A six-pack of Dolphins notes on a Tuesday:
▪ If the Dolphins gave a comeback player of the year award, Kader Kohou would have been the worthiest of candidates last season. Which is odd, considering it was only his third season.
In 2022, as an undrafted player out of Texas A&M Commerce, Kohou was a rookie revelation, intercepting Aaron Rodgers in a Christmas game against Green Bay and permitting just an 81 passer rating in his coverage area.
He seemingly regressed dramatically in 2023, yielding a 133.4 passer rating, second worst among NFL cornerbacks who were targeted at least 50 times.
But last season, he was once again very good, permitting just 191 total receiving yards on 64 targets, which is exceptional. His 76 passer rating against was 13th best among all cornerbacks targeted at least 50 times.
He had as many interceptions (two) as touchdowns allowed. And he relinquished just 8.0 yards per catch, third best among all NFL cornerbacks who were thrown at a minimum of 50 times.
But if you ask Kohou about his third season, he’s hardly doing sommersaults.
“I’ve get the ball back more, interceptions, make a lot more plays,” he said. “I had some last year but I left some on the field.”
The Dolphins have such confidence in Kohou, and a couple of their other young cornerbacks, that they haven’t shown much urgency in replacing Kendall Fuller, who was cut, or Jalen Ramsey, who was traded Monday.
They’ve offered contracts to at least one veteran cornerback (Rasul Douglas) and are expected to add a veteran starter or two before training camp.
But even when that happens, Kohou will be the most veteran Dolphin in the cornerback room, with 47 games, including 38 starts, on his Dolphins resume.
”I have to step up and be leader in the room and show the younger guys how we want our unit to be, just like they did with me,” he said. “Jalen Ramsey, X [Xavien Howard], Jordan Poyer showed me the way. You don’t always have to talk; you can lead by example.
“It’s going to be a challenge. Being the oldest guy in the room, whether you want it or not, is a little weight on your shoulder because you have to show the other guys. It’s not something I’m not prepared for.”
▪ In assessing the young cornerbacks, Kohou said fifth-round pick Jason Marshall Jr., the UF rookie, is “a baller, quiet, always taking notes, like a sponge. Big, athletic, has a chance to be a really good player.”
On undrafted cornerbacks Storm Duck and Ethan Bonner, Kohou said: “Undrafted guys, hungry as hell. Always here, always trying to learn, no cockiness or ego. We don’t have a lot of high draft picks. You can feel the hunger in our room.”
▪ The Dolphins received generally high marks for Monday’s trade that sent Ramsey and Jonnu Smith to Pittsburgh for Minkah Fitzpatrick, with 2027 third-day draft picks also exchanged.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano said teams around the league said Miami made the best of a difficult situation.
ESPN’s Seth Walder gave Miami an A for the trade and the Steelers a C, adding: “From my perspective, [it’s] a pretty clear win.
“The Dolphins had been looking for a taker on Ramsey. I assumed this would involve the Dolphins eating a portion of Ramsey’s guaranteed salary, but they ended up finding a trade partner that took on just about the full freight. Losing Smith isn’t ideal, but the Dolphins’ offense is intended to funnel through Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, who each took a step back last season. If all goes as planned for Miami, far more targets should go to the two wideouts again in 2025. And the same analysis on Smith holds here, too: The Dolphins -- who are in a far tighter cap situation -- didn’t want to overpay the tight end after a career year, and that makes sense....
“In Fitzpatrick, they now have an established high-end safety to replace Holland and get him at essentially the same numbers the Giants paid Holland (and with no guarantees). To top it all off, Miami gets a late-round draft pick swap in its favor in this deal. Miami wasn’t in an ideal position, having one veteran it needed to trade and another desiring a new contract the team didn’t want to give. But by making this deal with the Steelers, the Dolphins got the most out of the hand they had.”
▪ You can be sure that Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith was looped into Miami’s pursuit of tight end Darren Waller, who is coming out of retirement to play for Miami after being traded from the Giants to the Dolphins on Tuesday.
“Frank helped so much with my transition to the Raiders,” Waller said in 2020, having credit Smith with caring about him as a person when he dealt with the aftermath of a drug addiction.
That’s why Waller honored Smith at the 2020 Coaching Corps’ Game Changer Awards, where athletes from different Bay Area professional sports teams honor coaches who are special to them.
“He has a friend that was in recovery like I am, who worked the 12-step program and went to rehab,” Waller said in 2020. “He was able to understand me by understanding his friend. We learned a lot from each other, and he was able to welcome me in without putting too much pressure on me. But he wasn’t allowing me to be someone just happy to be there. He had me set goals, something I never did before that.
“He really opened my eyes to the fact that I could be great. I never really thought I could be great.”
Smith said in 2020 that Waller “is an extremely intelligent person who is athletic.”
▪ Money and cap ramifications would seemingly favor Ryan Stonehouse over Jake Bailey if their punting battle is close.
Stonehouse, who has the better body of work of the two over the past three years, is due $1.2 million (none guaranteed), and his cap hit would drop from $1.7 million to $75,000 if he’s cut.
Bailey is due $1.9 million (none guaranteed), and his cap hit would drop from $2.5 million to $550,000 if he’s cut.
How much will holding for kicks factor into the battle?
“I think everything – holding, punting, directional punting, distance, hang time – all that stuff,” said new special teams coach Craig Aukerman, who coached Stonehouse during his two elite seasons in Tennessee.
“Obviously Jake has a lot of reps with Jason Sanders, but it’s also going to be our job to get Ryan and Jason ready just in case he ends up winning the job. Who knows, but Jason had an unbelievable year and I credit Jake with that, too, because it’s tough to go through a bunch of long snappers in a season and I thought those guys handled it like pros last year and obviously Jason had one of his best years of his career which was unbelievable. Everything will be factored into the competition.”
▪ The Dolphins believe veteran tight end Pharoah Brown can be a difference-maker in their run blocking.
Offensive coordinator Smith coached him with the Raiders when he was a second-year player. “So to see what he has done in his career and how he’s really maximized and made a name for himself with his blocking,” is impressive, Smith said.
▪ Dolphins right tackle Austin Jackson said Chop Robinson “has been a lot more active with his hands, playing more physical. Looks a lot more confident and comfortable. He looks like he’s going to make that big second year jump that coaches want to see.”
And Jackson said rookie guard Jonah Savaiinaea is “a very fast guy. I think he’ll be great in this system.”