The Miami Dolphins entered the offseason with a clear need for safety help with DeShon Elliott and Brandon Jones, two of the team’s three-man rotation in 2023, hitting free agency and eventually signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos, respectively.
Dolphins general manager Chris Grier recognized the hole on the defense and brought in a safety that the team knows pretty intimately – Jordan Poyer.
Today, we’re going to take a few minutes to share some key information that Dolphins fans should know about one of the newest pieces of their defense for the upcoming year.
Previous stops
The Philadelphia Eagles originally drafted Poyer in the seventh round of the 2013 NFL draft out of Oregon State. He made the roster out of camp as a rookie, but he was cut midway through his first season.
Poyer was claimed by the Cleveland Browns and finished out his rookie contract with the team before joining the Buffalo Bills for the last seven years. With the Bills, Poyer made First-team All-Pro in 2021 and made the Pro Bowl in 2022.
In his 11 professional seasons, Poyer has appeared in 155 games (starting 117) and recorded 806 tackles (37 for a loss), 54 passes defensed, 24 interceptions, 17 quarterback hits, 12 sacks, nine forced fumbles and seven fumble recoveries.
PFF grades (last five seasons)
Overall:
- 2019: 74.2
- 2020: 75.2
- 2021: 78.2
- 2022: 75.4
- 2023: 73.0
Run defense:
- 2019: 76.1
- 2020: 68.9
- 2021: 50.8
- 2022: 68.2
- 2023: 74.3
Tackling:
- 2019: 71.8
- 2020: 80.7
- 2021: 72.9
- 2022: 59.8
- 2023: 82.1
Pass-rush:
- 2019: 65.8
- 2020: 73.7
- 2021: 83.2
- 2022: 59.4
- 2023: 52.0
Coverage:
- 2019: 70.1
- 2020: 76.4
- 2021: 89.2
- 2022: 76.2
- 2023: 74.4
Relationship with Tua Tagovailoa
Poyer has a relationship with a few members of the current Dolphins roster, including quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. They’ve golfed together, and the safety attended the quarterback’s birthday last year.
Jordan Poyer is good friends with Tua ð pic.twitter.com/zzZeXebHEX
— Jacob Meshel (@JacobMeshel) March 12, 2024
Baseball background
Poyer was a three-sport athlete in high school, and he actually excelled at baseball so much that the Florida Marlins drafted him in the 2009 MLB draft.
“Yeah, I was really good,” Poyer said about his baseball ability during his media availability. “My signability wasn’t high coming out of high school, so I ended up signing with Oregon State with the intention of also playing baseball there too. So I did play baseball there for a year at Oregon State. It was extremely hard. I wasn’t a very studious student-athlete. I was more just the athlete part than the student part. So it was extremely hard after my first year playing baseball, especially seeing the guys during offseason workouts grinding hard and I’m swinging a baseball bat. It just didn’t sit right with me, didn’t feel right with me.
“So I made the decision in college that football was going to be my path and essentially I put all my eggs in that basket. And shoot, 12 years later, I’m still playing at a high level. I do wonder if I kept the baseball bat in my hand, where it would’ve taken me. But like I said, everything happens for a reason. There’s no mistakes behind it. But that was the reason I didn’t sign with the Florida Marlins was cause my signability — I wanted to go to school. I wanted to play in college. I wanted to experience college.
“It was a big decision, but you’re a young, 18, 19-year-old athlete turning down an ‘x’ amount of dollars to basically play in a farm system. But like I said, I really wanted to go to school. I figured if I was good enough to still play baseball, then I could’ve got re-signed or re-drafted another two years down the road. But it didn’t end up happening like that.”
