The Philadelphia Eagles have just cut linebacker Mychal Kendricks. The Miami Dolphins still have some questions at the position, but should they go after him?
The Miami Dolphins have added quite a few young pieces to their young linebackers corps. However, there are still a good amount of question marks surrounding the position and it couldn’t hurt to solidify it.
Now that the Eagles have cut Mychal Kendricks, the Dolphins have to at least have their interest peaked. There are some pros and cons when it comes to signing the 27-year-old thumper.
We start with why he’d be a good signing for Miami.
The Case for Kendricks
He is undoubtedly more proven than linebacker on the roster with the exception of Kiko Alonso, although you can make the case he’s better than Alonso. Miami fans are highly optimistic about their young linebackers, particularly Raekwon McMillian, but what if he or the others don’t pan out as expected? What if injuries strike? Depth at linebacker is never a bad thing and while I like the young talent, they certainly lack depth. Kendrick would help fix that problem.
While cap space is minimal at the moment, the team will be adding $17 million on June 1 thanks to the release of Ndamukong Suh. While I’ve been vocal about my dismay with cutting Suh, it would be nice to at least use that money to bring in a strong asset. Kendricks is just that. Not only would he have a legitimate chance to be the team’s top linebacker, at worst he could be an insurance policy for both McMillian and Alonso.
The Case against Kendricks
Odds are he will garner plenty of interest on the open market and while he won’t break the bank, he won’t come cheap either. It’s also believed that one of the major reasons he wanted out in Philly was because he wanted to be a three-down linebacker, not just a two-down run stopper.
So this could lead to an area of contention being that the team did just add an abundance of pass-coverage specialists in the 2018 NFL Draft. With that said, he can’t be much worse than Alonso in coverage and is better against the run. Still, this coaching staff doesn’t seem to want to be dictated to by any player and it could become an issue with all this focus on a culture change.
Adding Kendricks could also stunt the growth of the young players on the linebackers corps. It’s possible if these kids are as good as the coaching staff believes, that they may be better off just rolling with them and save a lot of money on their rookie contracts instead of paying for the talented veteran. The last thing this team needs is to get itself in more cap trouble after just beginning to alleviate the issue at the expense of stud players like Suh and Jarvis Landry. The front office does not need to be just running in circles.
Next: NFL 2018: Rookie class bold predictions
Conclusion
If I was in the Dolphins front office, I would take a shot at Kendricks. This defense still needs help up the middle. While I like what they did in the draft I would feel much more comfortable adding a proven commodity and not having all my eggs in the basket of players who have never played an NFL down. It’s unclear if they will even have a shot at him come June 1, but he’s be a great addition if they could pull something off.