New Dolphins speak: Brissett on his role, McKinney on Watson and Foster on Tua
Thursday was meet-the-Dolphins-day on Zoom. The team made a bunch of its recent acquisitions available to Miami reporters for the first time.
Here are the highlights of what they said:
Jacoby Brissett
The next time Brissett interacts with Tua Tagovailoa will be the first time. They have never met.
And while Brissett has had far more experience on the NFL level — and plans to “compete” here in Miami — you got the sense why coach Brian Flores thought he would be a good fit in a suddenly young quarterback room.
“I’ll be the best teammate I can be,” Brissett said. “I can’t be like anybody else. I’m excited to see how we mesh together. I’m sure we’ll all work out fine. I’m excited to be with Flo.”
Brissett, who spent one year in New England with Flores before the Patriots traded him to the Colts, called his new head coach “a great leader.”
As for where he is in his development as a quarterback, Brissett replied:
“The position of quarterback is never figured out. As a competitor and a young quarterback still, you find those things [you need to work on] and you continue to ... get better. That’s what’s so exciting because I feel like I’m still doing that.”
Benardrick McKinney
The former Pro Bowl linebacker was “shocked” when the Houston Texans traded him to the Miami Dolphins three years into a big-money contract extension but said he’s happy to join the Dolphins organization.
McKinney added the team has not approached him about restructuring his existing deal, which pays him $7 million in base salary this year.
While predominantly an inside linebacker, McKinney said he can play on the edge if needed — and the Dolphins might need him to, considering they sent Shaq Lawson to Houston for McKinney and have yet to sign a replacement.
McKinney, who missed all but four games in 2020 due to injury, said his surgically repaired shoulder is “feeling great now. I’m back to my old self.”
Eventually, his Zoom session got around to the topic most everyone in NFL media wants to discuss: Where will Deshaun Watson, his teammate the past four seasons, play in 2021?
“I can’t really speak on D4,” he replied. “He’s a grown man.”
McKinney added that Watson, who is trying to force a trade out of Houston for the past two months, “is definitely a great leader. ... He pushes guys to play at the best of their abilities. He’s a great friend. I love playing against him. It’s hard playing against him at practice because of the things that he can do. It’s unbelievable how he competes.”
Justin Coleman
No one had to sell Coleman on the Dolphins in free agency.
Based on his comments Thursday, he was already sold.
Coleman played two years for Brian Flores and Josh Boyer in New England, and while Bill Belichick’s no-nonsense approach isn’t for everyone, Coleman seemed to thrive in it.
“Boyer and Coach Flo, they were actually part of the New England program, and that kind of convinced me to lean towards this way,” Coleman said. “Not to mention I kind of looked at the defense, looked at the offense, looked at the team and I checked them out. The potential, the ability is extraordinary.”
With Xavien Howard and Byron Jones on the boundary, slot cornerback is Coleman’s clearest path to seeing the field on defense.
But he doesn’t want to pigeonhole himself.
“I think that’s an extremely talented group, and I’m definitely going to raise the competition,” Coleman said. “I’m willing to compete for whatever position it turns out to be and those guys are definitely going to create competition. I’m looking forward to playing next to these guys and I’m looking forward to learning from them as well.”
Robert Foster
You don’t get the nickname Road Runner if you’re slow, and Foster certainly is not that. He ran the fifth-fastest 40-yard dash time at the NFL Scouting Combine in 2018 (4.41 seconds).
So perhaps he will become the deep threat Tagovailoa needs in his second NFL season. The two players have a familiarity; Foster’s final year at Alabama was Tagovailoa’s first.
“I thought Tua did well [as a rookie],” Foster said. “We’ve all got room for improvement, and I believe that we’re all going to grow and do better and try to make the best of being a Miami Dolphin.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 3:34 PM.
