The Miami Dolphins have a ton of available cap space to get better as a football team in free agency. Here are five players they should target this spring.
It’ll be very interesting to see what the Miami Dolphins plan to do this offseason. At the start of the 2019 season, Miami looked to be the worst team in football. Many people projected this team would struggle to even win one game. Well, Miami massively overachieved under first-year head coach Brian Flores, as the Dolphins went 5-11. They still ended up with the No. 5 overall pick.
Entering this offseason, Miami has three first-round picks in the 2020 NFL Draft: their own at No. 5, the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ at No. 18 from the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade and the Houston Texans‘ at no. 26 from the Laremy Tunsil deal. According to Spotrac, the Dolphins have the second-most available salary-cap space in the league, coming in at $94.3 million. They can make some moves.
Overall, the Dolphins have the resources to make a big leap if they feel so inclined. Miami is a position where the Dolphins can draft a franchise quarterback anywhere in the top-five. Of course, the Dolphins may look at the 2021 quarterback class and spend one more year at the bottom of the AFC before making their move. Ultimately, Miami is building for a better tomorrow.
Because the Dolphins shipped off many of their high-priced players in the last few seasons, the cupboard is pretty bare in terms of bringing back soon-to-be free agents in-house. They could look to do that, but none of those moves really move the needle. To get Dolphins fans a little more excited about free agency, here are five players the team can definitely target this spring.
5
Vic Beasley
OLB Atlanta Falcons
One area where the Dolphins need to get better in 2020 is in generating a pass rush. Usually, this has been a strong suit for the Dolphins over the years historically. With Flores being a defensive-minded coach, he might be able to take a once-promising player and get the most out of him with a change of scenery. Of course, we’re talking about Atlanta Falcons outside linebacker Vic Beasley.
Beasley has just completed his fifth year in the league out of Clemson University with the Dirty Birds. The former All-American was a First-Team All-Pro at one point in Atlanta. However, 15.5 of his 37.5 career quarterback sacks came with the 2016 Falcons as a part of their Super Bowl run. While he did have a solid 2019 in Atlanta with 8.0 sacks, that’s only his second-best total ever.
Atlanta strangely exercised the fifth-year option on the former No. 8 overall pick. Though a native of Georgia, Beasley is much-maligned by Falcons fans for his inconsistent playmaking abilities as a pass rusher. When he’s at his best, he is a tremendous speed rush with great awareness in terms of looking for strip-sacks. But when power is required, he almost never provides it.
One could argue that Beasley is not a great scheme fit for Dan Quinn in Atlanta. Because Beasley is seen as a second or third-tier pass rusher hitting free agency, the Dolphins might be able to get a pretty sweet deal on the guy. Atlanta only has $10.7 million in available cap space. Using the franchise tag on him would be foolish for the Falcons. He’s leaving and could make sense in Miami.