When Shaq Barrett announced his retirement from the NFL mere months after signing a new contract with the Miami Dolphins, it put a damper on an otherwise solid offseason in South Beach.
Originally signed by the Denver Broncos as a UDFA out of Colorado State, Barrett really came into his own as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, leading the NFL in sacks in 2019 at 19.5 while securing two Super Bowl rings and two Pro Bowl appearances Todd Bowles' defense. While he was ultimately released by the team earlier this year as a cap casualty, Barrett quickly latched on in Miami, where he could stay close to his family and continue to contend for a championship nearly a decade into his NFL career, you know, if he didn't opt to retire instead.
Fortunately, the Dolphins did load up on talent heading into the summer and selected not one but two promising young pass rushers to help bolster their roster in the 2024 NFL draft, inluding one of the most polarizing prospects in the class in Chop Robinson and Mo Kamara, who somehow slipped to the fifth round despite having Day 2 talent.
Now granted, the Dolphins do have a pretty deep rotation of pass-rushing talent heading into the fall, with Bradley Chubb, Jaelan Phillips, and recently re-signed edge Emmanuel Ogbah all having extensive experience starting at the NFL level. But if Miami can get some serious production out of their rookie rushers, with one or both of their new recruits looking like top-tier rotational rushers heading into the future, it will do nothing but set the team up for success long-term.
Would it have been nice to have Barnett on the roster this fall? Sure thing, he is a very productive player, and it would have been cool to see how he fit into a new scheme, but considering how the offseason shook out, it seems like the Dolphins knew this was a possibility, as they were able to load up on talent to compete with Chubb, Ogbah, and Phillips through training camp and the preseason.
Chop Robinson, Mo Kamara embrace their rivalry with the Dolphins
With Barrett officially retired from the NFL, the Dolphins will have to unleash their rookie rushers into the South Florida water in the hopes of swimming right away, instead of sinking the pass rush to the bottom of the Atlantic.
Fortunately, the dynamic duo of Robinson and Kamara are fully embracing the challenge presented to them, even if one of their productions will likely come at the expense of the other. Still, if they can use this low-key competition to get where they want to be, the real winner will be the Dolphins.
“He always talks trash,” Robinson told reporters via Pro Football Network. “Everything we were doing in training, whether it's the get-offs or the slip or we in the weight room, he always wants to compete. That's just him competing. I was fine with it because it's pushing me and pushing him.”
“We have a friendly-hate relationship,” Kamara noted. “But that's my guy right there. We're always going to help each other in any aspect. Most of the time, we were just competing. Most of the time, it was just realizing how good he is and how good I can be, because he's a hell of a talent. So I'm just trying to get there. He went first round for a reason.”
While they may be quick with a joke and will certainly be using their summer to carve out quality roles on the Dolphins this fall, the duo will remain each other's biggest fans, as they are bonded together through their pre-draft process.
“Mo is a special guy. I feel like a lot of people talk down on his size and everything, but he can pass rush. He can stop the run. He can do everything that you've seen on tape,” Robinson noted. “He put it on tape so you can see it. I was training with Mo down in Arizona, so we already have a bond, a brotherhood going through that whole process. So we're just going to stick together here and just bring everybody along.”
With the Dolphins' pass rush currently in a bit of a transition, as the team has added multiple fresh faces coming in to replace some of Vic Fangio's favorites, getting big-time production out of Robinson and Kamara will go a long way in establishing the team's effectiveness into the future, as they could still be on their rookie contracts when Chubb has retired.
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