A Deepish Dive on Why I want Curtis Samuel on the Miami Dolphins

You can debate all you want on if this blog about me wanting Curtis Samuel on the Miami Dolphins is truly a deep dive or not. It might just be a quasi-deep dive. The fact remains, out of all the free-agent wide receivers, I want the Dolphins to sign Curtis Samuel.

The Dolphins will have their pick at one of the deepest wide receiver free-agent classes of all time if they choose to.

Wide-receiver is a position that the Dolphins, most definitely, need and will upgrade come next season. We don’t have to get to Mariana's trench levels of deepness to understand that the Dolphin’s wide-receivers lack a lot in terms of being able to do much. We’ve seen the stats about how they’re unGodly bad at getting separation and had 18 drops as a unit. I think a portion of the separation issues were tied to the offensive line, only giving the quarterback, whoever it was, only nano-seconds to get the ball out. But, the wide-receiver unit needs to be bolstered regardless of who the quarterback is.

Currently, the Dolphins employ DeVante Parker, Preston Williams, Lynn Bowden Jr, Jakeem Grant, Albert Wilson, Allen Hurns, Malcolm Perry, and Mack Hollins. Yes, I know they have other practice squad guys, but I’m rather sure all those guys will be back next year, or there won’t, and we will barely notice.

Out of all those guys I mentioned, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Grant, Hurns, and Wilson be shown the door. I’d like if Wilson was kept, but he just seems like a guy who gets a fresh start somewhere else. Screw you, Covid. I’m sure Grant will soon be posting videos of him tearing up coffee house baristas with his incredible route running that can’t be duplicated in-game settings, but I’m ready to turn the page on him. This leaves a bit of room for the Dolphins to add more to this sorry unit.

I wrote all the way back in January that I didn’t think Coach Stone Cold Brian Flores would spend big money on a receiver. I still think that. Fortunately, I don’t think Curtis Samuel will cost what it will to get a player like Chris Godwin, Kenny Golladay, or JuJu Smith-Schuster. Rightfully so or not, I think those guys will get more money than Curtis Samuel will. Fine with me, but probably not Curtis Samuel, but I don’t want the Dolphins to pay big-time money for wide-receivers.

If we’re going to look at contracts, Albert Wilson got three years for 24M back in 2018 after coming off a season with 554 yards, 3 TDs on 42 catches. With the cap predicted to be less next season due to that pesky pandemic, Samuel’s contract might not be as big as it would normally be. And the fact that his stats last year, 851 yards on 77 catches, and 3 TDs with 200 rushing and 2 TDs, though solid, aren’t ones that jump off the page the Dolphins might be able to get a bargain for a man who possesses the skills that Curtis Samuel has.

The Case for Curtis Samuel on the Dolphins

Money aside, I believe Curtis Samuel is a guy that the Dolphins desperately need. The Dolphins pass-catchers, tight ends included, are all very tall and can go up and get it when all participating parties agree that’s a smart thing to do. One thing they all don’t do, collectively well, is catch the football and run with it. The Dolphins, collective, YAC was ranked in the bottom third of the league.

Curtis Samuel helps with this. Samuel had 320 YAC last year. I realize that looks like a small number. It’s a number that doesn’t even break the top 20 in the league. What I say to that is that in the Dolphin’s offense, which is being run by the Gruesome Twosome, I feel that Samuel would be the short crossing pattern, 3rd down guy, get the guy in space guy that the Dolphins crave.

I hate going down this road and using the Swiss Army Knife line that gets used whenever an alleged quarterback does things besides just throwing the ball. So, I won’t do that because I have a little thing called pride. That being said, Curtis Samuel is the Total Gym out of all the free-agent wide-receivers. He can do a bit of everything. He can catch the ball at a high rate. He’s capable of returning punts and kicks though he better not if he’s in a Dolphin’s uniform, and he can take not just jet-sweeps but straight-up hand-offs. I mentioned earlier that Samuel had 200 yards rushing on 41 carries. I like that, and I think the Dolphins can use more guys that can do multiple things. It appears the Dolphins won’t be a team that has absolute, top-of-the-line receivers or the best tailbacks in the league. In lieu of that, they have to get a hair creative with how they’re going to matriculate the ball down the field. Having Samuel in the backfield, who’s a guy who is capable of actually running from that position, helps the Dolphins achieve Hank Stram’s vision of what offenses should be doing.

I think he has a bit of Jarvis Landry in him. Watch his highlights, or wait for the end of the blog where I post his highlights from last year. Samuel does the dirty work for the Panthers. He catches the underneath stuff and gets a couple of yards after he catches it. He goes over the middle on the deep-ins and gets down before safties take his face off. He takes the sweep and lowers his shoulder into the defender. Landry was a bit bigger and thicker, but Samuel has no problem getting his hands dirty. Trading Landry was a painful day, at least for me, for us Miami fans. But, I can understand Landry wanting to leave a doofus of a coach, and I could understand a doofus of a coach wanting to get rid of a very good player because they are, in fact a doofus.

Curtis Samuel will be 25 when next season begins. That’s nice, that’s a good thing. It means his prime years are upon him. In his four years in the league, Samuel has increased his yards from the previous year by at least 131 yards and last year went 224 yards from the previous season. The easy way of saying this is that Samuel’s best football is ahead of him. Miami can get him on the cheap, all things considering, and get a quality 3-4 years or more out of him.

Let it be said that adding Samuel isn’t the only wide-receiver transaction that I’d like to see the Dolphins make. I don’t want the Dolphins to take a receiver at #3 in the upcoming draft. I’d take Penei Sewell or trade out of it to a quarterback-hungry team such as the Carolina Panthers and get more picks. If the Dolphins do that and get a later pick in the top 10, I’d like to see Jayden Waddle selected. Not saying he has to be the only deep threat on the Dolphins because that shouldn’t be the case. But, he would be able to stretch the field in a realistic way that the Dolphins haven’t been able to do in quite some time. I’ll get into that in more depth closer to draft time and after the Dolphins do or don’t trade the 3rd overall pick for a certain Lonestar quarterback.

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