Friday Afternoon Notebook: Catching Up With Flores, Free Agency, and More
The Pro Day circuit continues in full force, with five more schools showing off their 2021 draft prospects Friday.
The schools highlighted on this day will be Boston College, Brigham Young, North Carolina, South Dakota State and Virginia Tech.
And Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores is back at his alma mater on this day, taking in the Boston College Pro Day.
Flores was a linebacker at BC from 1999-2003 before he got into the coaching profession.
BC has three prospects likely or with a reasonable chance to get drafted: TE Hunter Long, LB Max Richardson and LB Isaiah McDuffie.
Long clearly is the best prospect from the school this year, and he's considered a potential second-day pick (second or third round). From a Dolphins standpoint, though, it seems unlikely they'll be drafting a tight end because they already have Mike Gesicki, Durham Smythe and Adam Shaheen on the roster — though, as we've said before — an exception could be made for Kyle Pitts because he's just not a typical tight end.
MORE PRO DAY THOUGHTS
A preliminary list posted by NFL Network reporter Michael Giardi showed the Dolphins not having a representative at the Virginia Tech Pro Day, where one of the prospects scheduled to work out was highly touted offensive lineman Christian Darrisaw.
VT cornerback Caleb Farley was considered one of the top prospects at his position, but he was forced to miss the Pro Day because he underwent back surgery earlier this week.
The BYU Pro Day, of course, was the highlight of the day because of quarterback Zach Wilson and the Dolphins indeed had a representative on hand (per SI Cougs Daily).
Wilson, incidentally, has been working with John Beck, who Dolphins fans might remember as a second-round pick (also out of BYU) in 2007 who didn't pan out as an NFL quarterback.
The North Carolina Pro Day features some very interesting prospects for the Dolphins, namely running backs Javonte Williams and Michael Carter, and linebacker Chazz Surratt.
FREE AGENCY UPDATE
The Dolphins lost an unrestricted free agent Thursday when running back Matt Breida signed with the Buffalo Bills.
After he was lightly used after coming over in a trade with the San Francisco 49ers, it was practically impossible to envision Breida wanting to return to the Dolphins in 2021 if he had other options.
Breida's signing continued the trend of Dolphins players going to other AFC East teams.
This offseason alone, Kyle Van Noy, Ted Karras, Davon Godchaux and Raekwon McMillan have signed with New England, and Breida followed punter Matt Haack.
The Dolphins now are down to only three unrestricted free agent looking for a team, five if we include the two players who did not get a qualifying offer.
The three UFAs are tackle Julien Davenport, who was reported to be on the verge of signing with the Colts, running back DeAndre Washington and safety Kavon Frazier.
Wide receiver Isaiah Ford and quarterback Jake Rudock also are without a team after not being tendered.
SCHEDULE THOUGHTS
NFL owners will be meeting virtually next week and you can almost book it that they'll vote on adding a 17th game to the regular season.
As has been previously reported, that additional game for the Dolphins will be against the New York Giants at Hard Rock Stadium based on the formula of AFC East against NFC East teams that finished in the same spot (second) in the division standings.
