Miami Dolphins may have a big problem with Reshad Jones

Details of what happened with Miami Dolphins star safety Reshad Jones on Sunday are still a big question but there is a big problem that exists.

On Sunday the Miami Dolphins lost their starting safety Reshad Jones and there is no question that the problem is going to have an effect on the team moving forward in some capacity. Jones wasn’t injured. He wasn’t being disciplined. He took himself out of the game and no one knows why exactly.

Well not no one.

The Dolphins know. Adam Gase by now knows why his best defensive player quit for three quarters of Sunday’s game. Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke knows and so does his position coaches. No one else knows. Not outside of the Dolphins.

There has been reports and rumors over the last week that there has been too much freelancing on the defensive side of the ball. Players doing more of what they want rather than what the scheme is calling for. It’s a problem that dates back to last year.

In 2017 the Dolphins got rid of CB Byron Maxwell because he did what he wanted to do rather than do what the team wanted him to do. He got benched but he never took himself off the field. Earlier that year Jay Ajayi was giving coaches fits in the training facility and he was traded at the trade deadline. But he didn’t quit on the field.

Earlier this year the Buffalo Bills watched as Vontae Davis went to the locker room at halftime and never came back out. He got dressed told the team he was done and quit midway through the game. Reshad Jones quit on his team and his coaches and his fans.

No one outside the Miami Dolphins will probably know what is and was going on as the team will likely keep it under wraps. They can’t release him because there would be over $20 million in dead cap space if they did. They can’t trade him because the trade deadline was last Tuesday. They can discipline him. They can suspend him without pay. That might be the way they go but can they really afford not to have him on the field with the Packers on the schedule this weekend?

Yes. Yes they can. The reason is because they can’t rely on him right now. They can’t put their trust in him. They rewarded him with a huge contract extension that they promised him last year and they took care of their own while Jones opted not to hold out. He got paid and now?

The situation with Jones will be something watched all week. Adam Gase will field a lot of questions about the situation from local media. On Sunday he didn’t have any answers but had a lot of “I don’t know’s”.

The fact that Jones quit on the team Sunday is more of an indication that things may not be as tight in the locker room as many believe that it is. The Dolphins have shed the bad apples over the last three years. Billy Turner, Jamil Douglas, Dallas Thomas, Jay Ajayi, Byron Maxwell, Ndamukong Suh, Jarvis Landry, and now they are dealing with an issue with Reshad Jones.

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Perhaps maybe this is all about frustration on the part of Jones. A hard hitting player who has been playing through a shoulder injury all season. A player who has spilled his heart on to the football field. A guy who is trying to make plays but not always staying within the constructs of the defensive scheme.

Maybe this is Matt Burke’s problem. His defense has struggled for the last five games until Sunday’s win over the happless Jets. Maybe Jones simply snapped and was trying to prove a point to his coach that things need to change. Whatever the reason or reasons, there is an issue that team needs to address internally and not publicly.

There is a problem here and it might not just be with Reshad Jones but a bigger picture we may never know. Or maybe it simply is about Jones. Maybe he simply reached his limit.

Maybe. There are a lot maybe’s on this Monday morning and there will likely be a lot more on Tuesday and Wednesday and the rest of the week if not the season. Or maybe not.

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