Exploring the Poyer Possibility for the Dolphins
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It's fun to address the possibility of every big-name player who becomes available joining the Miami Dolphins, even though at some point that becomes redundant.
It's a different story, though, when a high-profile pending free agent like Buffalo Bills safety Jordan Poyer puts out so many signals that he'd be interested in joining Mike McDaniel's team.
On his podcast — aptly named the Jordan Poyer Podcast — this week, Poyer all but declared his love for the Dolphins and made a marriage proposal when he discussed his pending free agency.
For those not aware of his comments, he said he wants to go to a state with no income tax, and he wants to go to a warm-weather city.
There are nine states with no state income tax, and the only two that could have warm weather are Florida and Texas.
Oh, and Poyer mentioned he's friends with Tua Tagovailoa — and also a fan of his game — to the point where he'll be attending Tua's birthday part Saturday night.
The podcast, which Poyer did while in South Florida, included the most direct comment of all.
"Happy Birthday brother," Poyer said to Tua, who will turn 25 on March 2. "I'll be there with my wife at your birthday party Saturday night. I don't know who else will be there? I don't know, it'd be crazy to stay in the East to go come down here to South Florida now. So I might have to put my best suit on, put a nice little tie on. I know Mike McDaniel will be in there."
As Poyer pointed out, he and McDaniel were together with the Cleveland Browns in 2014 when the Dolphins head coach served as Cleveland wide receivers coach.
POYER A GOOD FIT FOR DOLPHINS DEFENSE
While it's clear the Dolphins aren't going to sign every big-name free agent who becomes available, the idea of bringing in Poyer — at the right price, of course — has a lot of merit.
The Dolphins have a budding star in safety Jevon Holland, but there a lot of question marks and no sure things around him.
Opening-day starter Brandon Jones is recovering from a torn ACL sustained last October and it's pretty well established he was a better fit for the prior defensive scheme that made full use of his great blitzing ability than the new system that will be brought in by Vic Fangio.
Veteran Eric Rowe is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent, and the other two players who started games at safety last season were unproven young players Elijah Campbell and Verone McKinley III.
Poyer has plenty of good football left, considering he's 31 and is coming off seasons when he was named an All-Pro (2021) and then was a Pro Bowl selection despite missing five games (2022). He's very, very good in coverage — his opponent passer rating the past two seasons, according to Pro Football Reference, was 42.2 and 60.1.
The 42.2 mark was the best in the NFL in 2021 among players with at least four starts.
The bottom line is that Poyer seems to want to join the Dolphins, the Dolphins really could use him, so the connection is logical.
The Bills might have something to say about that, though, because not only could they re-sign Poyer before the start of free agency, they could keep him off the market by using the franchise tag on him.
Poyer is one of two premier pending free agents on the Bills roster along with linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, and it almost would be surprising to see Buffalo not tag either of them.
If Poyer doesn't get tagged, though, the Dolphins should grant him his wish and bring him to Miami.
