How the Dolphins are tanking, in 3 steps

Dolphins quarterback Josh Rosen sacked by Ravens pass rusher Matthew Judon

The Dolphins gutted their roster and now they are — surprise, surprise — a very bad football team.

The Miami Dolphins are awful.

That’s no surprise. They were expected to be after they mostly spent their offseason getting rid of talent rather than acquiring it. But it was still staggering to see just how bad the Dolphins were when they kicked off the 2019 season by getting destroyed by the Ravens, 59-10.

While head coach Brian Flores continues to insist the team’s not tanking, there’s no way around it at this point. The Dolphins are bottoming out in a way that’s usually only seen in the NBA.

The one-sided loss to Baltimore was, in all likelihood, the first of many butt kickings Miami will endure in 2019. That’s even apparent to Dolphins players, some of whom asked their agents to get them traded out of South Beach, according to Pro Football Talk.

“The players believe that the coaching staff, despite claiming that they intend to try to win, aren’t serious about competing and winning,” the report said.

Those players are correct. The Dolphins organization is not trying to be a contender in 2019. Its goal all year has been to load up on cap space and draft picks in lieu of wins. That’s a textbook tank job.

Dolphins players aren’t trying to lose, though. Roster spots are too hard to come by and careers are too short in the NFL. They’ll all give 100 percent on the field. Miami is just too far behind other teams in terms of skill to truly keep up and compete.

So how did the Dolphins get to this point? They followed a simple three-step process

Step 1: Gut the roster

Dec. 31, 2018: The best place to start is the day Adam Gase was fired as head coach of the Dolphins after a 7-9 season.

Miami finished the year 31st in total offense and 29th in total defense. The Dolphins were bad at everything, but by still managing seven wins, they didn’t even have a top-12 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. Being stuck in that 6-to-8-win middle ground — somewhere the team was for most of a decade — prompted coaching and executive changes.

Along with Gase’s firing, football operations were removed from executive vice president Mike Tannenbaum’s control and given to general manager Chris Grier. Former Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie was later hired as a senior personnel executive and Patriots linebackers coach Brian Flores, a first-time head coach, replaced Gase.

March 7, 2019: The first signs of tanking didn’t come until March. It started with the Dolphins releasing veteran defensive end Andre Branch and starting offensive guard Ted Larsen. Still, neither move was too surprising considering they saved the Dolphins about $9 million in combined cap space. Branch signed with the Cardinals, but didn’t make the final roster. Larsen is now a backup for the Bears.

March 13, 2019: The Dolphins made another move on the offensive line by releasing Josh Sitton. He played just one game for the team in 2018 before a rotator cuff tear landed him on injured reserve. It saved the team $5 million in cap space and Sitton retired in April.

That was also the same day free agency began in the NFL. The Dolphins allowed offensive tackle Ja’Wuan James, defensive end Cameron Wake, wide receiver Danny Amendola, and running back Frank Gore, among others, to walk and sign elsewhere.

March 15, 2019: Quarterback Ryan Tannehill was traded to the Titans after seven years and 88 starts with the Dolphins. The two teams swapped late-round selections in 2019 and the Dolphins received a 2020 fourth-round pick.

Tannehill was due to count $26.6 million against Miam’s cap in 2019, a pricy number for a player who struggled to stay healthy or ascend into a top-tier passer. Following the trade — and an agreement to pay $5 million of his signing bonus on the Titans’ behalf — the Dolphins saved a little over $8 million and ate about $18.4 million in dead money. Tannehill will be off the books entirely in 2020.

March 18, 2019: Career journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick was signed to a two-year contract to be the team’s new starting quarterback. The deal provided the Dolphins with a cheap stopgap solution under center. The two-year, $11 million contract given to Fitzpatrick constituted the most expensive acquisition the Dolphins made in free agency. Only the Cowboys and Rams — two Super Bowl contenders — spent less.

March 28, 2019: Pass rusher Robert Quinn, who was came over in a trade from the Rams in March 2018, was sent to the Cowboys for a 2020 sixth-round pick. He led Miami in sacks during the 2018 season with 6.5. The trade saved the Dolphins close to $12 million in cap space and stuck them with only around $1.1 million in dead money.

April 25-26, 2019: Miami selected Clemson defensive tackle Christian Wilkins in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft and traded its second-round pick for quarterback Josh Rosen. Rosen, a top-10 pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, started one season for the Cardinals.

May 13, 2019: The most significant investment made by the Dolphins in the offseason was a five-year, $76.5 million extension given to cornerback Xavien Howard. He was their only Pro Bowler in 2018 and is now tied to the team through the 2024 season. DeVante Parker, Jakeem Grant, and Jesse Davis received more moderately sized extensions at other points in the offseason.

Aug. 31, 2019: A week prior to their regular season opener, the Dolphins traded starting left tackle Laremy Tunsil and wide receiver Kenny Stills to the Texans. The package of picks sent back to Miami was quite the haul:

Following the trade, Julie’n Davenport was slotted in as the Dolphins’ new starting right tackle. No offensive lineman in the NFL allowed more quarterback hits (14) in 2018 or drew more penalties (16) than Davenport.

He lasted just one game for the Dolphins before landing on injured reserve.

Sept. 12, 2019: Less than a week after Pro Football Talk’s report that several players wanted out of Miami, the team allowed 2018 first-round pick Minkah Fitzpatrick to pursue a trade.

Step 2: Stockpile cap space and draft picks

Altogether, the offseason moved the Dolphins to the top spot in salary cap space for the 2020 season. The team is due to carry only $6.9 million in dead money in 2020 and none in 2021.

It also owns the following picks in the next two drafts:

2020

• 1st round (Dolphins)
• 1st round (Texans)
• 2nd round (Dolphins)
• 2nd round (Saints)
• 3rd round (Dolphins)
• 4th round (Titans)
• 6th round (Dolphins)
• 6th round (Cowboys)
• 7th round (Dolphins)

2021

• 1st round (Dolphins)
• 1st round (Texans)
• 2nd round (Dolphins)
• 2nd round (Texans)
• 3rd round (Dolphins)
• 4th round (Dolphins)
• 5th round (Dolphins)
• 7th round (Dolphins)

That draft capital and the Dolphins’ ample cap space was the point of the offseason teardown. It’ll be even better if they land the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

It’s expected to be a good year to draft a quarterback with Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and Oregon’s Justin Herbert among the top arms in the class. That’d likely be an appealing route for the Dolphins and — by the look of the team so far — a probable outcome.

Step 3: Lose a lot

There have only been two winless teams over the course of a 16-game schedule in NFL history: the 2008 Lions and the 2017 Browns. The Dolphins can look to both as a source of optimism.

Detroit followed its 0-16 season by drafting Matthew Stafford first overall in 2009. By 2011, the Lions were a playoff team. The Browns also tanked to acquire loads of picks, then selected Baker Mayfield at the top of the 2018 NFL Draft after their winless year. That plan seems to be paying off for Cleveland.

Anything can happen in an NFL game — like a team putting their oft-injured, lunky tight end in on defense, for instance — so it’s not a foregone conclusion that the Dolphins will finish 0-16. But whew, they’re a putrid football team. Right here, we’ll keep track of their season as it unfolds:

Week 1 — Ravens 59, Dolphins 10

There are many ways to dice up the carnage of that blowout, but here are a few stats that put in context just how absolutely terrible the Dolphins were in their opener:

• Baltimore had 643 yards of total offense (the most ever allowed by Miami). The Dolphins had 200 yards. That 443-yard difference is the worst disparity in an NFL game since the Vikings trounced the Lions in 1988.
• Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson joined Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, and Drew Brees as one of only four players who has finished a game with more than 20 adjusted yards per attempt in a game with at least 20 passes thrown.
• The Dolphins had a time of possession of 19:53. It was their first time having the ball for less than 20 minutes in a game in 14 years.

That’s a good ol’ fashioned steamrolling.