Miami Dolphins: 5 players who probably won’t be back next season
Some housecleaning will need to be done this coming off season for the Miami Dolphins. Here are 5 players that might not be back in 2022
No matter how successful the second half of the season ends up being for the Miami Dolphins, the issues over the first eight weeks were glaring. Enough so that there will likely be some house cleaning done in the upcoming off season.
The problems seem to start at the top, so it is unclear whether or not GM Chris Grier and head coach Brian Flores will be the ones making the decisions in the spring. But whichever regime is in place going in to 2022, they will certainly have their hands full with their impending roster choices.
There have been plenty of underwhelming performers for the Dolphins this season, many of whom the team would be smart to move on from. Here are five players who likely won’t be returning to Miami next season:
Eric Rowe
A guy who played a key role in the success of the Miami Dolphins defense last year may become expendable this coming off season.
Safety Eric Rowe had been a starter since he arrived in Miami in 2019, and he regularly played between 90 and 100 percent of defensive snaps over his first two seasons. He was second to only Jerome Baker in total tackles over that span, and added three interceptions and a touchdown to boot. Rowe has fallen out of favor this season, however. His snap percentage is down to an average of just 43 percent over the last seven games, as both Brandon Jones and Jevon Holland have seen sharp increases in their respective counts.
As Miami seems to be introducing their safety duo of the future, it becomes possible that we are watching Rowe’s final games in a Dolphins uniform. He is owed just over $5 million next season and will be on the last year of his contract, but he would only cost the Dolphins $525,000 in dead cap money for 2022. It would be a nice bit of salary relief for the defensive backfield that eats up over a quarter of the team’s entire payroll, and the team would be able to make Holland their premiere safety option going forward.