The Miami Dolphins DODGED A Bullet

The Miami Dolphins DODGED A Bullet

[Music] The Miami Dolphins dodged a major bullet. We’re going to explain what that bullet is, but I am Nick Rolloff. This is Dolphins Today by Chat Sports. Miami has been criticized a lot about not making the right moves in the off season, whether it is ressigning their own players, not going out and signing a different type of position group. But there is one player Miami did not resign to their roster. And in hindsight, it looks like a really good move. The bullet that Miami dodged, well, letting Christian Wilkins walk in NFL free agency. Now, this did not happen this year. It happened in 2024. But given what has happened over the last 365 days for Christian Wilkins, it has just been looking in hindsight a great move that Krisker ultimately made. On Friday, July 18th, Christian Wilkins was placed on the pup list, physically unable to perform list by the Las Vegas Raiders. Now, this is not an indictment on his status for this upcoming year like he’s going to miss the entire season. and he could come off the pup list at any time. But it has just further detailed and illustrated how that contract Wilkins signed with Vegas in the offseason has not paid dividends for the Raiders to this point. And if we go back to the 2024 NFL offseason, Wilkins left Miami to join the Las Vegas Raiders on a 4-year $110 million deal. They gave him $57.5 million guaranteed. That’s what it says on Over the Cap. And then if you do quick math, it’s $27.5 million in an annual average value for Christian Wilkins. That’s a massive contract. It’s the second highest paid defensive tackle in the NFL just trailing the Kansas City Chiefs Dlineman Chris Jones. But when you look at what Wilkins has done for the Raiders, it has been basically nothing. Christian Wilkins played just five games last season for the Raiders and it actually cost Miami as well in the compensator formula. if he played just half of the games, eight of them, well, he would have ended up netting Miami a third round comp pick due to his contract in the playing, but he did not even qualify for 25% of the snaps last season, which is why Miami’s comp pick for Wilkins departing ended up being a fourth rounder instead of third rounder. Remember, they got a third for Robert Hunt, they got a fourth for Christian Wilkins. But when you look at why he missed time last season, he suffered a Jones fracture injury in his foot during October, that is a brutal injury for a defensive lineman. We always talk about certain injuries affecting certain different position groups a little bit differently, right? Well, when you look at the foot and the lower body for defensive linemen, that is like the most important like vital muscles, bones for these players because they are so big. They require so much like quick explosive movement to where if he is consistently bothered by a bone and muscle in his foot, he’s going to have a hard time being explosive, hard time generating enough pressure and force to get by a interior offensive lineman and make plays. So, this is an injury that is certainly very serious for an interior defensive lineman. And if we go back just one month on June 24th, Christian Wilkins was seen in a walking boot still for that foot injury. And it just is so tough to watch a player that was so good for the Miami Dolphins like Christian Wilkins to leave Miami and struggle. Now, it ultimately is a good thing in hindsight cuz if he was doing this and had that injury and took this long to recover for an injury while he was being paid that much money for the Dolphins, oh, it would be an absolute disaster, which is why this is a bullet dodge by the Fins. But like it just is painful to watch C. Wilk not be able to be on the football field and really help them. But with every issue that the Dolphins have had over the last 25 years, not being able to win a playoff game, paying the wrong people like Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Ramsay, Bradley Chub, and then he gets hurt and misses an entire season. Could you have imagined if they allotted another massive contract like Christian Wilkins getting paid over hundred million dollars on an annual average value of 25 million for him not to play football last season. We would have been so bad. We already were a good team last season only winning eight games. It would have been way worse at five or six games potentially because when you paid him that money, you wouldn’t have been able to pay other players and then it would have obviously crippled you a little bit in terms of what you would be capable of doing spending wise in the future this off season and offseasons beyond as well. Miami dodged a bullet by not extending and resigning Christian Wilkins in free agency to that big of a deal. More coming up here in a second. But shout out to Mando, the whole body deodorant that I trust to make sure I am never sweating and I am always smelling right. And with summer in full swing, it is hot, hot, hot. And more heat equals more sweat, which equals more stink potential. You’ve got to be ready. And I’m not messing around with my deodorant, which is why I trust Mando, who has launched something that takes sweat control to the next level. Introducing the Mando deodorant plus sweat control solid stick. It’s double protection. 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Smell great doing it. Links in description and comments of today’s video. Shout out to Mando. So, we mentioned that the Dolphins bypassed paying Christian Wilkins that type of money. And although every contract would have been different, so maybe it would have been more backloaded than front-loaded for C Wil for Miami. But when you just look at the face value of $27.5 million a season for Wilkins, Miami turned around, didn’t give that to him, and ultimately used it to spread out money for some other players. And you could make the same argument for Robert Hunt, but I think if we could go back in time, we would have liked to resign Robert Hunt due to how bad our offensive guard play was a season ago. But if you just look at these contracts Miami handed out in Fency, Jordan Brooks, Kendall Fuller, Aaron Brewer, John Smith, Jordan Puer, like you add up all of these contracts and it gets to just around where the money would have been for Christian Wilkins. And this just shows you that would you rather have paid Christian Wilkins the money that he got or would you have been able to use that money to pay these five players? And although Kendall Fuller, John Smith, and Jordan Puyer won’t be with the Dolphins in 2025, Aaron Brewer was an unbelievable addition, top 10 center in football. Jordan Brooks was a phenomenal addition to this team and he still got another couple years under contract and he is going to be your starting middle linebacker for the next couple years to come. Like Andu obviously was an incredible return on investment, but getting Aaron Brewer on a three-year deal, getting Jordan Brooks on a three-year deal, like you tell me what you would rather have, Christian Wilkins and all those injuries, or would you rather have the three-year services of Aaron Brewer and Jordan Brooks who have fit this team to an absolute tea, both at critical positions offensively and defensively. We oftent times criticize Chris Greer. We do that a ton. But the move of bypassing the Wilkins contract and spreading out the money to other low-level free agents was an absolute great decision by Mr. Greer. More conversation to come here, but if you want daily Dolphins coverage, this is the channel for you. Subscribe today. Dolphins today here. We’re a family on the road to 71K subscribers. Help us get there. But we’re also giving you daily content. You can go down a list of players that Miami probably wish they would have resigned and Christian Wilkins is just simply not one of them. And this is kind of where we’re going to round out the conversation on Wilkins specifically. Like was he an awesome player for the Fins? Oh, unbelievable. Great pick for Miami in the first round of the draft. He was phenomenal. He was a consistent top 10 defensive lineman in the NFL and it’s why he got that massive contract that he got from the Las Vegas Raiders. And you think about the Andrew Van Ginkles of the world, the Robert Hunts of the world, some of these other players that left Miami and turned out to be really, really good. Well, I think we have to at least acknowledge that Chris Greer made the right decision to not go with Christian Wilkins. And it was not a popular decision at the time. I was not hosting the channel at the time, but it was probably something that I didn’t see you guys comment when that stuff happened, but I would have to imagine y’all were not happy. I just know that Dolphins fans on Twitter were not very happy with the decision of letting Christian Wilkins walk and them deciding to go with different players and keeping them around like Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Ramsay. Just an example there. Obviously Ramsay no longer with the team, but the point is was not a pie decision by Chris Greer to not pay Christian Wilkins. But a year later, unless Wilkins just comes out of nowhere miraculously has a healed foot and starts dominating, well, I think Chris Greer made the right call. So hindsight is 2020, but I do have to ask you this. Did Chris Greer make the right decision by not resigning Christian Wilkins to that massive contract? Type Y if you think he did make the right decision. type end if you think he still made the wrong decision. Obviously, I’ve detailed throughout this entire show that I think it’s obviously a good decision and they dodged a major bullet. But when you talk specifically on the defensive line room, I actually like where it is at right now. And obviously it would be shaped completely differently if you did not sign or if you ended up keeping Christian Wilkins, excuse me. The current room still has Zack Celler. You drafted Kenneth Grant in the first round. You brought back Bonito Jones. you drafted Zeke Biggers and Jordan Phillips as well. And obviously last season Kas Campbell probably would not have been on the Dolphins roster if they resigned Christian Wilkins. Um, and Kas Campbell was absolutely phenomenal. He had a better year than Wilkins because he was able to stay on the field and he was very productive in the run game as well as getting after the quarterback. So, when you think of where the defensive line room is at now, it obviously would not have pushed Miami to draft Kenneth Grant and some of these other players if Wilkins was still on the squad. And this defensive line room, we’re going to mostly focus on the interior here, is young, it’s tough, and full of high character individuals that you want to build a culture around. Kenneth Grant is one of the most high culture, high motor guys that the Dolphins have and he hasn’t even played a snap for them yet. That’s the type of player that people have spoken on and the person they have talked about at Michigan and throughout the draft process. Same thing about Jordan Phillips from Maryland. It was always talked about how he was the first one into that Maryland Terapin building working on himself in the wait room as well as watching film. His teammate Dant Trader Jr. would always say that about Jordan Phillips. The point is, I like what Miami has done in the trenches, investing in James Daniels offensively alongside Jonah Savinia, and they’re starting to do it on the defensive line as well. I do not think these things would have been made possible if they made the offer that the Raiders did to Christian Wilkins to keep him around. Plus, Wilkins is 29 years of age. 29year-old about to cross 30 with a Jones fracture injury, making $27 million a year. Yeah, that would have been an absolute disaster. So, yes, Miami did dodge a bullet by not giving Wilkins that deal. That’ll do it for today’s show. Appreciate everybody hanging out and watching with us. If you want more content around the Dolphins, follow me on Twitter, Nick Rolloloff, but also on our Instagram, Dolphins Today IG. We got short form content, Instagram post on the daily there. So, if you want more 365 coverage around the fins, you know where to find us on social media. [Music]

The Miami Dolphins DODGED a bullet when they decided to not give Christian Wilkins a major contract in NFL Free Agency during the 2024 NFL Offseason. The Las Vegas Raiders placed Wilkins on the PUP list Friday morning due to a foot injury that he suffered during the 2024 NFL season, after signing him to a 4 year, $110 MM ($57.75 MM GTD) contract. Since letting Wilkins walk, the Dolphins have put their saved money to use as they signed a plethora of impact players, including Aaron Brewer, Jordyn Brooks, Jonnu Smith and Kendall Fuller. Dolphins Today host Nic Rohloff is here to discuss the latest NFL news surrounding Christian Wilkins as well as discuss how the Dolphins made a GENIUS move when letting Wilkins walk.

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Christian Wilkins contact with the Raiders:
– 4-years
– $110 MM
– $57.5 MM GTD
– $27.5 MM AAV

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Christian Wilkins career Dolphins stats:
355 TKL, 43 TFL, 20.5 SACK, 4 FF, 19 PBU

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How Miami used money after letting WIlkins walk:
– Jordyn Brooks: $8.75M
– Kendall Fuller: $8.25M
– Aaron Brewer: $7M
– Jonnu Smith: $4.2M
– Jordan Poyer: $2M

NEXT: More Dolphins Today YouTube for the REAL ONES:
– Miami Dolphins REUNITING With Former Wide Receiver? Miami Dolphins Rumors – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJfaDCwPCHw
– Miami Dolphins Just Received A GIFT From The San Francisco 49ers – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqEzso8X124
– 🚨BIG MOVE COMING: Dolphins Making BIG Signing Before NFL Training Camp? – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsdTt64ppPA

Dolphins defensive starters:
DE: Chop Robinson, Jaelan Phillips, Bradley Chubb
DT: Zach Sieler, Kenneth Grant
LB: Jordyn Brooks, Tyrel Dodson
Secondary: Jalen Ramsey, Cam Smith, Ifeatu Melifonwu, Ashtyn Davis, Kader Kohou

Let Rolly know your thoughts on the questions from today’s show:
– Did Chris Grier make the right decision not signing Christian Wilkins? Type ‘Y’ for Yes or ‘N’ for No

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