I do not know how many people will be bothered to read this entire post, but for all the die hard Dolphins' fans like myself, I think you will find some truth to this post. To be brutally honest it has been extremely tough being a die hard fins' fan these past couple of years and I think most Dolphins' fans would agree. It stems from a lack of hope for every upcoming season, year in and year out. This lack of hope though is not due to one reason, but many: 1. Knowing we are trapped in the division that Tom Brady and the Pats have primarily dominated for the past 10 years is one reason; 2. Watching the Dolphins year after year fail to find a franchise QB (no matter the short term cost). In addition to trading away or letting go of the few players that do give us some semblance of hope for the future (i.e. Brandon Marshall) 3. Seeing teams in our division making offseason moves that at least on the surface look like moves that will help their rosters (i.e. recent example Bills signing Mario Williams, watching the Jets trade up for a franchise QB, witnessing the Patriots trading quality players only to continue to compete at the top of the AFC every year and then forced to watch them manuver around on draft day with their their typical multiple high picks within the first couple of rounds). Although it can be argued that the Bills might have over paid for Williams' services, that Mark Sanchez is not a franchise QB and that the Patriots tend to trade down too often only to pass up on potentially more talented players in order to fill more spots with youth. But the fact is that they make moves that give their fan bases that feeling every fan wants, hope that your team is moving in the right direction and that they want to do everything in their power to win a Super Bowl. Now the Dolphins have tried, but it seems like they often abandon ship too quickly or make decisions they regret soon there after, which completely takes the steam out of the fan base's engine. For one, persuading Parcells to run our organization, in my opinion, was one of the greatest moves in Dolphins' history, only to see him depart after such a short stint. Then trading away two second round picks to acquire Brandon Marshall was one of the most exciting offseason moves the Dolphins have made in a long time, only to see him traded away two years later for two third rounders, leaving us weapon less on the outside once again. And now leading up to the draft, at QB we have Matt Moore and David Garrad. In my opinion Moore did a good job towards the end of the season winning 6 of his last 9 and he deserves another chance to call the signals under center; but it will be interesting to see how he does now that arguably his best weapon is no longer on the roster. But my point being, as part of the Dolphin nation, I need something to hang my hat on looking to the future and as of now I have my doubts. I am tired of mediocre, personally I believe we need to shake things up this draft and make a splash to re-energize the franchise and fan base. The move I think we should make is to trade down in this year's draft with a team with a lower first round pick that over performed this year and will potentially drop off next year. Ideally, we would try to acquire a lower first round pick and their next year's first rounder. Similar to what the Browns did with the Falcons in the 2011 draft with the Julio Jones trade. Then we offer Mike Wallace a contract the Steelers will be unable to match and trade that lower first round pick to acquire a bonefide number one WR and give something to the fans to be excited about this year. Then with the potential extra first round pick next year and having the extra third rounder would give us the fire power to make a move to acquire the franchise QB we have needed ever since Marino retired, say the likes of Matt Barkley or the next RG3 to come out of nowhere. Either way we would have multiple picks in the first and third rounds in the next draft and the option of trading picks in future drafts, so we would finally be able to acquire a potential QB that would last more than 2-3 years here in Miami. That's all I have, hope you enjoyed reading this if you made it this far, and let's go fins. If you want leave a comment or if you have any ideas leave them, I am always interested in hearing what fellow Dolphins' fans have to say.
-- Jared M.