Miami Dolphins off-season special teams approach is an easy one

The Miami Dolphins are not going to dive into free agency with special teams as their priority and overall, their approach should be pretty easy.

Miami has 28 impending free agents and many of them are special teams contributors. Re-signing most of them should be pretty easy as many will only command one-year deals at league minimum or slightly higher.

The Dolphins still have work to do with their roster. They have a long snapper under contract and a kicker under contract but the team doesn’t have a punter.

Thomas Morstead was very good last year and the Dolphins should re-sign him. I spoke with the long-time veteran kicker last month and he wants to return to the team. 

Getting Morstead back for another season or even two is a smart move and eliminates the need to try out punters. Morstead isn’t overly expensive and should be an easy re-sign.

Placekicker is a different story. The Dolphins gave Jason Sanders a big contract a couple of years ago and he has been inconsistent ever since. The Dolphins are likely to ride in 2023 with Sanders kicking the ball but they need to bring in competition for him and push him to be better.

Sanders should not enter the 2023 off-season practices (OTAs and mini-camps) as the only placekicker on the team.

The long snapper position is an easy decision. Blake Ferguson is still under contract and the Dolphins do not need to replace him. He is reliable and consistent.

Miami’s biggest priority will be to get some of the special team players back under contract, get Morstead back, and they should also look to identify players that can return punts and kickoffs because Cedrick Wilson isn’t great at it and Miami needs to be better in many of their special teams areas.