The Miami Dolphins now have enough receivers — 12! — to fill two NFL rosters, and enough No. 2- and No. 3-caliber running backs to stock the entire AFC East.
But here’s what they don’t have: a clear-cut seventh starter in their front seven, ideally one who can play the edge position and generate consistent pressure on the quarterback.
And the Dolphins’ approach with that position has been the most puzzling part of their offseason.
The Dolphins appear much worse on the edge than a year ago after inexplicably releasing Kyle Van Noy and trading Shaq Lawson for inside linebacker Benardrick McKinney.
I will never understand the Van Noy move because he gave the Dolphins precisely what they could have expected based on his body of work in New England: 69 tackles, six sacks, six passes defended and two forced fumbles.
What’s more, Van Noy was second among all NFL linebackers in pressures (29, one behind Demario Davis). And Pro Football Focus rated him 26th of 83 qualifying linebackers and a strong 24th against the run.
Miami easily could have accommodated Van Noy’s cap hit simply by restructuring the contracts of Byron Jones and Ereck Flowers.
Also puzzling: If the Dolphins didn’t want Van Noy, why didn’t they execute those restructures in order to sign an established edge player? Carolina gave Haasan Reddick a very affordable deal ($6 million totally guaranteed with $2 million in ambitious incentives) after a 12.5-sack season for Arizona.
Instead, the Dolphins have watched every starting-caliber edge player in his prime come off the board in free agency.
Outside of Jadeveon Clowney and Vic Beasley (more on them in a minute), there’s nothing left among edge players on the free agent market except: A). Thirty-plus former standouts such as Melvin Ingram, Carlos Dunlap, Bruce Irvin, Aldon Smith, Ezekiel Ansah, Jabaal Sheard, Olivier Vernon (coming off an early January torn Achilles) and Ryan Kerrigan; B) Twenty-something backups and journeyman and C) a few 20-something starters who produced modest numbers as pass rushers.
Among names still available in those final two categories: DeMarcus Walker, the former FSU second-round pick who had 4.5 sacks in 13 games and four starts for Denver last season and Tanoh Kpassagnon, who had one sack in 15 starts for Kansas City in 2020.
As for Clowney, Miami has failed in attempts to lure him at least once (twice if you believe a Houston Chronicle report), and the 28-year-old’s impression of himself far exceeds the recent production (no sacks in eight games in Tennessee last season, three for Seattle in 2019).
Beasley, 29, had eight sacks in 2019 but none during a disastrous 2020 that saw him move from Atlanta to Tennessee to Las Vegas. He seems light years from his 15.5-sack season in 2016.
So where can the Dolphins turn to find a seventh base-defense starter alongside Christian Wilkins, Raekwon Davis, Emmanuel Ogbah, Jerome Baker, Benardrick McKinney and Andrew Van Ginkel?
A look at the options:
— Sign a run stuffing defensive tackle who can play end in a 3-4 and shift Ogbah to a standup outside linebacker role.
This is precisely what Miami tried to do with Lawrence Guy, the Patriots free agent tackle who visited with Dolphins officials Monday. But the sides could not come to financial terms on a deal, and Guy on Wednesday opted to return to New England.
Guy, 31, would have been a solid starter as a 3-4 end, giving Miami an established seventh front-seven starter.
There’s at least one under-30 player similar to Guy still available: Tennessee 6-4, 322-pound tackle Daquan Jones, who has stated every game for the Titans the past three seasons and remains unsigned.
Jones, a stout run defender, is a quintessential nose tackle (Davis’ role with the Dolphins) but can play end in a 3-4. He doesn’t offer much of a pass rush (three sacks in his past 48 games). But he would shore up a run defense that allowed 4.5 yards per carry last season (tied for 17th to 20th in the league).
— Find a starting edge player in the draft. UM’s Greg Rousseau and Jaelan Phillips, Michigan’s Kwity Paye, Georgia’s Azeez Ojulari or Tulsa’s Zaven Collins are all options at No. 18. But projecting any to be an immediate starter would be ambitious.
We hear the Dolphins like some of the edge players in the draft and believe they can augment the position, but it’s unclear what they think of the aforementioned five players who are considered mid-to-late first-rounders.
— Starting Adam Butler as a 3-4 end and moving Ogbah to an outside linebacker role.
Butler is a skilled pass rusher (17 sacks, 88 quarterback pressures in four seasons) but has graded out in the bottom fifth of interior linemen against the run, per Pro Football Focus.
Zach Sieler also could play more alongside Wilkins and Davis.
— Hoping a starting outside linebacker emerges among low-budget signings Vince Biegel, Brennan Scarlett and Duke Riley.
That cannot be Plan A, because Biegel is coming off an Achilles injury; Scarlett has 5.5 career sacks in five seasons and Riley has half a sack in his career. Those players project as third or fourth outside linebackers, not starters.
— Moving McKinney to outside linebacker (a role he said he can play), and having Elandon Roberts start again at inside linebacker once he has recovered from a serious knee injury. Roberts generally played well against the run during the final two months of last season before the knee injury in the Week 16 game against Las Vegas.
McKinney has 11.5 sacks in six seasons but also has spent a lot of time in pass coverage.
— Drafting Penn State inside linebacker Micah Parsons or Notre Dame inside linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah — if either is available at 18 — and move McKinney to outside linebacker.
— Going against their tendency and adding a 30-something former star such as Ingram, who has 49 career sacks but none last season. Keep in mind that since Brian Flores arrived, the Dolphins have added only one 30-plus player in spring/early summer free agency: Ryan Fitzpatrick. They were ready to make an exception with Guy.
Perhaps one of these older players (Ingram, Dunlap) becomes an option if they’re forced to settle for a low-money deal in the days before training camp. And Clowney can’t be ruled out, either.
Now let’s be clear. There are several things we really like about this Dolphins’ offseason: The acquisitions of Will Fuller, Jacoby Brissett and Butler among them, plus the decision to stick with the safety combo of Bobby McCain and Eric Rowe.
But the edge rusher decision leaves me mystified. Under Flores, the Dolphins have always felt they could generate a pass rush because of their scheme, even without high-end pass rushers. This roster, as currently constructed, will test that belief.
