After trading Brandon Marshall this offseason, the Dolphins’ receiving corps instantly turned into one of the worst in the league. They didn’t spend any premium picks on the position through the draft, opting instead to address their other many needs, and as of right now, it’s very, very unclear how the depth chart order will shake out at wide receiver for the Dolphins.
Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland is not the man who will have the final decision on the matter, but he did assemble this group so his comments today were interesting. He called Brian Hartline and Davone Bess “players with tremendous experience,” said Legedu Naanee has “looked really good” in practice, and then talked up Marlon Moore and Robert Wallace.
It’s looking like a case of tremendous delusion in Miami. Even if Naanee does look really good in practice, there is no logical way to define Brian Hartline and Davone Bess as “players with tremendous experience.” The two have a combined 369 career catches over 7 career combined seasons. It’s actually kind of sad and telling that “experience” was the best thing he could come up with for those two, though I guess compared to the rest of the receiving corps, they are experienced.
Naanee, meanwhile, had 44 catches last season as a slot receiver in Carolina. He’s a decent, but unspectacular player who has only surpassed 24 catches once in 5 seasons. Moore and Wallace, meanwhile, are 2nd year players who have 6 catches each thus far in their careers. They’ll probably be non-factors once again this year behind Hartline, Bess, and Naanee.
It’s interesting to note that Ireland named 5 players before getting to Clyde Gates, BJ Cunningham, and Jeff Fuller. Gates was a 4th round pick of Ireland’s last year, but it doesn’t sound like the speedy one trick pony is progressing as Ireland would have hoped. Cunningham and Fuller are both rookies, Cunningham going in the 6th round and Fuller going undrafted, and it doesn’t appear that either will have a major impact this season if they even make the roster. Gates’ roster spot is reportedly in danger as well. All in all, the whoever the Dolphins’ quarterback is, he’s going to have a miserable time finding open receivers this season.
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A case of tremendous delusion? Jeff Ireland knows exactly what he has. The Dolphins offense doesn’t have or need a number 1 receiver. That’s the beauty of it. They have a lot of solid receivers who are unselfish and will contribute when it’s their turn. The best thing the Dolphins could have done was trade Brandon Marshall, who would have only been detrimental to a new coach and a system that wouldn’t feed him the ball 24/7.
I know it’s the popular thing to do to rip Miami this offseason, but trust me they will not be bad this year.
They have talent and a system that fits them well, and Jeff Ireland is one of the best talent evaluators in the business. He has added a lot of receivers that fit what he is looking for, and I’m confident that at least a few of them will turn out to be successful additions.
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It’s not uncommon for teams to overestimate the talent of their own players. Their stubborn and biased and 3rd party, unbiased points of view can often be right. I said delusion because he called Hartline and Bess “tremendously experienced,” which is not true and that’s not an opinion. That’s a fact. 3 or 4 years in the league is not “tremendously experienced.”
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I have to ask, although I am afraid I might know the answer, would TO really be that bad of an option for a year considering where we are? I know all about his downside, but hes better than what we have, AND he needs a job and we need a receiver!
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TO is done. No use in signing him for a young, rebuilding team. No good can come of that.
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