Miami Dolphins: Grading C.J. Mosley Signing

The Miami Dolphins made one of the biggest moves of the offseason when they signed former Detroit Lions superstar defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh to join Cameron Wake and Olivier Vernon on a defensive line that already had two difference-makers coming off of the edge.

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Now, the Dolphins have added Suh’s former teammate C.J. Mosley, via the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, who spent the last two seasons with the Detroit Lions after previously having stops with the Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, and Jacksonville Jaguars. Mosley has bounced around quite a bit ever since joining the league in 2015, but the 31-year-old, who will be 32 when the regular season opens up, has been playing his best football lately.

It’s unclear how much money Mosley will make this season from the Dolphins, but we do know that the deal is an unsurprising one-year deal. I’m willing to bet that it’s away from the veteran minimum by a noticeable difference, because the solid defensive tackle did receive a bit of interest from other teams this offseason. In fact, the Lions recently showed interest in re-signing him after previously letting him hit the free agent market without so much as a whimper, but Mosley ultimately decided to accept the Dolphins contract offer after they had him in for a visit yesterday.

Mosley slots in as the team’s No. 3 defensive tackle behind starters Suh and Earl Mitchell, who was signed from the Houston Texans last offseason ahead of interest from the San Diego Chargers after showing plenty of interest in the 27-year-old. It’s clear that Mosley fits in best as a rotational DT at this stage of his career, especially since he’s better at defending the run than he is rushing the passer, though he isn’t bad on passing downs either. In fact, he received more snaps on passing downs last year than he did in run defense.

It will be interesting to see how often he sees the field for the Dolphins after receiving 503 snaps last season for the Lions with a playing time boost caused by Nick Fairley‘s (now with the stacked St. Louis Rams DL) injury spell.

The Lions lost all three of their top DTs from last season’s dominant interior, and while Mosley’s possible marijuana issue in London last year impacted his standing with the team, it clearly shouldn’t be an issue going forward. The Dolphins have, barring something unexpected, signed a solid veteran backup to a cheap deal, and Mosley is somebody who can immediately boost this defense up front and allow talented rookie and raw physical specimen Jordan Phillips more time to develop off the bench without being forced to play as often.

Of course, the friendship between C.J. Mosley and Suh is something to keep in mind, and we’ll see just how often both players get to work together at the same time. Mosley is the type of experienced, well-rounded DT this team needed as a backup, though that need wasn’t nearly as pronounced after the Dolphins decided to draft Phillips out of Oklahoma.

For the Miami Dolphins, the most important thing here is that Mosley will beef up this team’s run defense (they allowed a tad too many yards per carry at a 4.3 clip last year) while giving the team a small boost in passing situations if called upon. He’s as steady of a veteran rotation guy as you’ll find at the position, and as long as the contract is as inexpensive as we expect, this is a very good signing for the Dolphins.

Grade: B+

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