Dolphins trade LB Raekwon McMillian + 2021 5th to Raiders for 2021 4th

[Humble_Beast]

I know Raiders we run PR and saying how high they are on McMillen. I wonder if they traded out of desperation, or truly because they were high on McMillen? Kinda like last year when after desperation we traded for Trevor Davis. Could have signed a thumper for dirt cheap in free agency but o well. Hopefully the kid becomes a baller for us. I see him easily being our 3rd best LB from daty 1. Kinda sucks we haven't heard anything about out new LBS tearing it up in camp. J White hype died down once the pads came on... 

[Humble_Beast]

4 hours ago, NYRaider said:

For a team that has regularly lacked speed, youth, and athleticism on the back end of the defense over the past decade, Mayock has really changed that in a hurry. 

LB (Avg - 25): Kwiatkoski (27), Littleton (26), Morrow (25), McMillian (24), Muse (23) 

CB (Avg - 25): Prince (31), Joyner (29), Johnson (24), Arnette (23), Mullen (22), Robertson (22)

S (Avg - 27): Harris (30), Heath (29), Randall (27), Abram (23) 

Best young talent we had in awhile. Hoping Muse proves me wrong and makes an impact. We have some nice young Des too! name a better young DE combo then Ferrell and Max. Hopefully we develop to decent unit this year, and a force by next year. Last year it was weird to see good defense play in some games during the end of the season. 

[jimkelly02]

2 hours ago, MrOaktown_56 said:

The reason that we have randall and maliek collins on 1 years as well is to either see if they play into extensions or give us an out to upgrade in good years for safeties/DT in free agency. Man is a genius. 

It’s also important to note the 2 starting positions he’s filled with 1 year rentals (Collins+Randall) are both positions that are incredibly deep in the draft and FA next year.  
Clearly Mayock has a long term plan he’s following.  he’s not just building a team for ‘20, but he’s building a roster for then next 3-5 years.

To be honest, I’m glad we didn’t fill DT and FS with Players that had year 2 guaranteed cap hits.  ‘21 is the year we’re suppose to make a contender push and we can add one DT/FS in the draft and the other in FA. 

Ive always said you gotta look to take advantage of drafts/FA that are deep at a position.  By that I mean doubling up at WR and taking Edwards in round 3 in a deep WR draft because Edwards is a 2nd round talent.... or.... hopefully next year signing the FS whose in the tier 1 category but due to a high supply of FAs gets signed at the tier 2 price.  

While I applaud Mayocks approach it’s just awfully hard on the fans initially.  It seemed like we were never going to have issues addressed... then BOOM he adds McMillian and solidified the LB unit.

I love the versatility of the unit and how deep we are despite likely only carrying 5 LBs plus White on PS.   If Kwiatkoski gets dinged up and misses a game then McMillian can start at MIKE.  If Littleton misses a game then McMillian can play SAM and Morrow plays WILL. Etc etc.

Hopefully he’ll do the same thing with the DL, specifically DT.  Mayock does seem to wait for the right player and their fit then rush to fill an obvious need immediately for the sake of insane, over analyzing fans such as myself.

[Humble_Beast]

1 minute ago, jimkelly02 said:

It’s also important to note the 2 starting positions he’s filled with 1 year rentals (Collins+Randall) are both positions that are incredibly deep in the draft and FA next year.  
Clearly Mayock has a long term plan he’s following.  he’s not just building a team for ‘20, but he’s building a roster for then next 3-5 years.

To be honest, I’m glad we didn’t fill DT and FS with Players that had year 2 guaranteed cap hits.  ‘21 is the year we’re suppose to make a contender push and we can add one DT/FS in the draft and the other in FA. 

Ive always said you gotta look to take advantage of drafts/FA that are deep at a position.  By that I mean doubling up at WR and taking Edwards in round 3 in a deep WR draft because Edwards is a 2nd round talent.... or.... hopefully next year signing the FS whose in the tier 1 category but due to a high supply of FAs gets signed at the tier 2 price.  

While I applaud Mayocks approach it’s just awfully hard on the fans initially.  It seemed like we were never going to have issues addressed... then BOOM he adds McMillian and solidified the LB unit.

I love the versatility of the unit and how deep we are despite likely only carrying 5 LBs plus White on PS.   If Kwiatkoski gets dinged up and misses a game then McMillian can start at MIKE.  If Littleton misses a game then McMillian can play SAM and Morrow plays WILL. Etc etc.

Hopefully he’ll do the same thing with the DL, specifically DT.  Mayock does seem to wait for the right player and their fit then rush to fill an obvious need immediately for the sake of insane, over analyzing fans such as myself.

seems like we are good to go for 2020 with the trade. Maybe after cuts, we sign a big NT as a 4th DT lol

[jimkelly02]

22 minutes ago, Humble_Beast said:

seems like we are good to go for 2020 with the trade. Maybe after cuts, we sign a big NT as a 4th DT lol

I’m not demanding we sign a DT as much anymore.  I admit I was awfully frustrated by having several perceived “holes” on the roster and nothing being done about them... and in fact we lost Hall, Lee on top of already having weaknesses.  
 

I still think there’s a need for a DT, especially if we don’t have a solid 9th DLmen.  I’ve heard people say “last year we only had 3 DTs” and “the 4th DTs only played 80ish snaps all year” (paraphrasing obviously).  That is all technically true but incredibly inaccurate in reality.  It shows they just looked up a stat and didn’t watch what was going on.  In the games where we didn’t have 4 DEs and 4 DTs active we carried 5, and even 6, DEs and used these “DE’s” such as Mauro and Jordan as DTs.  The reality is we Always had 4 DTs active and playing 15+ snaps (bare minimum) a game.... we just did it with players we called DEs but played all over the DLine.

There absolutely is a need for a solid 4th DT, and more so when we only go 4 DEs deep and don’t have a 5th DE for the “9th DL“ who can play DT.  Daniel Ross isn’t that good.  We need someone better.  We don’t NEED another massive NT we just need a 4th DT who can play alongside Hankins on Short distance and some running downs.  The role I’m talking about is for 250-400 snaps a year.

Mayock could just be waiting to fill the role.  I’m more willing to relax and give him the benefit of the doubt now.

[Dessie]

9 minutes ago, jimkelly02 said:

I’m not demanding we sign a DT as much anymore.  I admit I was awfully frustrated by having several perceived “holes” on the roster and nothing being done about them... and in fact we lost Hall, Lee on top of already having weaknesses.  
 

I still think there’s a need for a DT, especially if we don’t have a solid 9th DLmen.  I’ve heard people say “last year we only had 3 DTs” and “the 4th DTs only played 80ish snaps all year” (paraphrasing obviously).  That is all technically true but incredibly inaccurate in reality.  It shows they just looked up a stat and didn’t watch what was going on.  In the games where we didn’t have 4 DEs and 4 DTs active we carried 5, and even 6, DEs and used these “DE’s” such as Mauro and Jordan as DTs.  The reality is we Always had 4 DTs active and playing 15+ snaps (bare minimum) a game.... we just did it with players we called DEs but played all over the DLine.

There absolutely is a need for a solid 4th DT, and more so when we only go 4 DEs deep and don’t have a 5th DE for the “9th DL“ who can play DT.  Daniel Ross isn’t that good.  We need someone better.  We don’t NEED another massive NT we just need a 4th DT who can play alongside Hankins on Short distance and some running downs.  The role I’m talking about is for 250-400 snaps a year.

Mayock could just be waiting to fill the role.  I’m more willing to relax and give him the benefit of the doubt now.

You are ignoring the fact that Guenther has always used DEs as DT. 
Like you say maybe it’s better to wait and see what happens, it’s almost like Mayock knows what he is doing rather rushing to get the Barrons and Harrison’s of this world. 

[NYRaider]

1 hour ago, Dessie said:

You are ignoring the fact that Guenther has always used DEs as DT. 
Like you say maybe it’s better to wait and see what happens, it’s almost like Mayock knows what he is doing rather rushing to get the Barrons and Harrison’s of this world. 

Tashan Reed of the Athletic said we've used a DL of Crosby - Ferrell - Collins - Key a lot during camp. Ferrell looks a lot bigger and I expect that he'll play a lot inside this year. 

[Dessie]

6 hours ago, NYRaider said:

Tashan Reed of the Athletic said we've used a DL of Crosby - Ferrell - Collins - Key a lot during camp. Ferrell looks a lot bigger and I expect that he'll play a lot inside this year. 

That definitely looks like the plan. Not saying we won’t look to upgrade Ross if the opportunity arises but it would have to been on a vet min or close to salary. 

[Darbsk]

13 hours ago, MrOaktown_56 said:

The reason that we have randall and maliek collins on 1 years as well is to either see if they play into extensions or give us an out to upgrade in good years for safeties/DT in free agency. Man is a genius. 

Good point! I feel like we also left the drafting of WRs until this past draft to take advantage of the superb WR draft class, it seems like we have a long term plan and are looking a step or two ahead as to when quality players may be available and at what positions they may be most available. Mayock I'm really liking though I do still have reservations about Gruden when it comes to how much say he has in recruitment. 

[Darbsk]

12 hours ago, jimkelly02 said:

I agree core players should be locked up long term.  But there’s nothing wrong with and actually a ton of benefit to having 2-5 starters/ top reserves on defense each year on 1 year deals.  These deals are often cheap and obviously have no future cap guarentees and the players are incentivized you play for the next contract. Even if Collins balls out we can still find someone better if we want.  

I agree with pretty much all the post but this point does raise some issues.

I)  If Collins plays really well and we want to keep him he would likely be significantly more expensive to lock up medium to long term than he would have before the 'prove it' season as he's just proven it! It's not a terrible problem to have and is probably our best case.

II)  If Collins plays well but we decide we need to move on and just replace his production with another 'value' signing I don't think that's going to be as easy as is implied. Assuming he 'balls out' then we'd be looking for a very good player and not just a spot starter and particularly cheap ones dont grow on trees. We have to hope a young guy with big potential or a vet that has something to prove wants to sign a 'prove it' deal or if we're going to pay a big ticket FA then we might aswell pay the young Collins who's just proved he can flourish in our system.

III)  If Collins only plays at an average level or poor level then he'll be easy to move on from and easy to replace his production. That of course would be detrimental to our season so nobody is really hoping for that! 

Obviously the best thing will be if he balls out but will resign for a reasonable contract but that seems more in hope than expectation.

Its not my intention to sound too critical but the better his production the harder it will be to replace easily.

[NYRaider]

8 hours ago, Dessie said:

That definitely looks like the plan. Not saying we won’t look to upgrade Ross if the opportunity arises but it would have to been on a vet min or close to salary. 

My only concern is that if Hankins were to get hurt we don't really have another run stuffing DT on the roster. But our interior DL rotation should be pretty solid between Hankins/Collins/Hurst/Ferrell. 

[NYRaider]

4 hours ago, Darbsk said:

I agree with pretty much all the post but this point does raise some issues.

I)  If Collins plays really well and we want to keep him he would likely be significantly more expensive to lock up medium to long term than he would have before the 'prove it' season as he's just proven it! It's not a terrible problem to have and is probably our best case.

I doubt he was going to sign a long term deal anywhere, he wanted to go somewhere he could ball out and then get a long term extension. I'd gladly pay him though with a big year. He's only 25 years old and is supposedly in the best shape of his life, down from 325 to 302 pounds. 

[NYRaider]

McMillan had PFF's 7th highest grade in run defense of any LB over the past two seasons.

[Dessie]

7 minutes ago, NYRaider said:

My only concern is that if Hankins were to get hurt we don't really have another run stuffing DT on the roster. But our interior DL rotation should be pretty solid between Hankins/Collins/Hurst/Ferrell. 

If Hankins gets injured we’d bring in a vet, but what’s the point of being stuck with a guaranteed contract now? If it happens in season then we are on the hook only for game checks.

[jimkelly02]

19 hours ago, Humble_Beast said:

J White hype died down once the pads came on... 

Just as I said on several occassions.  
 

6’2 211 S / Rovers in college moving to NFL linebacker usually look good running around in shorts.... but when they have to step up and take on Incognito in the A-gap that’s when it all goes to s-hite .... real quick.