Miami’s Free Agent Redemption Song

Miami’s Free Agent Redemption Song

Nobody, and I mean nobody, saw this coming.

Nobody could have ever envisaged a week ago that your Miami Dolphins, your cash-strapped, harbingers of footballing doom, would be leading the way – by some distance – in terms of free agent signings. Most of us believed that we would attempt to make a run at Malik Willis, but would probably lose out to a team that could poison pill us out of the race by simply offering more money than we had in our shallow coffers. And that even if we did sign the Liberty standout, we’d be scooping up sloppy seconds post-draft in the 4th and 5th tiers of free agency, with nary a care in the world as we marched towards a high pick in 2027 and a salary cap that we could finally be pleased with.

And yet here we are, four days and a few hours in, and we’ve added not five, not ten, not fifteen, not even twenty, but twenty-four players in a Dollar General shopping spree from right out of left field. As I sit here close to midnight on Friday night we’ve come to an agreement with four of our own free agents and twenty of someone elses: Malik Willis, Tutu Atwell, Jalen Tolbert, Ben Sims, Jamaree Salyer, Matthew Butler, Robert Beal, Seth Coleman, Willie Gay, David Ojabo, Joshua Uche, Cameron Goode, Zayne Anderson, Alex Austin, Darrell Baker, Miles Battle, Omar Brown, Lonnie Johnson, Marco Wilson, Tucker Addington, Zane Gonzalez, Riley Patterson and the UFL punter Seth Vernon.

Of course, it’s all about competition. I think, save for Malik Willis, you could make a fairly compelling case that less than 10% of them will be on the roster in two years. In fact, if you told me that Willis would be the sole surviving player from this group in 12 months’ time, I wouldn’t need to sit down or take time off from work for shock.

General Manager Jon-Eric Sullivan talked about building a team from the inside out and significantly improving competition across the board. It’s hard to argue that he hasn’t delivered on that second point, creating a level of competition for places the likes of which we haven’t seen in Miami in a long time.

And there’s a fundamental theme running through one of the position groups that pertains directly to draft strategy, which I’ll get to. But here are a bunch of young, hungry players on short contracts with something to prove. With redemption songs to pen.

Just cast your eyes at those names and tell me I’m wrong: Take Atwell and Tolbert, for example. The former weighs as much as one of those handbag dogs you see a Kardashian carrying around in a Loewe Puzzle – Google it. The latter had a dramatically down year after a strong 2024 and got lost in the George Pickens/CeeDee Lamb show in Dallas, struggling to get off press as teams figured him out.

Suddenly, the pair find themselves in a room with a view to a future in the league if they can gel quickly in South Florida.

Or what about Salyer, who stood in at LT for Rashawn Slater for 15 games when he was hurt and was so impressive that the Chargers barely missed a beat. Yet when the All-Pro former Northwestern star returned to the line-up, he was kicked inside and struggled to the point where people view him solely as a T for a team with two open guard spots?

Or Beal, a wide 9 edge with 4.4 speed, who’s strong against the run, a core special teamer who can play inside as a 5T, yet has flattered to deceive in San Francisco.

Or Ojabo, so highly thought of in the pre-draft process that many people thought he’d go on night one. The Scottish edge, who tore up the Big 10, only to tear up his Achilles at his pro day and then his ACL in Indianapolis in 2023. He, with just 4.5 sacks, needs a breakout season in the worst way.

Or even Marco Wilson, whose most famous contribution to football in Florida was chucking an LSU player’s shoe 20-yards down the field in The Swamp, resulting in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty which gave the Tigers a critical first down against Wilson’s Gators and put them in range to kick a game-winning FG, which Cade York duly did.

You think he wants some redemption?

You won’t find many of these signings on anyone’s top 100 lists of free agents. But if the aim here is to improve the bottom of the roster and engender a level of competition for careers, which has forever been a problem, then hats off to all involved.

However, there’s also an interesting indicator of what the Dolphins do come draft night, hidden in the details.

I firmly believe they’ll take a trench player unless perhaps Sonny Styles falls, or his teammate Caleb Downs. I think they’ve identified the strength of this team, which is running the ball; they’ve signed the second-best running QB in football, and as aforementioned, they have gaping holes at G. Step forward Penn State LG Vega Ioane to slot in between Pat Paul and All-Pro Aaron Brewer.

But I digress: so many mock drafts have Miami taking one of LSU’s Mansoor Delane or Tennessee’s Jermod McCoy, with Delane a real favourite of the mockers. However, take a look at the players Sully has signed at corner: Alex Austin is 6’1, Darrell Baker is 6’1, and Miles Battle is 6’3. Add those to the incumbent group, and what you have is Ethan Bonner at 6’1, and JuJu Brents and Isaiah Johnson at 6’3.

Sure, Marco Wilson is 6’0 even, as is Jason Marshall Jr, but both project inside at the nickel where Sullivan’s Packers thrived with Pro Bowler Keisean Nixon at just 5’10. As good as Delane is – and he is – do we think, given where things are trending, that we’re taking a 5’11 corner at 11? It just doesn’t fit the profile. Especially for a guy who projects outside. And although McCoy was slightly taller at an even 6’0, he’s not been seen by anyone running or changing direction in 15 months.

That doesn’t – under any circumstances – sound like a Jon-Eric Sullivan draft pick. Especially in a draft that features North Carolina’s Marcus Allen at 6015; Washington’s Tacario Davis at 6037; Stephen F Austin’s Charles Demmings at 6011; North Carolina’s Thaddeus Dixon at 6010; Georgia’s Daylen Everette at 6012; Toledo’s Andre Fuller at 6010; Ohio State’s Davison Igbinosun at 6021; Alabama’s Domani Jackson at 6010; Aggie star Will Lee III at 6014; Cal’s Hezekiah Masses at 6010; Houston’s Latrell McCutcheon at 6017; Florida’s Devin Moore at 6032; Arkansas’s Julian Neal at 6015; Washington’s Ephesians Prysock at 6033; Memphis’s Jaidyn Dennis at 6’2; Houston’s Zelmar Vedder at 6’3, and Wake’s Karon Prunty at 6’2.

I think, given the size profile and indeed, the sheer numbers boosting competition, along with the argument that Rome wasn’t built in a day, you could decipher that potentially the Dolphins don’t touch the CB position until at least the third round, and even then it would be with a long corner to match what’s clearly a house style.

And whoever it is, they’d better be ready for competition. Because under Jon-Eric Sullivan, that’s clearly the new fight song.