As Tempting As It May Sound, The Miami Dolphins Don't Need O.J. Atogwe

The St. Louis Rams released FS O.J. Atogwe yesterday, who was due to get an $8 million roster bonus if they decided to keep him. The move was purely a business decision, and it means that Atogwe is now available to all 32 teams once a new CBA is reached.

I have heard a few different Dolphins fans say that they would love to have Atogwe on the team, and there was a report that said the Dolphins were making a push at Atogwe. When asked about the Miami Dolphins interest in Atogwe Miami GM Jeff Ireland told Mike Berardino the following:

"I'm very happy with the safeties we've got on our team right now, very happy."

Ireland did not specifically say that the Dolphins were not pursuing Atogwe, which makes me think that they are considering him, but I don't expect Miami to offer him any significant amount of money.

The Dolphins already have two really talented free safeties with a lot of potential in Chris Clemons and Reshad Jones. Both players had very good seasons, and it doesn't seem worth paying Atogwe the amount of money he would be expecting to play in Miami. Clemons and Jones are both really young, and they have a lot of productive years ahead of them. Atogwe is 29, which isn't old, but he still doesn't have nearly the same number of years left as Clemons and Jones.

I think that the Dolphins should just let this one go. It doesn't seem worth paying Atogwe a lot of money when we have two good safeties already.

Clemons actually had close to the same numbers as Atogwe from last year. Clemons had 61 tackles compared to Atogwe's 73, 1 interception compared to Atogwe's 3, 5 passes defensed compared to Atogwe's 9, and both he and Atogwe had 2 forced fumbles. I know that a lot of what safeties do isn't reflected when you look at their statistics, but I still don't think Atogwe is that much better than Clemons (or Jones for that matter).

The best part is that Miami has two young safeties with a lot of potential. One of them is bound to turn out really well, and having two to compete with each other can only help them improve.

So, Jeff Ireland, Tony Sparano, and whoever else is making the decision about Atogwe for the Miami Dolphins needs to pass him up and worry about different things. Atogwe is good, but unless they can get him for a really cheap salary, he isn't worth it.

Thanks for reading, and let me know what you guys think.