The Miami Dolphins introduced in a former first-round choose who hasn’t performed within the NFL since 2018 for a exercise on Friday.
Reuben Foster, a former Alabama standout the San Francisco 49ers chosen with the thirty first choose within the 2017 NFL draft, labored out with the Dolphins on Friday morning, in line with a league supply.
Foster’s profession was lower quick due to a difficult knee harm he suffered in Might of 2019, which led to him dropping emotions in his toes.
He’s lastly wholesome, and has been working to renew his NFL profession. A radical bodily might decide whether or not the Dolphins provide him a minimum-salary contract, giving the 28-year-old a chance to coach with the crew this offseason, and probably compete throughout coaching camp for a spot on the roster.
Popping out of faculty at Alabama, Foster was named a unanimous All-American and gained the Butkus Award because the nation’s prime linebacker in 2016. However he additionally had a difficult historical past with the regulation due to marijuana possession, and a home violence cost that was ultimately dropped.
In 10 video games as a rookie in 2017, Foster led the 49ers with seven tackles for loss and completed second on the crew with 72 complete tackles.
He had 29 tackles in six video games for the 49ers in 2019 earlier than being arrested on home violence fees, and was subsequently launched.
Prosecutors in Florida dismissed the misdemeanor home violence battery fees that stem from an alleged altercation he had along with his former girlfriend in a Tampa resort that November, the evening earlier than a recreation.
New Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel was a part of the 49ers group as an offensive assistant in the course of the 2018 season, so he has some familiarity with Foster, who spent the 2019 season on Washington’s roster.
Foster labored out with the New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars and Cleveland Browns final season, however wasn’t signed.
If the Dolphins signal Foster, he’d be competing with Elandon Roberts, Jerome Baker, Duke Riley, Calvin Munson and Sam Eguavoen for a task as certainly one of Miami’s inside linebackers.
Regardless that the Dolphins re-signed all of the defensive free brokers, linebacker occurs to be a place of want for Miami contemplating the unit’s lack of depth, and the absence of gamers with playmaking capability.
The Dolphins moved Baker, the crew’s main tackler the previous three seasons, to exterior linebacker late final 12 months, which opened the door for Jaelan Phillips, the crew’s 2021 first-round choose, for use strictly as a move rusher. If each Baker and Phillips stay in these roles, Miami would wish to discover a beginning caliber participant to be paired with Roberts as an inside linebacker in Miami’s hybrid scheme.
When wholesome and in his prime, Foster, who's 6-foot, 230 kilos, was recognized for his physicality and his sideline-to-sideline vary. However he lacked approach, struggled to stack and shed blockers, and had a historical past of struggling concussions.
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