2021 NFL free agency preview: Leonard Williams would be a great fit in Flores’ defense

Free agency begins March 17. Who are the best players available? And will the Dolphins make a play for them? We explore in this series of player profiles ahead of the league new year.

Leonard Williams

2020 team: New York Giants.

Position: Defensive tackle.

Age: 26.

ESPN free agent ranking: 3.

2020 stats: Twelve starts, 11 1/2 sacks (career high), 57 tackles (14 for loss), 42 pressures, 79.8 Pro Football Focus grade.

2020 salary: $16.1 million.

Market value (per Spotrac): Five years, $56.3 million.

Player summary: Talk about timing. Williams, the sixth overall pick in the 2015 draft, picked the perfect moment to have a near-perfect season. After a handful of nondescript years with the Jets, he popped with the Giants in 2020 playing on the franchise tag. Now he’s going to cash in. Could the Giants tag him again? They are projected to have less than $10 million in cap space, so they would have to clear out a lot of salary to keep him, with or without the tag.

Likelihood he joins the Dolphins: Low-moderate. We’d normally say low, based on the expected windfall headed Williams’ way this spring plus the Dolphins’ draft commitment at defensive tackle, but here’s our reason for pause: if Leonard can be a star in Patrick Graham’s defense, he can certainly be a star in Josh Boyer’s defense. Why? They’re both variations on the Patriots’ theme; Graham was the Dolphins’ defensive coordinator in 2019.

Quotable: “That guy is a man, man. That dude is a man. There are things about Leo that you may not know by not being in the locker room with him. First off, this guy is a pleasure to be around. This guy smiles all the time. He’s a great teammate, he’s very coachable. You give him something to work on, he’s going to work as hard as he can to master it. He gives us a lot of versatility on the defense because of his skillset. — Giants coach Joe Judge on Leonard Williams.

This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 9:30 AM.

Adam H. Beasley

Miami Herald

305-376-2387

Adam Beasley has covered the Dolphins for the Miami Herald since 2012, and has worked for the newspaper since 2006. He is a graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Communications and has written about sports professionally since 1996. Support my work with a digital subscription