Tag: Vince Biegel

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.

In 2019, the Miami Dolphins appeared to have unearthed a quality steal in the form of linebacker Vince Biegel. Miami came upon Biegel’s services as part of a trade to offload veteran linebacker Kiko Alonso; completing a swap of players with the New Orleans Saints in the days before the start of the 201 regular season.

Biegel would go on to log significant and quality snaps for the Dolphins defense before a torn Achilles in the summer of 2020 put him into the background of the defensive depth chart. There will be no comeback with the Dolphins in 2021, we learned yesterday.

Because the team announced that, for the second straight season, Biegel would be spending the year on injured reserve. The move effectively ends Biegel’s 2021 campaign barring an injury settlement and release from the Dolphins at some point throughout the course of the season.

Biegel’s designation to IR certainly hurts the depth of the hybrid linebacker group — he was expected to be a rotational presence on the early downs for the Dolphins if healthy. Now those reps are likely to be split evenly between Andrew Van Ginkel, Brennan Scarlett and rookie Jaelan Phillips instead — although third-year linebacker Sam Eguavoen has periodically taken snaps on the edge throughout his first two seasons with the Dolphins, too.

This is the second decision from Miami in recent days to place a player on IR before the final roster cut downs take place, the other being with second-year wide receiver Lynn Bowden Jr. The decision is one that offers some firm finality for this season but it also allows the Dolphins to avoid a more permanent or irreversible outcome: cutting a player and seeing them sign with another team.

Miami Dolphins fans have collectively waiting for the floodgates to open with the team’s “legal tampering window”; offering hardly the splash that the Dolphins created last season and instead a more calculated approach. It seems as though Miami is looking for a singular “big fish” on the free agent market at the wide receiver position and will be content to let other teams spend big on attracting top-flight names instead.

But while Miami has been quiet, they haven’t been completely missing in action. The Athletic’s Josh Tolentino nailed down this evening that the Dolphins will be bringing back rush linebacker Vince Biegel on a one-year contract after a torn Achilles ended his 2020 season before things ever got started.

The #Dolphins are close to finalizing a one-year deal with LB Vince Biegel, according to league sources.

Biegel led Miami in quarterback hits with 13 in 2019, but tore his Achilles during camp in August. Team is expecting Biegel to make full recovery and contribute in '21.

— Josh Tolentino (@JCTSports) March 15, 2021

Tolentino’s report has since been confirmed by outlets such as ESPN and the Palm Beach Post, giving the Dolphins another rotational presence on the edge to presumably eat up some of the snaps vacated by the departing Kyle Van Noy this offseason.

Biegel was one of the standout defenders from Miami’s scrappy 5-11 squad from year one of the Brian Flores era, providing great energy and effort up front after Miami netted him in a trade with the New Orleans Saints for linebacker Kiko Alonso. Biegel finished the 2019 season with 2.5 sacks, 59 total tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 13 QB hits and an interception, well worth a flier from the Dolphins entering 2021 to see if he can retain his effectiveness as a rotational player in Miami’s overhauled defensive front. Biegel will find reps tougher to come by in this new look front versus the one he took 625 snaps in back in 2019, but his sweat equity with the Dolphins has clearly motivated Miami to run it back and push him to claim as big of a role as he possibly can.