The Miami Dolphins landed linebacker Karlos Dansby on the first day, arguably paying too much for the first-day-of-free-agency acquisition.
When it comes to signing a player to beef up the last line of the Dolphins’ defense, the team hasn’t been quite as willing to cough up the cash.
“The budget that they were willing to spend on a safety was a little bit lower than what I was looking for,” newly-minted Giants safety Antrel Rolle recently told our pal Joe Rose of WQAM, via Edgar Thompson of the Palm Beach Post. “Miami would have been nice just for the fact that it’s home. But I don’t think anyone would sell themselves short just to stay in their hometown, especially when you have someone like the Giants making such a great offer and giving me such a great opportunity.”
Safety Ryan Clark made a similar suggestion after he visited the Dolphins but stayed put in the end with the Steelers. “What it came down to was the inability for us to agree on a deal,” Clark told Josina Anderson of FOX 31 in Denver. "[The Dolphins] offered what they thought was fair, but in the end I didn’t agree.”
Still, this isn’t a matter of the Dolphins being cheap. They broke the bank for Dansby, whom they apparently believe will be an impact player. When it came to Rolle and Clark, they weren’t willing to compete with the other offers. Absent the kind of desperation that has driven the Bears to overpay for multiple players, it makes no sense for a team that already is competitive to pay more than the team thinks it should to address a position that, in all fairness, isn’t as critical as other aspects of the defense.