Kelly: Jevon Holland’s in survival mode, and that’s not a bad thing | Opinion
Jevon Holland was seemingly providing a tutorial on West Coast dance moves this week at Miami Dolphins practices, showing off “The Smeeze,” and his “Cross Step-Kick” to Kendrick Lamar’s new album, which has been in heavy rotation.
Outside of being a West Coast native, therefore enjoying Lamar’s prominent status on Miami’s practice playlist, it’s clear there’s joy, a level of excitement that Holland’s exhibiting, which hints he’s at peace despite facing his most difficult NFL season.
When you consider Holland broke his left hand, then sustained a significant — but not season-ending — knee injury for the second straight season last month, but has only missed two games, there’s reason to dance.
Reason to celebrate.
“Bumps and bruises, but I’ve gotten through it,” said Holland, a 2021 second-round pick who has five regular season games left before he becomes an unrestricted free agent. “I’m just focused on my job week in and week out. I’m not really worried about the contract. I just want to do my job and have fun.”
There’s peace in coming to terms with where you are in a relationship — with people or an employer — and that seems to be where Holland is in his union with the Dolphins.
A player’s final season of his rookie deal is where the organization lets an impending free agent know where it stands.
The Dolphins forced Holland to take all the risk in 2024 by not extending his deal. Why a deal hasn’t gotten done could be due to his asking price, which is unknown, or the fact Miami spent most of its available funds extending everyone but Holland.
The best guess is that Miami wanted to see how Holland performed in the team’s new defense.
While he hasn’t had a phenomenal season, he has used the past four seasons — where he has started 52 of the 55 games he has played in — to prove he’s an NFL starter, a player with the potential to become a playmaker.
I’m not big on ProFootballFocus.com position ratings, especially for safeties because those who grade the players do so without any idea of what the safety’s assignment is, but Holland is rated the NFL’s 62nd-best safety out of 91 qualifiers this season.
For comparison sake, Jordan Poyer, his safety partner in Miami’s secondary, is ranked 63rd.
Basically, neither has been good.
That’s a steep fall for a player such as Holland, who was ranked third of 174 safeties last season, even though he didn’t play in the final five games.
This matters because many teams use analytics sites like ProFootballFocus to help assess a free agent’s value.
According to defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, being in and out of the lineup has affected Holland’s performance, and it’s certainly limited how the Dolphins are able to use him.
“It’s unfortunate that the stats haven’t been there for Jevon, but when he’s on the field you feel his impact , even though it might not necessarily show up on the stats sheet,” Weaver said of Holland, who ranks fifth on the team in tackles (45), and has contributed one sack, two pass deflections and one forced fumble. “The games he’s missed you can feel it on our side of the ball. If he would have been there some of those plays would have been made. I think he is a heck of a player and those stats will come with snaps.”
But that doesn’t mean Holland has been living up to the team’s expectations. Miami was convinced he’d become a superstar when they drafted him out of Oregon.
If it wasn’t for the forced fumble Holland caused at the goal line in Miami’s season-opening fourth quarter win against the Jacksonville Jaguars this team’s playoff aspirations would be bleak, or already extinguished.
And who can forget the interception he returned 99 yards for a touchdown against the New York Jets the first time Miami faced this Sunday’s opponent last season.
That game not only teased Holland’s playmaking ability, but also led to his five-game absence because he’d later injury both knees falling awkwardly after making a tackle in that game.
That’s two impactful plays in two seasons, three if the sack he got against the Bills counts, and that gets to the heart of the question.
Why should the Dolphins pay Holland like an upper-echelon safety when his performance the past two seasons hasn’t warranted it?
Asked how much he thinks about his contract, and the impending business of the NFL, and Holland said “Not much.”
At least for now because Holland, who is 24, has five more games — maybe six — to make it to free agency healthy.
“It is what it is at this point,” Holland said. “No matter what happens I’ll be good.”
This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 5:03 PM.
