Dolphins Make $10 Million Mistake

By ESPN

The Miami Dolphins just made a $10 million mistake.

They signed free-agent Jay Cutler to a large, one-year contract that won’t result in more victories than last season -- or even an equal amount (10) -- or a trip to the postseason. The only thing guaranteed by this move is that the Dolphins lost $10 million in cap room for this season -- Jarvis Landry extension, anyone? -- or to roll over into next season with the blind hope that Cutler will lead Miami to the playoffs.

The Dolphins believe they are a playoff team and made a desperation play with Cutler after Ryan Tannehill suffered a left knee injury that likely will sideline him for most or all of this season.

By now you know the connection: Cutler played one year under Adam Gase with the Chicago Bears in 2015. Gase believes in Cutler perhaps more than any coach whom the quarterback has had in his career. Cutler threw for 3,659 yards, 24 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in their one season together.

The Bears also went 6-10 that year and ranked 23rd in passing. How much higher is the ceiling in 2017 for Cutler, 34, who is now two years older and coming off a season-ending shoulder injury last season? Add in the fact that Cutler didn’t have an offseason of minicamp, organized team activities and a good portion of training camp, and expectations should be lowered.

Gase is a smart coach with tremendous people skills. He will keep this Cutler experiment from becoming a total disaster. But 8-8 looks like the ceiling for this team with Cutler, who has a career 68-71 record as a starter. Miami should have stayed in-house, rolled the dice with Matt Moore and saved the $10 million to build the roster for 2018. Moore already has the respect of his Miami teammates and coach. That has been an issue with Cutler in the past, and he will need time to earn it.

The Cutler signing is all about selling hope. Despite all his flaws, he has one of the strongest arms in the NFL. But the reality is that too much of Miami’s hope this year rested on the gimpy left knee of Tannehill -- a knee that the team and Tannehill jointly decided not to surgically repair in the offseason. That was the Dolphins’ fatal mistake that can't be masked by this $10 million signing.

No one should blame Cutler for taking that kind of money. The initial reports of Cutler leaning toward staying in television appear now to be a leverage play that worked out in his favor. Cutler decided $10 million was enough to leave his television job and play for a coach that he very much likes.

The Dolphins made it clear since the end of last season that their goal was to catch the New England Patriots and future Hall of Famer Tom Brady. Countering with Cutler isn’t the answer. This will be an intriguing storyline to watch in Miami this year, but it won’t pay enough dividends in the win column, which is what matters most.

How Vigil Brothers Turned To NFL

Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Nick Vigil was just 10 years old when his parents handed down a verdict to him and his older brother, Zach: Their days of riding bulls were over.

The Vigil brothers, now both in the NFL, grew up on the rodeo circuit in Utah “mutton busting,” or riding sheep, before graduating to bulls. But one day, Zach suffered a potentially scary injury when he was thrown off a bull. Despite Nick’s protests, their bull-riding careers ended that day.

“We both thought we were going to be professional bull riders. That’s what we wanted to be,” Zach said. “Then my dad said, ‘You guys are done with rodeo and you’re just going to play football instead.’ That was the end of that. Nick always blames me for ruining his rodeo career.”

Added Nick: “We thought he broke his neck until they got to the hospital. I remember I looked at my parents and I said, ‘I’m not quitting, I’m going to keep doing it,’ and they said, ‘No you’re not.’

“I ended up quitting,” he said sheepishly.

Had it not been for that day, the brothers’ football careers might never have taken off.

“We were pretty devastated,” Zach, 26, said. “We used to miss football practice to go to rodeo. We were primarily rodeo guys before football. And then after that, the tides kind of changed. ... We missed it for sure, but now, looking back, we’re way too big to be bull riders anyway. It was probably a blessing in disguise.”

Riding bulls might be out, but the lessons learned from rodeo have stuck with the Vigil brothers. A large part of rodeo involves dealing with fear and failure, a lesson particularly applicable to the NFL.

Zach made the Miami Dolphins as an undrafted free agent in 2015 and played in every game as a rookie, but an injury kept him off the field for half of the 2016 season. He was waived in December and picked up by the Washington Redskins, where he is trying to make the 53-man roster.

Nick, who turns 24 later this month, spent most of his rookie season with the Bengals playing special teams, but he’s poised to become their starting strongside linebacker this season.

“Rodeo made the boys tough, they got banged around, bucked off and hurt pretty bad sometimes, but they always got back on and rode even the toughest steers,” father Jamie Vigil said. “Horses teach you respect and patience and toughness.”

That’s the other part of rodeo: the horses. Nick and Zach can’t remember a time when horses weren’t a part of their lives.

When they were small children, their parents used to put them in backpacks and take them for short trail rides. By the time Zach was 5, he could drag a stool over and saddle his horse himself.

Their parents’ love of the outdoors was passed on to their five children, with Nick and Zach taking a particular interest in it.

“I remember when I was 8, they’d hand me my baby sister and I'd ride around with her in the pasture,” Zach said. “That was just kind of normal.”

Horses remain a passion for Nick and Zach. Their careers keep them far from home for most of the year, but Utah always calls them back.

“I think if the NFL didn’t play out, they want to own some land, and they want a ranch, and run cattle and horses and breed horses and fish and hunt and maybe take tour guides out,” their mother, Kayla Vigil, said.

“I think that’s what they want to do, and they want me and their dad to get involved in all of that.”

Both men spend a lot of time in Utah in the offseason, with Zach getting married on the family’s five acres over the summer.

Nick even recently purchased three horses from his father, although he keeps them with his parents. A one-bedroom apartment in Cincinnati and a busy schedule leaves little time to ride during the season.

“It’s like the only thing I really wish I could have [here], the horses,” Nick said.

He added later: “You just miss it. So when I go back, we get to do it a lot. That’s fun. Then I come back to work."

And when their NFL careers are over, the horses will still be there waiting.

Zach and Nick both have an interest in taking up roping as a hobby after their careers, with Nick looking into possibly doing some team roping.

“Even now we mess around and go to our friend’s house and rope some steers, but you can’t be good at it unless you’re pursuing it,” Zach said. “When we retire from playing, I’m sure that’ll be similar to playing golf, a good hobby to have.

“We’ll probably live somewhere out West, that’s where I see myself. I won’t speak for Nick, but he loves to hunt, he loves his horses, he loves all that stuff also. Being out West somewhere, raising horses, training horses, I’d like to have a small ranch one day and hunt and fish and do the outdoorsy things.”

He added, laughing: “Live the dream!”