Dolphins Adding Poyer to Secondary

The Miami Dolphins pick up a longtime Buffalo Bills starter

The Miami Dolphins' quest to unseat the Buffalo Bills as AFC East champions now will feature a former player from their nemesis.

Safety Jordan Poyer agreed to terms on a one-year contract with the Dolphins on Tuesday, according to multiple reports, six days after the Bills let him go as part of a veteran purge of their roster.

Poyer spent the past seven seasons with Buffalo as part of one of the best safety tandems in the NFL along with Micah Hyde, earning Pro Bowl honors in 2022 after being named an All-Pro the previous year.

He recorded 22 interceptions in his first six seasons with the Bills before being shut out in that department in 2023.

Poyer signed a new two-year deal in 2023, but his performance slipped in his 11th NFL season. His opponent passer rating when targeted, per Pro Football Reference, went from 42.2 and 60.1 in 2021 and 2022 to 101.5 last season and The Athletic reporter Tim Graham wrote for the site: "Poyer clearly had lost a step by last season."

THE POSSIBLE PLAN FOR POYER

Poyer has played more than 94 percent of his team's defensive snaps for seven consecutive seasons and one would imagine he'll be in the running for the starting safety job for the Dolphins opposite Jevon Holland.

But he'll also turn 33 two days before the start of the 2024 NFL draft and it could be that his best role would be as a situational player.

The Dolphins already have lost safety Brandon Jones in free agency, while 2023 starter DeShon Elliott is an unrestricted free agent.

The idea of Poyer joining the Dolphins actually came up last offseason when the safety discussed the idea on his podcast before the Bills re-signed him.

Poyer has a prior connection with Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel from their time together with the Cleveland Browns in 2014 when McDaniel was the wide receivers coach was in his second NFL season.

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