In 2019, the Miami Dolphins appeared to have unearthed a quality steal in the form of linebacker Vince Biegel. Miami came upon Biegel’s services as part of a trade to offload veteran linebacker Kiko Alonso; completing a swap of players with the New Orleans Saints in the days before the start of the 201 regular season.
Biegel would go on to log significant and quality snaps for the Dolphins defense before a torn Achilles in the summer of 2020 put him into the background of the defensive depth chart. There will be no comeback with the Dolphins in 2021, we learned yesterday.
Because the team announced that, for the second straight season, Biegel would be spending the year on injured reserve. The move effectively ends Biegel’s 2021 campaign barring an injury settlement and release from the Dolphins at some point throughout the course of the season.
Biegel’s designation to IR certainly hurts the depth of the hybrid linebacker group — he was expected to be a rotational presence on the early downs for the Dolphins if healthy. Now those reps are likely to be split evenly between Andrew Van Ginkel, Brennan Scarlett and rookie Jaelan Phillips instead — although third-year linebacker Sam Eguavoen has periodically taken snaps on the edge throughout his first two seasons with the Dolphins, too.
This is the second decision from Miami in recent days to place a player on IR before the final roster cut downs take place, the other being with second-year wide receiver Lynn Bowden Jr. The decision is one that offers some firm finality for this season but it also allows the Dolphins to avoid a more permanent or irreversible outcome: cutting a player and seeing them sign with another team.
