Despite positive reports regarding second-year man Chris Clemons following the team’s recent OTA sessions, the Dolphins appear to be pursuing a big fish to man the vacant free safety spot.
According to AOL Fanhouse, Miami is reportedly making a “strong push” for the services of one OJ Atogwe.
A five-year veteran, Atogwe became an unrestricted free agent on Wednesday after he and the St. Louis Rams failed to agree on a new contract. After giving him the franchise tag in 2009, the Rams opted to tender Atogwe at the lowest level of $1.226 million this time around, which gave them the right of first refusal but no draft compensation should he have signed elsewhere by April 15.
With that date long gone, the Rams had until Wednesday to franchise Atogwe once again (at $6.976 million for one season) or give Greg Camarillo‘s former college teammate his freedom.
Atogwe and his agent, Ken Landphere, want top dollar. But the Rams do not want to pay that much, nor the franchise amount.
One reason is because Atogwe finished last season on injured reserve after dislocating his shoulder in Week 13. He also underwent surgery this spring to repair a sports hernia. As a result, his conditioning is somewhat of a mystery at this point.
As mentioned, the Dolphins are looking to not only fill the long-troublesome position permanently, but also create more turnovers on defense.
In four seasons as a starter (60 games), Atogwe’s stats are somewhat gaudy:
18 INTs, 33 passes defended, 14 forced fumbles, 3.0 sacks, 3 TDs.
By comparison, Dolphin safeties had a combined 10 INTs from 2006-2009, including a goose egg by the since-departed Gibril Wilson, who also struggled in coverage while playing out of position in 2009.
Atogwe, who turns 29 on June 23, was expected to receive significant interest once he hit the open market. But that has not been the case, with only the Rams and Dolphin showing significant interest. St. Louis still hope to re-sign Atogwe. And as of Wednesday night, the Rams were reportedly in the favorite to do just that.
Should Miami indeed pass on Atogwe, the Dolphins will let the competition between Clemons, veteran Tyrone Culver and rookie Reshad Jones produce their starter.
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