Miami Dolphins: Passing on David Johnson Would Be Wise

While the Miami Dolphins struggled to run the football last year, trading for David Johnson should not be in the cards. While Arizona seems to have got the better of the deal when they traded for Kenyan Drake in October of last year, Miami shouldn’t find themselves back at that well. So far Drake has been regarded as a spark that reset the run game in Arizona while David Johnson fell down the depth chart.

Now Arizona is looking to bring back long term and ready to move on from their former star running back. Fans are already questioning what Miami would do to fix their run game and with the connection to the Cardinals was a two-time deal last year, there’s a good chance they could be on the phone again. Johnson could use a fresh start and Miami needs a talented vet.

More Miami Dolphins: Breaking the Roster – Receivers

Unfortunately for the Dolphins, Johnson doesn’t appear to be the player he once was. In the past two seasons, he’s struggled with consistency and use in the offense. He never seemed to find the explosiveness he once had.

On top of that, he wouldn’t come cheap. He’d carry a $10 million base salary and $7.9 million salaries next year and while Miami has the cap space to throw at all their problems, they need to spend wisely in this rebuild.

Even if the Dolphins were to give up a 5th-7th round pick due to his production, Miami would still pay top talent for a running back who no longer appears to be worth top talent money. The whole point of trading Kenyan Drake’s mid-season was not because of his productivity, but they knew he still had value when it comes to picks before they had to pay him after his rookie deal.

If David Johnson could return to his former explosiveness and become a game-changing playmaker again, every team would jump at the chance to pick up that kind of talent. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear he’ll benefit from a change of scenery.

Picking up Johnson might sound smart at your local fantasy football draft when you’re deep in it with not many backs on the board, but teams playing to turn their team around shouldn’t gamble so extreme. Miami is one of the teams that can afford to gamble, but as far as David Johnson goes, it would be wise to pass.