Day 410, Quasi-Quarantine: The Dolphins Doggedly Continue To Dolphin Themselves In The Face Repeatedly

A year later, it's looking more and more like the Dolphins 2020 free agent class may have been the worst in the history of professional football.

Jordan Howard made it five games before he was released. 

Then, Kyle Van Noy was somewhat randomly cut during free agency. 

Next, Shaq Lawson was traded to Houston for Bernardrick McKinney, a 28-year-old linebacker who played four games last year.

Finally, the capper was the Dolphins paying his former team $6 million to take Ereck Flowers back.

Miami paid more than $50 million for these four players. None are on the team even one year later.

That's not even mentioning a highly questionable 2020 draft class that saw Miami do awful little with an awful lot of draft picks. But, by all means, let's let the guy who made those decisions accrue as many selections as possible, because what could go wrong?

Look, Chris Grier has been with the Dolphins organization for more than 20 years. While some trot out that fact as a point of pride, I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that the downside of that is he has played a role in two decades of disastrous franchise building.

I thought Miami should have jettisoned Grier as part of their last overhaul of the front office, but apparently someone within the administration thinks it's a wise idea to give him more cracks at trying to fix a roster he has personally decimated through an almost incomprehensible series of poor drafts, ill-considered free agent acquisitions, and panicky trades.

As a result, maybe I can be forgiven for suggesting that giving the general manager who oversaw all that more draft picks is maybe not the best allocation of resources. To make matters worse, we continue to play games by sliding down and up the draft board, intent on overthinking things and maneuvering ourselves right out of impact additions.

Here's a thought: Assign a value to draft prospects. Have a conviction on a player. Keep your spot and pick that player.

On the eve of the 2021 NFL Draft, let's be honest about where the 'Fins are as a franchise. I like Brian Flores, but he's been unable to maintain any consistency on his staff and has seemed to alienate some players pretty quickly. The roster is devoid of difference-makers outside of Xavien Howard, we're quickly ruining our reputation as a free-agency destination, and we still seem to be struggling to stick to a coherent team-building plan.

Beyond that, everything seems to be progressing according to schedule -- if that schedule means being mildly competitive somewhere around the 2030 timeframe.