Finally, Dolphins fans, we have entered the working part of the Dolphins offseason. Granted, the Dolphins can’t sign unrestricted free agents from other teams just yet, but the Dolphins will start making decisions that will impact the 2013 roster. Today is the first day in which teams can ‘tag’ their own players. Teams can either use the ‘Franchise’ or ‘Transition’ tag on one of their own, soon to be free agents. Some have suggested that Jake Long and Sean Smith could each be a candidate for receiving such a tag from the Dolphins. I think we all realize that Jake won’t be getting the Franchise tag, because it would pay him more than $15 million for 2013. Quite frankly, the Dolphins cannot possibly value Jake’s ability, at this point of his career, THAT highly.
Photo Courtesy of Dolphins.com
This morning on Twitter, I saw Ben Volin of the Palm Beach Post speaking about franchising Sean Smith. Ben didn’t advocate it, but said it was a possibility. To put it bluntly, if the Dolphins choose to use the franchise tag on Sean Smith, Jeff Ireland needs to have his head examined. If the Dolphins decided to franchise Sean Smith, the cost would be $10.677 million for the 2013 season. That means that Sean Smith would earn a full 1/12 of the Dolphins TOTAL salary cap for 2013. He’s not worth it.
Sean Smith has the ideal measurables you look for in a cornerback. He’s tall and fast. However, he lacks ball skills, as we usually see him dropping interceptions. We’ve all heard about Smith’s potential since he was drafted out of Utah 5 years ago. However, the Dolphins are no longer in the position to wait on his potential. They certainly shouldn’t be willing to spend $10+ million to see if that potential is realized!
