Are the Miami Dolphins Committed to Surrounding Ryan Tannehill with Talent?

The Miami Dolphins severely lack talent at wide receiver after trading Brandon Marshall away.

Or rather, they lack talent on paper.

They had opportunities to replace Marshall's production and build an explosive offense this offseason. They responded to those opportunities by adding Michigan State wide receiver B.J. Cunningham in the sixth round and Nevada wide receiver Rishard Matthews in the seventh round of April's draft. 

Not exactly what some may have had in mind.

That they've done so little at the position has begged the question: Should they be doing more to surround quarterback Ryan Tannehill with weapons? 

There's no question that the Dolphins are doing enough on the offensive line, where they've added first-round picks in two of the past five drafts and a second-round offensive tackle this year. 

At running back, the team already has Reggie Bush and has added two running backs through the draft in the past two years in Daniel Thomas and Lamar Miller. Add in the presence of Anthony Fasano and the addition of Michael Egnew, and the only position where you could question their commitment to top-end talent is at wide receiver.

Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald reports that the Dolphins have had at least one opportunity to do so with a free-agent wide receiver.

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Add Plaxico Burress to the list of receivers who would love to audition for the Dolphins. But Miami has shown no interest in the likes of Burress, Roy Williams and Braylon Edwards. Ireland said he "could be done" at receiver, but isn't certain. If the rookies don't develop this summer, Ireland might add a veteran.

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Having "shown no interest" is different than actually having no interest. The only thing to be gleaned from this is that right now, a veteran wide receiver is not a priority for the Dolphins, and that makes sense because at this juncture of the offseason, adding Burress would make no sense. 

While the Dolphins haven't done much at receiver, the receivers haven't had enough time to live up to expectations, much less fall short of them, to warrant the team looking in another direction for receivers.

The fact that the Miami Dolphins haven't added top-end receivers has little, if anything, to do with the commitment to giving Tannehill—or whoever the starting QB ends up being—weapons to throw to.

Just take a look at the draft selection of the Packers' receivers from 2006 to 2011, and you'll get a sense for why head coach Joe Philbin doesn't put much value in receivers.

Granted, the Dolphins don't have Aaron Rodgers at the helm of their offense, but Philbin's system doesn't call for a No. 1 receiver, but rather a group of receivers that can be the first, second or third option in any given pass play.

The ball gets spread around, and the Dolphins receivers know it.

For now, the Dolphins are doing enough because they've created a wide-open competition among several players who are fits in the offense. They're hoping that will be enough.

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