Analyzing the Miami Dolphins Roster: Wide Receivers

Now that we've taken out the quarterbacks and the running backs, we're going to go on ahead (finally) and start analyzing a position that Dolphins fans originally thought was a true strength and then revealed itself as a major weakness - the wide receiver position.

To say that the developments brewing in the wide receiver corps is a shock is an understatement. I was floored by how bad things have gotten in such a short time. There's unrest, there's discontent, there's frustration...and ironically enough, all of this is after the best year the Dolphins offense has had since Ryan Tannehill became the starting quarterback...so what's going on?

There's been speculation and reports that there's a divide in the Dolphins locker room regarding Tannehill, with half of the team in support of Tannehill, and the other half not believing Tannehill can lead them to victory. Whether or not this is true, we will likely never really know, but the recent behavior and comments by certain players only serve to make things even more murky than ever.

So with all this in mind, in order to do a roster analysis, we have to take a look at not just a player's production on the field, but their comments and behavior off the field. Without further ado, let us begin.

Mike Wallace

Much maligned, or highly praised; those are the two usual viewpoints regarding the man who is arguably the best wide receiver on the team...he's certainly paid like he is at least. But putting salary aside just for a brief moment, let's consider exactly what it is that Wallace brings to the table as a wide receiver.

What brought him here to Miami in the first place was his ability to stretch the field and blow the top off of defenses, which he still can and does whenever he gets the opportunity. However, his greatest strength as a player often gets overlooked because, simply put, he doesn't often get the opportunity to show it off.

Usually, Wallace's biggest supporters are also quarterback Ryan Tannehill's biggest critics. They point to Tannehill's apparent inability to throw the deep pass and use that as a sort of justification for whenever Wallace shows his frustration and makes unneeded drama in the locker room. But let's not act like Wallace's struggles are solely on Tannehill's lack of deep ball accuracy.

Wallace has his own set of issues though, like his questionable route running ability and his tendency to catch with his body instead of with his hands. What that means is that instead of reaching out to catch the football, Wallace tries to cradle the ball into his chest and then wrap his hands around the ball, which forces the QB to be even more accurate than ever.

There's no questioning Wallace's worth as an offensive weapon, but mixed reports as well as mixed results over his two years as a Dolphin leave many things unknown. While some media members say that certain players feel Tannehill is the reason the Dolphins can't take the next step on offense, other members of the media say that players are tired of Wallace complaining about getting the ball more.

At this point in time, the only thing that we know for sure is Wallace's contract numbers, and those numbers are pretty darn big. As it stands, Wallace is going to count as a twelve million dollar hit against the salary cap, and even if the team waits until after June 1st, cutting him would still only save about six million dollars and leave about five million in dead money, and considering the Dolphins current cap woes, that really isn't a favorable position.

I am of the mindset that the Dolphins need to keep Wallace because of what he brings to the table. While he has his shortcomings in many areas, he is a weapon on the football field, and regardless of whether he actually catches the football or not, teams play defense in different ways depending on whether or not he is on the field. That is something that cannot be so easily replaced, at least not right away.

If Wallace puts up a fight because he doesn't like Tannehill, then I would say the Dolphins need to cut bait with him and see if they can draft his successor - someone like a Philip Dorsett who is not quite as fast as Wallace but is still quite speedy. But if Wallace cools off and decides he's willing to stick around one more year, then more's the better for Miami, both talent-wise and number wise, as cutting him in 2016 would count only two million in dead money and over eleven million in cap savings. Sounds good to me.

Brian Hartline

How easy it is to turn on someone after he puts together two straight 1,000 receiving yard seasons. When Ryan Tannehill started off in 2012, it quickly became apparent who his favorite target was, and that was the "deceptively fast" Brian Hartline. The thing is though, Hartline isn't particularly fast. What he is good at is running his routes.

But Hartline's shortcomings in other areas has caused his importance in the Dolphins offense to dwindle significantly. In former Dolphins offensive coordinator Mike Sherman's offense, Hartline was a featured receiver and was able to put up numbers that made him out to be at least a really good number two receiver. In 2012, he caught 74 passes for 1,083 yards and 1 touchdown, and in 2013 he caught 76 passes for 1,016 yards and 4 touchdowns.

For a guy who isn't really all that special, for a guy who can pretty much be described as a "good" receiver, those are really good numbers, and they were largely augmented by the fact that Tannehill really depended on him due to the nature of the offense.

But in Bill Lazor's offense, it requires the ball to get thrown as quickly as possible, and so that doesn't allow Hartline to get much separation from his defenders. In this offense, Hartline's lack of speed and quickness becomes especially glaring, and he only managed to accumulate 39 receptions for 474 yards and 2 touchdowns, and he also had less than half of the targets he had in his previous two years.

Hartline's lack of targets is indicative of the fact that Lazor's offense is meant for Tannehill to go through his progressions and find the open man, which oftentimes was either Wallace or slot receiver Jarvis Landry. There was more creativity in the offense, different style play-calling, and Hartline couldn't keep up with what was required of him as a number two receiver. 

Under normal circumstances, I would say that Hartline needs to be cut and he needs to find work elsewhere...more than likely he'd wind up being in New England because why not? But I think there is another solution that can be looked at, and it would keep a pretty good wide receiver from going to a rival team.

According to several beat writers, Hartline has expressed a willingness to restructure his contract in order to stay in Miami. Considering the circumstances, I think that's a refreshing change of pace since a lot of the wide receivers on the team currently have expressed desires to leave Miami rather than stay and grow with a young offense. If Hartline is willing to make a reasonable price drop, I would definitely keep him in Miami because he is still good depth. 

If his ego decides that the offered price drop is too severe or he isn't willing to be a bench player (because that's likely what he would become if he stays), then we should definitely move on from Hartline. He will count for $7,350,000 against the cap in 2015, and if he is cut after June 1st, the team will save $5,950,000 with only $1,400,000 in dead money. There are options with Hartline - it all depends on what he's willing to accept to stay.

Brandon Gibson

Gibson is a bit of a mixed bag. When he signed his 3-year / $9,780,000 contract back in 2013, there was a certain amount of skepticism involved. On the one hand, Gibson was a rather obscure name in the league and - while talented to be sure - it was an unknown exactly what people should have been expecting from him.

On the other hand, he was the guy who caught a deep pass from his former quarterback Sam Bradford in 2012 while he was with the St. Louis Rams that almost led to the Rams beating the Dolphins in the final seconds of that game.

In 2013, Gibson got off to a bit of a slow start as he transitioned to being a slot receiver, as Wallace and Hartline had already solidified the two boundary positions. Eventually however, he got into the swing of things and he became one of Tannehill's preferred targets and was on his way to being one of the team's core players.

Then Gibson got hurt. In October of 2013 against the New England Patriots, Gibson was carted off the field with a season-ending knee injury that limited his season to a mere seven games. During that time, Gibson managed to accumulate 30 receptions for 326 and 3 touchdowns. Who knows what would have happened if he had stayed healthy?

Ironically enough however, in 2014, Gibson came back and seemed excited to pick up where he left off...but he never did. Second-round draft pick Jarvis Landry had arrived and firmly took Gibson's spot in the new offense, and Gibson never really got a chance to take it back. Despite playing double the amount of games he did the previous season, Gibson only caught 29 passes (one less than his previous year), and accumulated only 295 yards for just one touchdown.

Considering the contract numbers and talent level, Gibson should be the more logical choice to keep since he isn't as expensive as Hartline and he's arguably more talented than he is. But...I'm of the mindset that Gibson needs to go. The reasoning for this is quite simple. As it stands, the Dolphins don't have a lot of money to work with, and there are still several holes on this team that need to be filled, not counting the ones that are going to be added once cuts start being made.

Hartline's one saving grace was that reports are out that he is willing to restructure his contract so he can stay, reports regarding Gibson are stating the opposite. Gibson has apparently said that he will not restructure his contract, and since he isn't willing to be flexible for the sake of the team, that is what makes me say Gibson has to go. His cap hit this year is only $4,260,000, but cutting him means that only one million of that will be calculated as dead money, effectively freeing up three million dollars that the team can use to sign someone else. Gibson has to go. Nothing personal, but we just can't afford him.

Jarvis Landry

I won't spend too much time talking about Landry since it is incredibly obvious that this young man will be a Dolphin next year, and he will likely be one for many, many years to come. Before being drafted, we were told that Landry was too slow to be a truly effective receiver, and this was concluded by a bad 40-yard dash at the NFL combine where he ran a 4.77.

Landry is not that slow. He showed that he's faster than people give him credit for, and he's shown extreme toughness despite taking multiple shots in the slot and as a kick/punt returner. His emergence as a young and rising star - albeit as a slot man - has allowed the Dolphins to really examine the wide receiver corps and see where they can make upgrades elsewhere, because they know they can count on Landry to lock down the slot position better than Davone Bess ever could in my opinion.

The man affectionately nicknamed "Juice" is called that because he can get his teammates fired up when they need it most, and even when training camp just started, it was blatantly obvious that Landry had a certain fire in his belly that burned white hot. 

You could tell that he didn't just want to make the team, he wanted to be the best receiver on the whole team, and he would berate himself whenever he failed to execute, even if it was physically impossible for him to do so. The result was him breaking the Dolphins single-season rookie record for receptions with a whopping 84 catches, beating out former Dolphins running back Terry Kirby who had 75 catches in his rookie year. Landry also accumulated 758 yards and 5 touchdowns.

There's no question that Landry will be back next year, and he will likely be in Miami for several years to come. He is an extreme bright spot in the team's future and we are very lucky that he turned out the way he has, exceeding my expectations by far.

Rishard Matthews

Tough. That's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Rishard Matthews, and that's a good thing to be in an NFL that has players dropping like flies because of hard tackles to players' knees and heads. Unfortunately for Matthews, tough is also the only thing that comes to mind when I think about him, and that's not enough.

Matthews has decent speed, and he's got decent size at 6'0 and 215 pounds, but according to numerous reports, Matthews has had several clashes with the coaching staff and he has fallen out of favor with head coach Joe Philbin, leading to limited snaps for him despite the fact that he stepped up last year in Brandon Gibson's absence, catching 41 passes for 448 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Matthews only has a $673,403 cap hit next season, and he is a very talented player when he's given the opportunity. Unfortunately, his clashes with Philbin have left him grasping at straws when it comes to playing time, and it's even led him to request a trade, which the Dolphins promptly shut down. If you're asking me if Matthews should stay, my answer would be yes because he a good receiver, but if you're asking me if he will be here next year, then my answer is no because Matthews has made it a point to say he wants out, and Philbin doesn't seem to like him.

Matt Hazel

When the Dolphins drafted Matt Hazel in the sixth round, Dolphins fans were stunned by the move as it seemed to make no sense at the time. The team had already drafted Jarvis Landry, and the team had several wide receivers on the team already.

As time went on however, Hazel managed to show that he is indeed a talented individual and he could someday be a very good wide receiver in the NFL. However, he never managed to earn a spot on the 53-man roster since he was blocked by the likes of Rishard Matthews.

Hazel has decent speed and can make great catches when needed.

Unfortunately, Hazel isn't that big, and he might be an injury risk because of his lack of bulk. In his preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys, Hazel took a big hit that left him rattled and subsequently left all of Sun Life Stadium up in arms that their young rookie had been floored so violently with no consequence...at least none that I can remember.

Hazel had been making a few good catches in that game, and with one year of learning Lazor's offense under his belt, Hazel stands to earn a roster spot this time around since it's very likely the wide receiver corps will look very different when the 2015 season begins. He's a promising young man and his ceiling could very well be a high one. He has to try and bulk up a little so he can take hits better, but other than that I see Hazel being a very good receiver later in his career.

Michael Preston and Tyler McDonald

Two names that mean nothing to the Dolphins at the moment, but who knows? Maybe the team knows something that we don't. Let's take a quick look at the history of these two players.

Preston, a former undrafted free agent out of Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio, has spent a lot of time on the Tennessee Titans practice squad, and eventually got promoted to the active roster and got to make his regular season debut on December 9th, 2012 against the Indianapolis Colts, where he made one reception for 11 yards. Not very impressive just looking at the initial numbers, and the Titans eventually released him on August 31, 2014.

However, several outlets were quite impressed with Preston's potential to be a good wide receiver in the National Football League. While not a speedster by any means, recording only a 4.63 40 yard dash time, he does possess a very impressive 6'5 frame and weighs 213 pounds. Should Preston impress come training camp, he could provide the team with some much needed size, but he'll have a long road ahead of him if he intends to make the team.

There's not much to see regarding McDonald, he came out of South Carolina State where he had a career best 51 receptions for 956 yards as a senior in 2013. His career there saw him getting 159 receptions for 2,389 receiving yards. He was signed by the New England Patriots in July of 2014 and was waived only four days later, so he never got much of a chance to show what he could do at the NFL level.

These two players aren't expected to do much beyond being camp bodies, but in the case of Preston, who does have size and was expected to step up at some point according to many evaluators, he might be able to surprise us much like Damian Williams did last season. I question why Williams was let go to begin with, but that's neither here nor there.

Bottom line: The Dolphins have a lot of work to do in the wide receiver corps, but not as much as many people are making it out to be. Wallace, Gibson and Matthews are likely to be let go, Hartline might also be gone, but there are a couple of young players who are going to be itching to take their places. We'll see how it goes from here.

This column was written by Luis Sung. Follow him on Twitter: @FLSportDebater