Most analysts are praising the deal. Yet one remains uncertain. In the face of other writers like Mike Lombardi who explained "I love the deal for Miami, which desperately needs a playmaker on the outside whom opponents fear" and Scouts, Inc.'s Matt Williamson saying "Brandon Marshall is heading to Miami. I love it," ESPN's K.C. Joyner is making a different case with some varied information you don't often hear about.
In his primary case against the deal being a good one for Miami, Joyner says that Chad Henne's big arm in Miami needs a deep vertical threat that can really stretch the field. With the trade, he notes, "Marshall does possess some elite skills, something that is evidenced by the fact that no receiver has been targeted more often than he has the past two seasons, but vertical receiving hasn't been one of them."
Instead, he says that Miami already had some of the best short yardage wide receivers in the league last season according to his medium-pass metrics in Greg Camarillo, Brian Hartline and Davone Bess. Instead, Miami was in need of someone to hit the homerun and take Henne's passes from 30+ yards. Here he writes:
"For proof, one needs to look no further than his downfield pass-catching metrics in 2008 and '09. Marshall's 8.5 combined vertical YPA total in that time frame ranks him 52nd out of the 57 receivers who saw 48 or more targets in each of the past two seasons (48 targets being the minimum bar for inclusion as a qualifier on the metric charts). It wasn't a matter of one poor season offsetting a good season, either, as Marshall's highest single-season ranking was 55th."
Joyner believes the trade could be good if the Dolphins still plan on taking a vertical receiver with their first round pick -- like Demaryius Thomas of Georgia Tech. If that's the case, the Dolphins will have used their first two picks in this draft on two receivers -- a very unlikely scenario. And perhaps this leaves the team with a solid receiving corps, but no one to really provide what they needed most. At the very least, Joyner offers a different take than the one currently offered up by the majority of the football media.
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