http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2375094-can-the-miami-dolphins-afford-to-lose-charles-clay Article @ Bleacher Report by Thomas Galicia
If we lose him, I'm gonna have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. No reason to lose him really. IMO, if all else fails, he is worth the Franchise Tag for this season.
I'm of the opinion you need to franchise Clay if it comes down to it. If you let him walk, you're thrust into an off-season with very few plausible replacements and a lot of teams competing for them. You're almost certainly going to be over-paying or over-drafting someone, and even then in the best case scenario you might not be getting the same quality. I'd rather over-pay for him this season than give a multi-year deal to Julius Thomas. That being said, I think Maxx Williams is going to be really appealing to Bill Lazor. But again, I'd rather carry both guys this year if it came down to it. Especially when you're revamping wide receiver already.
I really like Walford from the U, as he is a bigger body and can be more of a redzone threat, but this draft is so weak at TE he will probably go in the 2nd. Have to try to keep Clay.
I could see Clay blowing up somewhere else. Unless we draft a TE high or sign another one losing him just creates another big hole to fill. I don't know about a long term deal if he can't be more productive but at least franchising him one year seems like a good idea. Can we give him a tag that at least gives us a draft pick if we lose him?
Virgil Green would be a nice consolation...it's a gamble, similar to the one the Giants took when they signed Martellus Bennett away from Dallas, but they recognized his talent despite being a backup and figured he could be a feature TE, and the gamble paid off. This could be the same situation, Green is actually about the same size as Clay but he's faster, a bit longer, can jump much higher and he's a better blocker.
