Miami Dolphins to part ways with Jake Long?

Submitted by MGoVoldemort on
Apparently this.......is a thing. While in Miami for work, I was listening to sports talk radio, and they were all mentioning the likelihood Miami will be taking a Left Tackle in the draft. Being talk radio, I of course took it with a grain of salt. I don't follow Fins' news at all, so this was the first I'd heard rumblings of this. Curious, I looked for news on it, and sure enough, it's a likelihood Long won't be back with Miami next year. http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2012-12-19/miami-dolphins-nfl-wee… What logic is there in cutting your ALL PRO left tackle? You just drafted a QB in the first round, Jake Long shouldn't be in the conversation of cost cutting moves. This would be Millen level stupidity and then some. How often are franchise Left Tackles on the market?
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Don

January 2nd, 2013 at 12:34 PM ^

I don't give a damn about flamebait negging, but IMHO no true UM fan should ever want a Michigan player to come play for the Fords, or for any other incompetently-run franchise.

Put it this way: what would the careers of Tom Brady or Charles Woodson have been if they had spent their careers with the Lions? It's horrible to contemplate.

Joined: 06/30/2008

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Brodie

January 2nd, 2013 at 1:28 PM ^

what the hell does that even mean? It's not the like the Fords are horrible in the abstract, they hire people who are poor talent evaluators and stick with them for far too long. If the Lions had Woodson and Brady, it would suggest that team was in competent hands and therefore there's no reason to suspect they'd have the reputation they do. This "the Lions as being a sub-NFL franchise" logic is basically an invention of the Millen years. People can go back over the previous 35 years of Ford rule and all the terrible decisions that were made and all that but the reality is the Lions were always just a mediocre NFL team like the Browns or Cardinals until Millen.

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hoota122

January 2nd, 2013 at 11:46 AM ^

Long would be a perfect fit for the packers. He would bring stability to a very bad offensive line. Aaron Rodgers with a good offensive line is a scary thought.

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Needs

January 2nd, 2013 at 11:53 AM ^

There's no way the Packers invest the kind of money that it would take to get Long when they need to resign Matthews and Raji, with Rodgers on the horizon. They clearly believe, as I previously stated, that there o-line just has to be good enough. They think Newhouse meets this standard, and they have Derrick Sherrod coming back from injury next year.

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Needs

January 2nd, 2013 at 12:32 PM ^

So you think the Packers, a team that never signs big money free agents*, is going to shell out the $10 million per year that it's going to take to sign Long, who's missed significant time the past few seasons? And they're going to do this when they're looking at resigning two of their young, vital defensive players and their franchise QB? Okay.

 

The Packers will likely do what they always do, draft a developmental tackle, or a guy that falls in the first round, and hope he becomes an adequate player.

 

*The Packers only real free agent signings that remain on the team are 1. Woodson, who no other team wanted; and 2. Ryan Pickett, who was a relatively affordable signing. 

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ldoublee

January 2nd, 2013 at 1:22 PM ^

also one who has Sunday Ticket, so I watch every Dolphin game..

 

Jake Long was not even a good left tackle this year.  He was mediocre at best.  His pass blocking--usually his calling card was very inconsistent, and he was beaten badly a number of times this year. 

 

He has been injury prone and inconsistent over the past 2 years.  Some team will give him a lot of money, but I don't think it will be Miami...and this is from a team that will have about $47 million in cap space.

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Tommy Want Wingy

January 2nd, 2013 at 3:48 PM ^

As a Dolphins fan, perhaps I can shed some light. Yes, Long most likely will not be back next year, for a couple reasons. Number one MONEY. He was in the last group of highly paid rookies before the new collective bargaining agreement. He came into the NFL as the highest paid offensive lineman in the league before ever playing a down. Because of this, it is not realistic to franchise him, as his cap number would be north of 15 million. He also has not played up to his normal dominant self the last two seasons, as injuries, and change to a zone blocking scheme have cause him to struggle at times. He is looking for a large payday in the area of the 90ish million Joe Thomas got, but his play has not warrented it for the reasons mentioned above. Miami would love to have him back, but not at that price tag. It all but sealed his fate that when he went on IR a month ago (for the 2nd straight year) Jonathan Martin excelled at left tackle, and was a second round pick himself. We are sitting on between 40-50 million in salary cap space, and 5 of the top 100 picks in the draft. WR, CB, and TE are vastly bigger needs at this point, and to resign him would take away a large chunk of that financial flexibility. Sad, first they took Henne away from me, and now this.

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