The hope was Titans would hire McKenzie as their GM
The Miami Dolphins need all the help they can get and then some, so most were hoping like heck that Reggie McKenzie would be the Titans next GM netting the Phins two 3rd Round picks. Nope! The Titans slyly hired Chiefs assistant GM Mike Borganzi for their General Manager and brought McKenzie along in the same capacity here for nothing as far as draft cap
Well, it was a nice dream. It’s not the end of the world for the Dolphins, but it’s not great either.
So why did McKenzie make a lateral move?
Mckenize loss isn’t a winner, but it’s not disaster either
There’s no way to know if McKenzie left to flee a sinking ship here, the Titans are a better spot with draft capital, or maybe it’s just the best spot for him at this stage of his life.
I think if we were on the verge of great success, McKenzie wouldn’t be leaving. If the talent pool here was so great he’d likely have been a much hotter candidate. This doesn’t mean that this is a sign that it’s ‘all hands-on deck’ time. Of course, it could be but only time will tell if this regime is soon to be swimming with the fishes or not and McKenzie was getting out while the getting was good.
With a huge draft coming though, you can bet with the best pay per head that the loss of a major player in the draft process is never great news. Still, we have Marvin Allen and I’m sure a ton of the scouting has been done already. You could also say we’ve been more cold than hot in our drafting in his time here, so what’s the difference? That would be fair.
In the end we don’t know who adds what to the drafting of players and exactly how the button is pushed to select a player. So, one positive spin could be this is addition by subtraction. It might be a bridge to far though and it’s most likely subtraction by subtraction, but the loss is nothing more than single digits at worst.
At least that’s what I’m hoping.
The problem is that now Grier’s voice just became a bigger piece of the pie, and I don’t like that at all.
The biggest downside is the loss of potential draft ammo
I’d say the better bet for McKenzie’s departure is that he’s looking to wind down his career and wants to make the landing smooth. McKenzie will be 62 years old in February and was raised in Tennesse, has family there, and runs some foundations based out of the area, so this is the most comfortable spot for him. Maybe he figures attaching himself with a new regime gives him at least 3 seasons of security and by then he’ll be 65 years old and maybe set to wrap up his football life. However you slice it, we don’t know the ‘whys’, but given his connections with Tennessee, his roots there must play a sizable part of the equation.
In the end, Dolphins have 10 picks in this draft and that’s a ton of ammo. While it certainly would have been nicer to get a conditional 3rd Rounder this year and next, McKenzie staying or going isn’t going to make or break this regime. It seems Grier and McDaniel have all the talent to break this regime all by themselves. The million-dollar question is do they have the talent to make it work? Go Phins!!!
Edit: I messed up on McKenzie’s age is 61 not 74. My apologies. It is now corrected.