Busy Week Ahead for Dolphins

All things considered, it's been a pretty quiet offseason so far for the Miami Dolphins — unless you count all the noise about the quarterback position.

But things are about to ramp up big time as the start of the new league looms.

That date, of course, is March 17 and before then the Dolphins will be continuing to evaluate their roster, make a final determination of using the franchise or transition (though it's not a tough call) and dive into the pro days of college prospects.

We'll start with the roster self-evaluation, which already has led to the decision to part with linebacker Kyle Van Noy.

RELATED: More Van Noy Fallout

As of Monday morning, Van Noy officially remained on the roster amid reports the Dolphins are trying to trade him instead of simply releasing him one year after he signed a one-year contract.

Because of his four-year, $51 million deal, we've said all along that being able to trade Van Noy won't be easy.

Van Noy expressed his disappointment at the Dolphins' decision to move on from him after the reports first came out and he had an interesting tweet reaction Saturday to the news that the New Orleans Saints, whose cap situation is among the worst in the NFL, were restructuring the contracts of defensive end Cameron Jordan and linebacker Demario Davis.

The retweet from Van Noy featured simply two thinking emojis.

🤔🤔 https://t.co/XX7VEZYI6A
— Kyle Van Noy (@KVN_03) March 6, 2021

The implication certainly seemed to be Van Noy wondering how it was that New Orleans was able to keep both players while the Dolphins weren't able to do the same with him.

Well, the Dolphins' decision obviously speaks to how they viewed Van Noy compared to how the Saints viewed their two players. It's also fair to mention that Jordan is a six-time Pro Bowl selection and Davis was an All-Pro in 2019. Van Noy, while being a solid player, has never earned any postseason accolade in seven NFL seasons.

PLAYING TAG

The original deadline for teams to use the franchise or transition tag was Tuesday, March 9, but there were reports Monday morning that the deadline might be pushed because the 2021 salary cap still has not been established.

And the reason the salary cap has not been established is that the league has not yet finalized its new television contracts.

Regardless of when the deadline is, it would be a wild surprise for the Dolphins to use a tag because, quite frankly, none of their pending free agents are players who are must keeps.

The Dolphins have not used a tag since 2018 when they franchised wide receiver Jarvis Landry, only to turn around and trade him to the Cleveland Browns.

PRO DAYS

It's a whole new ballgame when it comes to draft evaluations this year, what with no combine in Indianapolis, no on-site workouts and visits and teams limited in the number of players allowed to attend pro days.

With that backdrop, the pro day scheduled began last Friday with the University of Kansas, but it kicks into high gear this week.

Among those to watch this week, along with the top prospects involved:

Tuesday — Northwestern (T Rashawn Slater, CB Greg Newsome)

Wednesday — Wisconsin (T Cole Van Lanen, DE Isaiahh Loudermilk, S Eric Burrell)

Thursday — Clemson (RB Travis Etienne, WR Cornell Powell, WR Amari Rodgers) ... Texas (T Sam Cosmi), Edge Joseph Ossai, QB Sam Ehlinger)

Friday — Oklahoma (C Creed Humphrey, Edge Ronnie Perkins, RB Rhamondre Stevenson) ... North Dakota State (QB Trey Lance)

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