*** DOLPHINS NEWS ***
Feb 19, 1999: -- R.Jones Agrees To Stay --
Robert Jones is staying with the Miami Dolphins. At least,
that's what his agent is saying.
According to a variety of news reports, Jones has reportedly
agreed verbally to a deal with the Dolphins on a 5 year contract that
would pay him somewhere between $3 and $3.5 million per year. This
comes in the wake of a season in which Jones made only $375,000 after
being signed as a free agent last summer.
His new contract is not expected to be officially announced
until next week, because the Dolphins' staff is attending the scouting
combine in Indianapolis this week.
Jones became an unrestricted free agent this month and had
visited the Minnesota Vikings, as well as talking with a number of
other teams. However, Jones apparently decided to take less money to
stay in Miami and play for the Dolphins in a system where he excelled
this past season.
Jones was third on the team with 100 tackles and had 5 sacks
and 2 interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown against
the Raiders.
Also in the news, the Dolphins have signed 3 other players to
contracts. Defensive back Greg Jeffries, a 6 year veteran of the
Detroit Lions, signed a 3 year deal. Jeffries has played most of his
career as a cornerback, but switched to free safety last year.
The team also signed FB Jamie Reader, who was picked up last
summer and spent most of the year on the Dolphin's practice squad, and
tight end Robert Brady, who has been signed by 7 different teams since
1994, but has never played in a regular season game.
I plan on posting a free agent update later today.
My Comments:
The news regarding Jones is obviously very good. With his
signing, the core of the Dolphins' 1998 defense will remain intact for
the 1999 season and the team can now concentrate on upgrading the
offense.
There were those who thought that Jones would take the money
and run. His agent was rumored to be fielding at least 2 offers from
other teams that would have averaged over $4 million per year, but
Jones chose to stay in Miami.
Robert Jones is a pretty smart guy.
And fortunately, the Dolphins realized his benefit to the
team, making him a good enough offer to get him to remain in Miami and
line up beside Zach Thomas for the foreseeable future.
As to the other signings, they are more of a mystery to me.
The Dolphins appeared to have seen something in Greg Jeffries that
doesn't appear in his stats. In his 6 years in the league, Jeffries
has started just 10 games.
Last year, he started 3 games at free safety for the Lions
after being switched there from cornerback. Now, Jeffries is good
enough to have survived 6 years in the NFL, but he's never been a
starter and you have to wonder why the Dolphins thought he would
upgrade the secondary.
...unless JJ is still not very happy with the safeties that
he's got. I think that it's safe to say that Brock Marion, while an
upgrade over previous players who've played that position, was a
little bit of a disappointment last year, especially in pass
coverage.
Still, it seems as if there would be better players out there
than Jeffries to sign. I'd be a little surprised if he made the
roster.
The only thing I remember about Jamie Reader is that he had a
nice catch and run for 17 yards last summer in the pre-season game
against the Bucs. I thought at the time that he looked very good and
the Dolphins are clearly in the market for at least a backup fullback,
if not a replacement for Stanley Pritchett.
Robert Brady seems to be trying to set a record for signing
with the most teams without actually ever playing. I admire his
tenacity, but I have to think that he's just going to be training camp
fodder this summer and will be gone by September.
Related Info:
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Curt Fennell,
curt@phins.com, DOLFAN in New Rochelle (almost)
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