Defensive tackle was Miami Dolphins' biggest post-draft need. Not anymore.
The Miami Dolphins are filling perhaps their biggest unmet need of the offseason by negotiating a trade with the Detroit Lions on Thursday for defensive tackle Akeem Spence, according to a source.
Spence, 26, has been traded to the Dolphins for a late-round draft pick in 2019, the source said. Another source said the Dolphins will give up a seventh-round pick.
Spence signed a three-year contract with the Lions as a free agent in 2017 and has two years remaining on that deal, which now moves to the Dolphins.
The Dolphins and Lions have confirmed this move.
Spence, 6-1 and 307 pounds, has been on the trade block in Detroit because the team hired former New England Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia (and the pencil by his ear) as the new head coach. Patricia is bringing a different defensive scheme to the Lions than previous defensive coordinator Teryl Austin.
The Lions obviously decided Spence, a 4-3 defensive tackle, is not a fit in their new scheme.
The Dolphins are interested in Spence because he can gobble snaps and add competition in a defensive tackle rotation that includes presumed starters Jordan Phillips and Davon Godchaux and backup Vincent Taylor. The Dolphins needed another player to add to the rotation because they released starter Ndamukong Suh in March largely for salary cap reasons.
Suh, who played over 80 percent of the defensive snaps the past three seasons, left a void in the rotation the Dolphins could not fill earlier in free agency or in the recently completed NFL draft.
Spence was also valued by the Dolphins because new defensive line coach Kris Kocurek, a former NFL defensive tackle, coached and liked the player while he was the Lions defensive line coach before joining Miami in 2018.
The Dolphins inherit a contract that originally was scheduled to pay Spence a $3.15 million base salary this season and a $2.15 million base salary in 2019. But the Lions recently restructured that deal, dropping the 2018 base salary to $2.575 million. That — a bargain for a veteran rotation defensive tackle — will now be Spence's base salary with the Dolphins.
Spence started 11 games and had 39 combined tackles, including three sacks, for the Lions in 2017. The three sacks tied a career high Spence also achieved in 2014, when he played for Tampa Bay — the team that drafted him in the fourth-round of the 2013 draft.
This story was originally published May 3, 2018 at 3:57 PM with the headline "Defensive tackle was Miami Dolphins' biggest post-draft need. Not anymore.."