Would a Deshaun Watson trade be a departure from Dolphins’ process?

These Deshaun Watson rumors are not only not going away, they’re getting more and more prominent. The star quarterback has officially requested a trade from the Houston Texans and the Miami Dolphins continue to be reportedly high up on the life of destinations Watson would like to call home next. But for many Dolphins fans, the suggestion of Watson is scoffed at — as it flies directly in the face of the championed pathway to success for Miami, securing and subsequently building around former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

The first portions of that return to glory blueprint have been successfully executed. The Dolphins tore down their roster and secured the No. 5 overall pick, which was used to draft Tagovailoa in April of 2020. From there, Miami enjoyed a successful second season with head coach Brian Flores, doubling their win total to 10 and getting Tagovailoa nine starts along the way. Tagovailoa showed plenty of promise and he was also clearly handcuffed by the supporting cast around him.

But no matter how much promise Tagovailoa showed, he was never going to have a resume that currently compares to Deshaun Watson’s this offseason. Watson, who is 25-years old, led the league in passing yardage with over 4,800 in 2020 and, despite popular belief, would be a bargain for his level of play over the next five seasons.

And that is why the Dolphins have to at least consider the proposition of trading for Deshaun Watson. Because financially speaking, you’re darn close to “break even” when you account for the money that would be pressed to Tua Tagovailoa’s 5th-year club option down the road and the money saved from not having to pay out the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft as well, not to mention any other veteran players that Miami may be willing to include in a hypothetical trade.

But would the Dolphins be abandoning their master plan to make such a move for Watson?

It depends on what your definition of the master plan was. For 18 months, Dolphins fans were hammered with the name “Tagovailoa” so much that it may feel as though the Dolphins’ plan was never going to get off the ground without securing that pick at quarterback. The perception of the Dolphins is that they’re a team dedicated to building through the draft and by volume. As things currently stand, that is an accurate assessment of how the Dolphins do business. But last year’s free agency cycle made it very clear that the Dolphins are suddenly going to shy away from big transactions.

Because when the free agent tampering window opened last March, it was the Miami Dolphins offering up a record-setting contract to CB Byron Jones. It was the Miami Dolphins offering up big money to LB Kyle Van Noy. And Shaq Lawson. And Ereck Flowers. All contracts averaged $10M per season or more in one fell swoop. The guaranteed from these four contracts alone was in excess of $120M. And the Dolphins have made it very clear with their past history in this regime that they do not make emotional decisions. So while plenty of Dolphins fans are heavily invested into the team finding success with Tua Tagovailoa at the helm because they’ve bought into the dream that so many hammered for months and months, the Dolphins should be anticipated to make this move if they’re comfortable with the cost. If the better quarterback is Deshaun Watson (and right now he is), Miami’s front office will be intrigued.

Here’s the dirty little secret about Miami’s master plan. It was never about one player. It was never destined to be rooted in wave after wave of draft selection from now until the end of time, either. It was an approach to resetting their roster in a quick, concise fashion and afford maximum flexibility in how the team pivots and moves forward to stay in a constant state of improving the roster.

The Dolphins? They’ve got the second youngest roster in the NFL and when the league calendar opens in March, they will have no players over 30 under contract (Van Noy turns 30 on the 26th of March). They have top-10 salary cap space this offseason and they’ve structured their biggest contracts (such as Xavien Howard, Van Noy, Flowers and others) to offer the team flexibility to part ways if necessary and maintain the cap spending power they currently own. And they still won 10 football games last year and appear poised to make that the new standard with the quality of coaching at their disposal.

Miami’s master plan was not “Tank For Tua”. The Dolphins’ master plan was exactly what Chris Grier told us it was when he met with the media in the aftermath of trading DB Minkah Fitzpatrick to Pittsburgh in 2019: to build a long-term, sustainable winner.

“We’ll be very aggressive. We’re not gonna sit here on a bunch of money or anything. The plan is to build a winner here.”

That plan would still very much be alive with Watson behind center instead of Tagovailoa. Watson, the youth on the offensive line that can be developed and the defense the Dolphins have built would see to that. And again, adding Watson would require some tinkering elsewhere to keep the financials right — but the NFL’s salary cap is going to explode once again in the coming years after the regression we saw in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and revenue sharing losses. Miami can make this work and not cripple themselves in the process.

The question is simply how confident the Dolphins are in their ability to do it with less flexibility at their disposal. Because with a heavy investment like what it will take to secure Watson, the Dolphins have less wiggle room and margin for error to pivot along the way. But the quarterback we hope Tua Tagovailoa becomes one day? He’s currently available on the trade market in Deshaun Watson. That’s unheard of in the NFL. And that’s why Miami would be right to call and be right to test the limits of what this master plan was really all about in the first place — building a winner.