Dolphins will pursue Zach Brown in Free Agency…Again

The Dolphins brought Zach Brown in for a visit last off-season, but elected not to ink the coveted free agent to a contract. There’s a chance they could sign him this off-season, however.

Last year, it appeared that the Miami Dolphins were ready to really beef up at linebacker. First, the team signed Lawrence Timmons, which at the time was a big deal. Then rumors began to swirl that they were still interested in bringing Zach Brown to the team. They even had him in for a visit.

It almost seemed like a done deal. Dolphins fans, and possibly even Brown himself, were just anticipating when it would become official. Miami never pulled the trigger, however. It was widely believed to be because of money issues for obvious reasons. The Dolphins had already signed and extended some contracts, including Timmons’ initial two-year, $12 million deal with an outstanding $11 million guaranteed.

Miami still had some money to spend despite all that, so it was puzzling to see Brown sign a one-year contract with Washington worth up to $4.65 million. He would go on to receive roughly $2.5 million over the course of the season. Surely, Miami could have offered him a better offer than that if they were interested. But the Dolphins passed, electing to draft Raekwon McMillan in the second round of the draft.

Seeing as how everything has played out over the year, Dolphins management surely wishes now that they had signed Brown. They may get their chance to redeem themselves, however.

Of course that will come at a steeper price this time around as Brown is coming off another strong season, totaling 127 tackles. They could use the money though from Timmons’ second-year guaranteed money that was voided early in the season. Timmons was due a base salary of $5.45 million this season, but Miami is expected to move on.

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Brown has been one of the more underrated linebackers in the league throughout his career. Pairing him with McMillan could drastically improve the interior of Miami’s defense almost overnight. An area they’ve struggled significantly at for some time.

If Miami is serious about bringing Brown aboard, and admitting they made a mistake last year, then a deal most certainly could be done. The question you have to ask is though, if Jay Cutler was worth $10 million last year, how was Brown not worth $5 million?