Dion Jordan to apply for reinstatement

The Miami Dolphins may soon know whether or not they will have Dion Jordan for the 2016 season. It’s being reported that Jordan will file for reinstatement with the NFL on Wednesday.

There is a lot of pressure being selected in the top five of an NFL draft and even more pressure when a team comes out of nowhere and trades up to take you in the top three. That is precisely what happened in the case of Jordan.

Expected to go in the top five as the top defensive end in the 2013 draft, the Dolphins sent their first round pick and a 2nd round pick to Oakland to move up and take the Oregon standout. While Miami was hoping for another Jason Taylor, things went south pretty quickly for the edge rusher.

On the field, Jordan struggled fitting into a defensive system that he was not used to playing in and as a result coupled with a minor injury, his first year in the NFL was nothing higher than disappointing. In fact, Jordan’s time on the field was so minimal that he couldn’t even show flashes of what he could become.

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Then the wheels fell off. Jordan was suspended in 2014 and again in 2015 for failed drug tests. He contends that the drug test failures were a result of pot and supplements and another for a watered down sample.

Fast forward to 2016 and Jordan will be finding out whether the NFL allows him another chance. Jordan claims that he has not had a failed test in over a year, hasn’t missed a test since April of 2015 when the league started their weekly testing, and is ready to get back on the field.

At 26 years old, Jordan should be in entering the prime years of his career but instead, he will start the 2016 season with little edge over rookies in terms of experience. The Dolphins are not talking about Dion Jordan because they can’t.

Miami can’t talk about Jordan as being a part of the team because he is not a part of the team. He is suspended. When the Dolphins find out from the NFL that Jordan can return to the practice field, a handful of OTA’s and mini-camps will remain but under the CBA Miami can’t simply pick up the phone and bring him in to the facility to talk about their plans for him. They can do a physical and give him his playbook.

They can also trade him.

There was a lot of speculation that Miami wanted to trade Jordan to the Eagles under Chip Kelly who coached Jordan at Oregon. Kelly is now in San Francisco and naturally rumors of a trade will surface at some point but Miami would be far better off to keep Jordan and let him compete for playing time before making any decisions on his future.

How well Jordan can fit into the Miami defensive scheme will go a long way in determining his future with the team and likely the NFL.