Dolphins 2022 Offseason: The Biggest Storyline at Each Position on Offense
The Miami Dolphins have their new head coach following the hiring of Mike McDaniel, so now the focus turns solely to trying to improve the roster to make the 2022 season as successful as possible.
That will mean first analyzing the players on the current roster, evaluating the free agents who'll become available on the market once the league year starts March 16, and of course evaluating and later drafting college prospects in the hope they can make an impact (ideally sooner rather than later).
Having said that, we examine the biggest storyline at each position heading into the 2022 NFL scouting combine.
Quarterback: Who will be the backup in 2022?
It should be pretty apparent by now, given the public comments and the reporting that was done before McDaniel was hired that the Dolphins will be rolling with Tua Tagovailoa as the starting quarterback next season. The question then becomes who ends being signed to serve as his backup. Jacoby Brissett handled that role in 2021 and didn't have a particularly impressive season, though it wasn't as bad as many fans made it out to be (he was very good in the game at Vegas) and if poor offensive line play is being cited as having affected Tagovailoa's performance, then the same needs to be applied to Brissett. The Dolphins signed Brissett to a one-year, $5 million contract last offseason and it would seem to figure they'd be looking for the same kind of deal this year. Pending UFA quarterbacks include Teddy Bridgewater, Andy Dalton, Cam Newton, Jameis Winston, Tyrod Taylor, Marcus Mariota and Mitchell Trubisky. Bridgewater certainly would seem to make sense partly because he's from Miami, but that would entail him being OK with giving up on being a starter. Mariota also seems like a good fit given his relationship with Tagovailoa as two Hawaii natives.
Running back: Is It Time to Use an Early Pick?
The Dolphins went with a running-back-by-committee approach during Brian Flores' three years as head coach, in the process passing up the opportunity to select Jonathan Taylor (ouch!) or any of the top RB prospects in the 2020 draft. With the way Duke Johnson emerged late last season when he had two 100-yard rushing performances and showed the difference a better-than-average running back could make, one would think the Dolphins would be tempted to finally use a pick on that position early in the draft. But ... If we assume McDaniel is going to look to do a lot of the things that worked so well for him in San Francisco, don't forget that the 49ers had five different rushing leaders the past five seasons (McDaniel's tenure) and the last four included a sixth-round pick (Elijah Mitchell) and three players (Matt Breida, Jeff Wilson, Raheem Mostert) who entered the NFL as undrafted free agents. Bottom line: Don't bet on an early pick being used on a running back.
Wide receiver: How Drastically Different Will the Group Look?
Remember when training camp started in 2021 and there was all this talk about the abundance of riches the Dolphins had at wide receiver? Yeah, well, let's just say things didn't work out the way they were supposed to and we could be looking at a major reconstruction project in that group this offseason. Think about it, who besides Jaylen Waddle would you consider a lock to be back in 2022? Will Fuller V, Mack Hollins, Albert Wilson and Isaiah Ford are all pending UFAs, Preston Williams is a pending RFA, and we just don't see the Dolphins making much of an effort to try to re-sign any of them except for Hollins. Beyond that, Allen Hurns could become a cap casualty, Lynn Bowden Jr. spent all of last season on IR, and then there's DeVante Parker, who's very talented but has a well-documented injury history and carries a cap number of $8.7 million in 2022. Because of those factors, the notion of trading him or releasing him very well might surface, but getting rid of him would create another hole at the position. And it says here there'll be enough changes at the position as it is.
Tight end: What's Going to Happen With Mike Gesicki?
That truly is one of the biggest questions on the entire Dolphins roster. Gesicki is set to become a free agent March 16 unless the team places the franchise or transition tag on him or signs him to a new contract before then. If he hits the market, one would think Gesicki would be eyeballing the contract signed last season by the Eagles' Dallas Goedert that calls for an annual income of $14.25 million. But one needs to ask how much the Dolphins want to pay Gesicki, particularly when considering that the 49ers system asks its tight ends to block and that's obviously not Gesicki's forte. Besides, the Dolphins have four other tight ends on the roster, including pending UFA Durham Smythe, who is a considerably better blocker than Gesicki, and 2021 third-round pick Hunter Long, who barely played as a rookie but was drafted for a reason. And perhaps that reason was the Dolphins envisioning that they were going to let Gesicki walk this spring.
Offensive line: How Many Starters Need to be Replaced?
And finally we get to everybody's favorite whipping boys, the offensive linemen. You know, the group that was blamed for anything and everything that went wrong (well, almost everything) in 2021, sometimes fairly, oftentimes unfairly. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that there will be changes on the offensive line in 2022, but just how much of an overhaul should we expect as opposed to the Dolphins looking for continued improvement with the coaching staff additions that seemed to put a premium on that position (namely hiring former Chargers OL coach Frank Smith as offensive coordinator and retaining Lemuel Jeanpierre but now in a role as assistant O-line coach). Is it possible that sub-par development and coaching was as much an issue last year as talent? The Dolphins spent a first-round pick on Austin Jackson in 2020, and second-round picks on Rob Hunt in 2020 and Liam Eichenberg in 2021; is it so farfetched that all three again will be in the starting lineup (Hunt should be a lock and Eichenberg an almost lock)? From this vantage point, the one 2021 starting offensive lineman who almost assuredly won't be back as a starter is right tackle Jesse Davis, who's actually more likely to become a cap casualty considering it would entail a $3.6 million cap savings, per overthecap.com. Now, this isn't to suggest the Dolphins aren't going to be looking for upgrades pretty much everywhere on the line, but let's not consider anything a lock yet, particularly the notion that the Dolphins will be spending another first-round pick on an offensive lineman.
