The Miami Dolphins’ season has been filled with waiver claims, trades and acquisitions of former highly coveted players who haven’t been able to live up to the hype. The Dolphins’ additions of DE Taco Charlton, DL Robert Nkemdiche, QB Josh Rosen and DB Eric Rowe are just a few of the examples of high prized additions that came to Miami this season after failing to take the next step as players.
Should the Dolphins be investigating making another addition to the growing list of former high-prized draft picks?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers unexpectedly cut cornerback Vernon Hargreaves today — a former top-15 pick by the Bucs out of the University of Florida back in 2016. Tampa’s new coaching staff, led by Bruce Arians, hadn’t taken particularly well to Hargreaves — although Hargreaves himself has been a massive disappointment after being largely relegated to living in the slot as a nickel cornerback. His final transgression in Tampa? He was reportedly benched for a lack of hustle in the third quarter of Tampa’s win over Arizona this past weekend.
Should Miami kick the tires and make a waiver claim on Hargreaves? Absolutely. Hargreaves is still just 24 years old and clearly has talent. The Dolphins have ample cap space at their disposal and use defensive backs with such great frequency that Hargreaves would have every opportunity to get his act together and stick in the NFL with Miami.
The odds of Miami making a claim? It is hard to say. The Dolphins have a coach in Brian Flores who looks to create personal connections with his players, but so did Tampa with Arians and that didn’t seem to help matters. Yet sometimes a player just needs a change of scenery. Miami can provide that, without asking Hargreaves to go too far from home.
We’ll know by tomorrow afternoon whether or not the Dolphins made a claim; the waiver order mirrors the current NFL draft order, so if they want to get in on the action, the odds of them landing Hargreaves on waivers is pretty strong.
