactive against Baltimore, as was guard Shaq Calhoun. Why are they not giving them that experience? Let’s not even discuss the Josh Rosen angle. Miami has done too well in removing talent that can contribute, and seems unwilling to develop the raw talent that can potentially help in the future. That’s the worst of both worlds.”

Alfredo Arteaga (@UptownReport) of Three Yards Per Carry: “The Goldilocks principle.  Not too far, not far enough, just right.  Where did they probably” go too far?  I would say that the Tunsil/Stills trade was an opportunity that fell into their lap and they took advantage of it.  The purge that started with allowing Cameron Wake to walk and trading Tannehill was necessary for a rebuild.  So are we at the point where it’s the cuts of Tank Carradine and Nate Orchard as the last straws?  No.  Although those two cuts bother me because I thought the point of a tank is to of course, lose enough, but also attempt to add some cheap useful talent, which those two were.  Where they did go too far is on the offensive line, where it started with a Tunsil trade, that I don’t have a problem with, but continued with a mysterious Jesse Davis journey from RG to RT, to now LT!.  Shaq Calhoun getting what seemed like every 1st team snap in camp and preseason, to then be inactive on gameday while they play a journeyman (Isidora) in his place.  Then Davenport plays RT out of the blue?  This looks intentional, and if it’s not intentional, it’s something much worse. Incompetence.”

Josh Houtz (@Houtz), Dolphins writer for 5 Reasons and Dolphin Maven: “Everyone knew heading into the season, that the Dolphins were going to be bad. But no one was ready for what we saw on Sunday. It was bad. Really, really bad. Now there are reports of a mutiny in Miami, but why?  This team was going to be bad with or without Tunsil, Stills, or Kiko. An influx in young players is on the horizon. And with a Billion dollars in cap space, the Dolphins can get one or two franchising altering free agents. If there are players that are upset with what’s going on in Miami, do better. After all, none of those guys did anything to stop the 59-10 pummeling. …. The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming…. #TrustTheProcess.”

Ethan J. Skolnick (@EthanJSkolnick), Five Reasons content director: “The Dolphins, after two decades of abrupt direction changes, have finally found one that works. Down. And while I understand the impetus for the overall strategy, because Steve Ross gave up trying to do it the right way, it’s impossible to defend what we saw last week, with the cuts of useful players in favor of unproven newcomers. And it’s impossible to defend what we saw on the field Sunday. Here’s the problem: Most fans aren’t on social media. They don’t know the ins and outs of the Dolphins’ plan, and unlike the Marlins, Chris Grier has done a poor job of explaining it. They just see the outrageously inept output.. What’s worse is that Grier has put his new head coach, Brian Flores, out front, to justify the unjustifiable. It’s unfair, and we see where it’s going. Eventually, when Grier goes — like Sashi Brown and Sam Hinkie went in similar tank jobs — Flores won’t be shielded either. He’ll bear the brunt of fan apathy and anger. Grier has accumulated gobs of assets, sure. But do you trust this organization to do right by them anyway. Simply put, bring on Heat season.”