For a day, the Dolphins — and their deep pockets — gave Miamians a reason to smile
Life lately has teetered between gloomy and down right depressing both here and around in the world, but the Dolphins on Monday provided Miami a rare blast of good news:
They’re are fed up with losing.
And they’ve decided to do something about it.
A year after avoiding big-name players, they charged through the start of free agency with force Monday, using tens of millions of dollars to remake their defense and bring home a local star on the offensive line.
Headed to Miami on multiyear deals:
Cornerback Byron Jones, who might have been the biggest non-quarterback prize in free agency.
Kyle Van Noy, the ex-Patriot linebacker who was a must-get for Brian Flores.
Bills linebacker Shaq Lawson, who will not only pass the rusher but set the edge.
Ereck Flowers, the ex-Miami Hurricane who is an immediate upgrade at guard.
And Clayton Fejedelem, who should immediately be the team’s best special teams player.
But is the biggest news still to come?
Could the Dolphins actually make a play for the greatest player of all time?
A longtime Boston-based sportscaster Mike Lynch dropped this bombshell late Monday: “Just have been told the Dolphins are Very interested in Tom BRADY and they have come to terms with Kyle Van Noy.”
Wait...what?
Could Brady-to-Miami — which has been pooh-poohed by both the Dolphins’ owner and head coach in recent months — be a real thing?
Likely not, based on what we’re hearing. But nothing seemed impossible Monday, when the Dolphins went from perhaps the league’s least talented team to having the makings of a downright scary defense.
The day’s biggest name, of course, was Jones, who picked the Dolphins over a bunch of interested teams.
The Dolphins are making Jones the highest-paid corner in NFL history — surpassing the deal they gave just last year to Xavien Howard.
The details: five years, $82.5 million, including $57 million guaranteed, according to ESPN. It’s a front-loaded deal that will pay Jones $40 million in the first two seasons.
Now Howard and Jones are teammates (assuming Howard isn’t traded) and have the makings of perhaps the greatest cornerback tandem in the NFL.
In other words, exactly what Brian Flores needs to truly make his defensive system — which relies heavily on defensive backs — work.
Jones, a former first-round pick, is coming off a Pro Bowl (and second-team all-pro) season in Dallas. But his stats don’t exactly jump off the page. He has just two interceptions in five seasons. But Pro Football Focus ranked him the 14th-best cornerback in the league last year and he played a lot with his back to the quarterback in the Cowboys’ system.
Plus opposing quarterbacks were able to avoid Jones. Who will they avoid now that Howard is his teammate?
The Dolphins’ secondary, for now, includes Howard and Jones at cornerback and Eric Rowe and Bobby McCain at safety. Good luck throwing against that group. All four played cornerback most if not all of their NFL careers.
The move immediately raised questions about Howard’s future with the team. After all, the two will combine to account for some 15 percent of the team’s salary cap, and Howard is coming off another injury-shortened seasons.
Along with his chronic knee issues, Howard had the embarrassing late-season domestic violence arrest, but the charge was dropped when the alleged victim decided not to cooperate with prosecutors.
Should the Dolphins decide to move on from Howard, they could do so at little cost. The salary cap hit would be just $5.6 million. The belief around the league is that the Dolphins would be able to get a second-round pick in return, should they decide to deal him.
But why would they? The Dolphins are a team looking to load up on talent, not part with it.
Their other additions Monday:
▪ Lawson, who will sign a three-year, $30 million contract with Miami, reuniting with his former defensive coordinator Marion Hobby — not to mention ex-Clemson teammate Christian Wilkins.
Lawson immediately upgrades a position of weakness for the Dolphins, whose 23 sacks were fewest in football last year.
He has 108 tackles and 16 1/2 sacks in his four-year career, but showed great improvement in 2019 with 6 1/2 sacks. Despite his draft pedigree, Lawson platooned in Buffalo. Even while showing improvement last year, he was still on the field for just 47 percent of Buffalo’s defensive snaps. The Bills liked his growth, but he simply got too expensive to keep.
Lawson’s arrival can’t mean good news for Taco Charlton or Charles Harris, a couple of fellow former first-round picks who haven’t lived up to their potential.
Both are under contract in 2020, but Lawson’s arrival would suggest a diminished role for both — if they’re on the team at all.
▪ Flores, who is given significant say on personnel, advocated the signing of Van Noy, who played for him in New England in 2018.
The 6-foot-3, 250-pound Van Noy will get $51 million over four years, per NFL Network.
Vay Noy, 28, was used as a pass rusher primarily for the first time in his career last season and had 56 tackles, 6.5 sacks, three passes defended and three forced fumbles.He played in 15 games, starting all of them.
In 2018, he played under Flores, who was the Patriots’ de facto defensive coordinator that season, and had 92 tackles and 3.5 sacks in 16 games, all starts.
Drafted in the second round out of BYU in 2014, Van Noy played the first seasons of his career with Detroit, produced only one sack and 45 tackles in 30 games.
The move went over well with Lawson, who tweeted: “Oh yea got dawg on the other side of me.”
▪ The Dolphins wasted no time upgrading their offensive line in free agency, agreeing to terms with Flowers on a three-year contract just minutes into the legal negotiating period, according to his South Florida-based agent Drew Rosenhaus.
The details: $30 million, with $19.95 million fully guaranteed.
Flowers, a former top-10 pick, is a true Miamian. After starring at Miami Norland High School, he went on earn second-team all-conference honors at the University of Miami.
The Giants drafted Flowers as a tackle, but that didn’t work out and they cut him after four seasons. After one season with the Jaguars, the Redskins signed him and moved Flowers to left guard, where he flourished. Pro Football Focus ranked him as the league’s 30th guard (out of 64 starters) in 2019, allowing just two sacks and six penalties in 937 snaps.
It’s believed the Dolphins are bringing Flowers in to play guard. Michael Deiter, a 2019 third-round pick, struggled at left guard as a rookie. His stats? Five penalties and six sacks in 995 snaps.
“’Thankful’ would be a understatement!” Flowers wrote on Twitter. “Want to thank the Redskins organization and all my brothers on the team! Want to thank the fans for all the love and support! God makes no mistakes and it’s been a crazy MF ride so far!! Looking forward to winning a lot of games in my city!!”
▪ The Dolphins have a three-year deal in place with Bengals safety Fejedelem, a reserve safety and excellent special teams contributor. That’s according to Fejedelem’s agent Mike McCartney, who announced the agreement on Twitter.
Fejedelem has never missed a game in four NFL seasons and while he’s played mostly on special teams (appearing in at least 80 percent of the Bengals kicking game snaps the last three years), he does have six starts on defense.
Fejedelem basically replaces Walt Aikens, who is a free agent.
