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Cameron Wolfe
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ESPN Staff Writer
- Covered the Broncos for two seasons with the Denver Post
- Graduate of the University of Houston
- A native of Jackson, Miss.
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Lindsey Thiry
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ESPN
- Covered Rams for two years for Los Angeles Times
- Previously covered the Falcons
- Has covered the NBA and college football and basketball
The Miami Dolphins have acquired cornerback Aqib Talib and a draft pick from the Los Angeles Rams for a future draft pick.
A source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that the pick the Dolphins are getting is a fifth-round selection. The Rams expect their pick to be a late-round selection, a source told ESPN.
For the Dolphins, this move for Talib is essentially buying a draft pick, as Talib is currently on injured reserve. The Rams were looking to dump Talib’s salary, and there is approximately $4.2 million left on that deal. Talib will be an unrestricted free agent after this season. Dolphins general manager Chris Grier alluded to a willingness to make this sort of move on Sunday. One of the biggest priorities of the Dolphins rebuild is collecting draft picks to add talent in the 2020 and 2021 drafts.
“We’re getting calls like every team and then there’s teams calling us too trying to unload players as well,” Grier said Sunday. “We might be (a buyer), yeah. There’s some things that might tempt us. We’ve had some conversations with teams.”
With this trade, the Dolphins are set to have 14 draft picks in the 2020 draft, including three first-round picks, two second-round picks and two projected compensatory picks.
The Rams placed Talib on IR earlier this month, citing a rib injury suffered in Week 5 against the Seattle Seahawks. Talib could return by Week 15, however it remains uncertain whether he will play again this season.
Talib is the second cornerback the Rams have traded in the past two weeks, after sending Marcus Peters to the Baltimore Ravens in exchange for linebacker Kenny Young and a fifth-round pick. The Rams then immediately completed a blockbuster trade for Jalen Ramsey, sending first-round picks in 2020 and 2021 and a fourth-round pick in 2021 to the Jacksonville Jaguars to acquire the star corner.
By trading Talib, the Rams clear up salary-cap space to possibly sign Ramsey to a long-term contract extension, something Rams general manager Les Snead said they had “put a timeline a little bit in place” for when they acquired Ramsey.
In five games, Talib had two pass deflections and seven tackles, playing in a secondary that had underwhelming results before engaging in a series of trades following Week 6.
If Talib does end up playing for Miami in Week 15 or later, it’ll be a good opportunity for coach Brian Flores to see if the veteran cornerback would be worth re-signing after the season. The Dolphins play a heavy man-to-man scheme, which is Talib’s biggest strength, and he could be an asset for star cornerback Xavien Howard, who has a similar style.
But the main priority here for Miami is the draft pick. They made a similar move over the summer trading Ryan Tannehill and a sixth-round pick to Tennessee for a fourth-round pick while paying a portion of Tannehill’s contract — essentially buying a pick.
Talib, 33, is a five-time Pro Bowl selection with 35 interceptions (returning 10 for touchdowns) since being selected in the first round (20th overall) of the 2008 draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He’s tied for first among active NFL players in interceptions and fourth all-time in pick-sixes. He also has played for the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos, with whom he won a Super Bowl ring after the 2015 season.
The Rams acquired Talib in a trade with the Broncos before the 2018 season, sending a fifth-round pick to Denver in exchange for him.