Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
’Fins make deal with QB Jacoby Brissett
The Miami Dolphins agreed to deals with two players on Tuesday, including a former South Florida high school football standout.
Jacoby Brissett, a quarterback who played at Dwyer High in Palm Beach Gardens, has agreed to a one-year deal to join the Dolphins, a league source confirmed to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Brissett will surely try to push and compete with Dolphins starter Tua Tagovailoa, but his role will be to backup Tagovailoa during the 2021 season.
The Dolphins also agreed to a deal with former Los Angeles Rams running back Malcolm Brown, adding depth to their offensive backfield this offseason.
Tuesday started off as another quiet free agency day for the Dolphins before both moves.
Miami has significantly less money to spend this offseason than it did last year, when the Dolphins set the NFL record by spending $147.2 million in guaranteed money on players like cornerback Byron Jones, defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah, offensive tackle Ereck Flowers, and two players Miami has parted with this year in outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy and defensive tackle Shaq Lawson.
Brissett joins the Dolphins one day after former starter and backup Ryan Fitzpatrick agreed to a new deal with the Washington Football Team.
Dolphins coach Brian Flores saw Brissett rise to the occasion as a rookie starting two games when both were with the New England Patriots in 2016.
Brissett was a thirdround pick by the Patriots, and shared the quarterback room with Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo. But his time in New England lasted only one season.
Brissett was traded to the Indianapolis Colts, where he spent the past three seasons. He spend the 2019 season as Indy’s starting quarterback, before being replaced by Phillip Rivers last year.
“Leader. That’s the first kind of thing from my standpoint that you could see right off the bat. Guys gravitate to him. That’s the one thing that’s stood out to me,” Flores said of Brissett during the 2019 season before the Dolphins played the Colts. Brissett did not play that game due to a knee sprain.
“I really like Jacoby. …
When I was there, we had some injuries where he had to start a game early and I thought he went in and did a really good job. You could see the leadership and you could see the ability to handle the offense and operate an offense at a young age.
“He’s got a lot of the QB qualities you are looking for from an operation, leadership, guys rally around him — he’s got a lot of those qualities. I’m not surprised that he’s gone in there and done a really nice job for them.”
Brissett, who The Boston Globe reported will earn up to $7.5 million with Miami, has played in 49 career games with a 12-20 record in 32 starts. He has thrown for 6,459 yards with 31 touchdowns and 13 interceptions and has a 59.6 career completion percentage.
Brissett played two seasons at the University of Florida in 2011-12 before finishing his college career at N.C. State in 2014-15.
As for Brown, the Dolphins add a talented running back who spent the past six seasons with the
Rams franchise, playing in 70 games with 298 carries, 1,118 yards, 11 touchdowns and a 4.0 yards per carry average.
Brown will join Dolphins running backs Myles Gaskin, Salvon Ahmed and Patrick Laird, while Matt Breida is a free agent not expected to return.
The Dolphins this offseason have signed outside linebacker Vince Biegel to a one-year deal to return to the team, added core special teamer Cethan Carter, and acquired inside linebacker Benadrick McKinney from the Houston Texans.
They also sent Lawson to Houston in the deal, released Van Noy after one season with the team, acquired offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson from the Tennessee Titans, signed new punter Michael Palardy and reached a contract extension with kicker Jason Sanders.
Miami is left with roughly $10-13 million in salary cap space to fill other areas of needs in free agency before the 2021 NFL draft in late April.