The Miami Dolphins have bid farewell to one of their early success stories of the franchise’s most recent rebuilding effort. The Dolphins first acquired linebacker Vince Biegel in a player for player swap with the New Orleans Saints; shipping out veteran Kiko Alonso in a player swap that brought Biegel to South Florida just ahead of the start of the 2019 regular season.
That was the first year Chris Grier and Brian Flores ran the show in Miami. And what followed that year was a promising development — Biegel took to the coaching well and performed admirably well; playing hard and quickly earning the affection of Dolphins fans.
What has transpired since, on the other hand, couldn’t be any further from that original success story. First, Biegel tore his Achilles in training camp of 2020, costing him the entire season. Then, Biegel spurned some fans this past offseason with his reaction to the Deshaun Watson rumors. And then Biegel was placed on injured reserve for the second consecutive season.
Now? He’s off the team all together. The Dolphins waived him with an injury settlement on Tuesday.
The Dolphins reached an injury settlement with Vince Biegel and released him from IR, allowing him to sign anywhere when healthy.
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) September 7, 2021
This certainly isn’t the end result that the team or Biegel envisioned after some early success together as a pairing — but this is the unfortunate lifecycle of rebuilding teams. Lesser known players get opportunities and take advantage of them, but as the talent on the team grows, so too must the player. And in Biegel’s case, injury took any opportunity he may have had to grow into a larger role with the team and now he’ll be looking for his next opportunity elsewhere.
Miami can point to Biegel’s 2019 play as a firm indicator that their ability can develop talent works — the player Biegel ended 2019 as wasn’t the player they first got. But unfortunately you can’t develop durability; you’ve either got that or you don’t.