Dolphins, Calais Campbell free agent contract details: ‘We’ll be a force to be reckoned with’

The Miami Dolphins signed free agent defensive lineman Calais Campbell this week, bolstering their pass rush ability in an area previously seen as a weakness for the team. Campbell, a six-time Pro Boselection, a member of the 2010s All-Decade Team, and the 2019 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award winner, returns to South Florida 17 years after he played at the University of Miami. What brought him back to Hard Rock Stadium?

While every player tells you it is about the opportunity to go to a Super Bowl and that money does not matter, it appears, at least in Campbell’s case, that is a true statement. On Friday, the details of Campbell’s contract were released on OverTheCap.com, and Miami was clearly the place Campbell wanted to play. Campbell’s average per year salary for his career has been $9.2 million – including his four-year, $3.5 million rookie contract after being a second-round pick by the Arizona Cardinals in 2008. Last year, with the Atlanta Falcons, Campbell signed a one-year, $7 million deal, with another $1,000,000 bonus added on to it.

This year, Campbell signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Dolphins. The deal pays him $1.21 million in salary, the veteran minimum, with a $790,000 signing bonus.

Campbell met with the South Florida media after signing his contract, explaining Miami’s Super Bowl chances were a big part of why he joined the team. “That’s a big reason why I signed here, because I feel like there’s a really good opportunity here,” he said via Zoom. “Very talented team all over the field, both offense and defense. When you go through the roster of who you have and see so many people that I feel like we can play together and build that team chemistry you need – we’ll be a force to be reckoned with. I really like the coaching staff. I mean, (Defensive Coordinator) Anthony Weaver is a guy I’m very familiar with, (have) a lot of respect for, and he’s a big reason I really believe in this team. I know the kind of work ethic he has and just the kind of man he is, and I really think this defense is going to be a top – I don’t want to go too crazy, but it’s going to be a really good defense.”

Weaver’s addition to the Dolphins coaching staff this year was a selling point for Campbell, who was asked about the relationship with Miami’s defensive coordinator and its impact on his decision. “Huge. Huge, because I definitely had quite a few teams interested,” he explained. “I feel like the main reason why I wanted to come here was because I really believe in who Anthony Weaver is as a coach and in our relationship. We talked a lot during the process and just knowing that he knows what I’m capable of doing. He understands my mind and how I see the game, and he trusts me. At this point in time in my career, every time you build relationships, you have to kind of reestablish trust. You have new people that you’re interacting with. They’ve got to kind of get to know you, who you are.”

He continued, explaining “Now because of my pedigree and how long I’ve been in the league, it happens usually fast, but with somebody like ‘Coach Weave’, he knows I’m never going to try to hurt the team. I’m always going to be in position to try to do what’s best for the team, but I take calculated risks sometimes and play with different technique sometimes, but everything is calculated. So we had those conversations when we were working together in Baltimore of like, ‘This is how I want to play it this week.’ It was never like some spur-of-the-moment, just do what you feel. Every once in a while, you trust your instincts or whatever but most of the time it was calculated. It was planned. But just that belief and trust that he’s going to allow me to do the things I know are going to make me be successful and this team be successful.”

Campbell was asked about his role with the team, either from what he has been told or from how he plays, including those calculated risks he takes. He stated, “I’m going to play all over the place, yes. We haven’t really talked about like how they want to use me, but just knowing ‘Weave’ and his mindset, we’re going to move around a little bit in different situations. There’s a lot of different things you can do in this defense as far as packages and different ways of lining up and doing things, but yes, I’d be very surprised if I don’t play literally (every) position on the d-line at some point in time in the season in certain gaps.”

Campbell spent the 2020 through 2022 seasons with the Batimore Ravens. In 2020, then Ravens defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, now holding the same role at the University of Michigan, called Campbell “the best five-technique in the National Football League.” Campbell was asked if that assessment is still true entering the 2024 season, and responded, “Yeah, Coach Martindale, great man. He used to always tell me, ‘When God created the football game and he created the 5-technique position, he drew you up perfectly for it,’ all the time. I feel like I can play any position, right, like I can (play) left, right, 1-technique, 2i, 3, 4i, 5. I can play all through the 9 (-technique). I can play any position – I don’t like standing up, but hand in the dirt, I can play any position on the d-line and I take great pride in doing that at a high level. I think that’s probably what makes me unique, but where I feel the strongest and best at is in that 5 (-technique). So I do think he’s right, and I still think I’m pretty dominant in that 5 (-technique), especially in the run game.

He added, “(Martindale) told me to set the edge, like you’re not running that ball. I take great pride in making sure that you’re not going to run the ball in my gap or towards me at all. I also feel like, especially when it comes to studying the game and understanding what tendencies are, what teams can do from different formations, it allows me to be a little more aggressive and take some chances and make some plays that I’m not supposed to make as well. But the plays I’m supposed to make in a 5-technique, yes, it’s 100 percent – you’re not running or something’s got to happen. Something was off, something happened. But it’s just I take great pride in being one of the best run-stopping 5-techniques to ever play this game, and I still think I’ve got a lot of juice in the pass rush role, too, so it’s kind of a good mix. But yes, to answer your question, I still think I’m very dominant in the 5-technique.”

The Dolphins signed a player who wanted to be in Miami, more interested in what the team can do this year than the money that he could have had from the rest of the “quite a few teams interested” in signing him. They are getting a player who takes pride in stuffing the run and getting into the backfield. They have a player who is ready to dominate and is excited about the coaching staff and the roster the Dolphins have.

Bringing Campbell back to Miami may have been the perfect move for the Dolphins this year.