NFL free agency preview: Should Miami Dolphins consider Barrett-for-Van Noy swap?

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.

Shaquil Barrett

2020 team: Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Position: Edge defender.

Age: 28.

ESPN free agent ranking: 15.

2020 stats: Fifteen games (all starts), eight sacks, 57 tackles (11 for loss), two forced fumbles, 42 pressures, 70.7 Pro Football Focus grade.

2020 salary: $15.8 million.

Market value (per Spotrac): Four years, $78.8 million.

Player summary: The Buccaneers probably can’t keep all of their free agents, and Barrett seems like the most likely to bolt. The franchise tag isn’t really an option for Barrett, who has recorded 27 1/2 sacks the past two years. The Buccaneers tagged him last year; doing so again in 2021 would cost cap-strapped Tampa Bay $19 million. So the Buccaneers probably have until March 17 to work out an extension if they want to keep Barrett, or he’ll be gone.

Likelihood he joins the Dolphins: Low. Short of reworking a ton of contracts, the Dolphins simply don’t have the cap space to afford a player like Barrett. But there is one scenario, however unlikely, that could get Barrett in aqua in orange: Swap him in for Kyle Van Noy. They play similar positions and Barrett throughout his career has been more productive pass rusher. Even though Van Noy signed a four-year, $51 million contract 11 months ago, the Dolphins could save $9.8 million in cap space by cutting or trading him before March 21. That would clear up more than enough space to afford Barrett, assuming the contract is back-loaded.

Quotable: “I’m most definitely looking forward to getting a long-term deal done. ... I feel like it’s time for me to break the bank now, and I most definitely want to do that to be able to set my family up better and most definitely going to keep producing, so it’s not like anything is going to fall off. I still think I got a lot left in the tank. I’m still getting better, actually. I’m still learning, like just still learning, like week in, week out. And there’s like, as you can see as the season progressed like ... I ended the season playing the way that I wanted to play. And you can see that I did progress throughout the season, and I’m still progressing.” — Tampa Bay Buccaneers edge defender Shaquil Barrett, appearing on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio.

This story was originally published February 25, 2021 at 8:58 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