Adrian Fedkiw
So the Miami Dolphins basically just gave away a promising 24-year-old running back for a fourth-round pick.
Why?
During a wild trade deadline that featured the Seattle Seahawks overspending for Duane Brown and the Buffalo Bills sending a third and seventh for Kelvin Benjamin, what the Birds gave up was minuscule. So I can’t help but be haunted by the Dorial Green-Beckham trade and look at why the Dolphins would put themselves in position to abruptly cut ties with a talent like Ajayi and be fleeced by the Eagles again!
First off, Miami head coach Adam Gase wasn’t a fan of Ajayi’s effort following its embarrassing 40-0 loss to the Baltimore Ravens last Thursday night. He didn’t like that Ajayi was constantly looking to be a home run hitter.
“We’ve got to stop trying to hit the home runs all the time. How about taking four or five yards that we’re going to get? It comes down to everybody doing their job. If we actually start doing that, it might help.”
Kind of sounds like Chip Kelly and LeSean McCoy, huh?
The other worrisome factor was the longevity of Ajayi’s knees. Ajayi was a fifth-round selection out of Boise State in 2015 and fell due to knee concerns. He is only averaging 3.4 yards per carry this season behind a shoddy offensive line, which is ranked 28th in the NFL according to NFL Outsiders, and bad quarterback play after he burst on the scene last year with 1,272 yards and eight touchdowns.
Howie Roseman sees the talent in Ajayi and doesn’t feel like he’ll bring a distraction to the locker room.
“We do a lot of research on players before we trade for them. Not only did we do a lot of research on a guy like this before, when he comes out in the draft, but we do that here before we make a deal. Really, in this league, you do business with people that you trust and we feel like we have a good understanding of what was going on there.
“We also have a good understanding of what we have in our locker room and the chemistry that we have on this team. We weren’t going to bring anyone here that would disrupt team chemistry. We feel very confident and comfortable about the player.”
And about those knees?
“The beautiful thing is that we do physicals on players. I’m not a doctor and we have a lot of faith in our medical staff and our trainers and doctors. We share that information before we make a trade like this. I’m not concerned about any reports other than the ones given to us.”
The duo of LeGarrette Blount and Jay Ajayi provide the Eagles with a postseason proof running back tandem, but can the Eagles get that inner Beast Mode out of him after faltering in Miami?
I say yes, it’s amazing what a winning atmosphere and a great locker room can do.
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