All Dolphins

Great Move: Dolphins Bringing Back Ogbah

The Miami Dolphins are signing defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah to a new four-year contract

Alain Poupart

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When they re-signed defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah to a new four-year contract Monday, the Miami Dolphins made their first big signing of the offseason.

And it might end up being the best move they'll make before training camp opens.

The Dolphins signed Ogbah to a four-year contract worth $65 million with $32 million guaranteed, per his agent Drew Rosenhaus, shortly before pending unrestricted free agents were allowed to start negotiating with other teams.

Because of his performance over the past two seasons and the prominent role he has played in the Dolphins defense, the feeling all along was that the Dolphins would try to keep Ogbah after declined to use the franchise tag on him.

The annual average of Ogbah's new contract comes in at $16.25 million, shy of the $17.869 million franchise tag guarantee for defensive ends but a little more than the $16.012 million guarantee for a transition tag, which would have given the Dolphins the ability to match an offer sheet (though without compensation if declining to match).

From this perspective, we ranked Ogbah — or finding a suitable replacement — as the top item on our Dolphins free agency checklist.

It still says here that Ogbah was the team's second-best defensive player the past two years, behind only Xavien Howard, after finishing with nine sacks in both 2020 and 2021.

Beyond that, Ogbah led the NFL with 11 passes batted down in 2021.

Keeping Ogbah also was important because of his familiarity with the defensive scheme, which figures to remain almost identical after Josh Boyer was retained as defensive coordinator.

Ogbah, who will turn 29 in November, originally joined the Dolphins in 2020 as an UFA from the Kansas City and his signing for two years and $15 million will go down as one of the best free agent signings in team history.

It's no stretch to say that Ogbah outperformed that 2020 contract, and he got his reward Monday. In the process, the Dolphins ensured they would keep one of the key pieces of their team.

Ogbah posted this tweet shortly after the news of his signing came out.

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Alain Poupart
ALAIN POUPART

Alain Poupart is the publisher/editor of All Dolphins and co-host of the All Dolphins Podcast. Alain has covered the Miami Dolphins on a full-time basis since 1989 for various publications and media outlets, including Dolphin Digest, The Associated Press, the Dolphins team website, and the Fan Nation Network (part of Sports Illustrated). In addition to being a credentialed member of the Miami Dolphins press corps, Alain has covered three Super Bowls (for NFL.com, Football News and the Montreal Gazette), the annual NFL draft, the Senior Bowl, and the NFL Scouting Combine. During his almost 40 years in journalism, which began at the now-defunct Miami News, Alain has covered practically every sport at one time or another, from tennis to golf, baseball, basketball and everything in between. The career also included time as a copy editor, including work on several books such as "Still Perfect," an inside look at the Miami Dolphins' 1972 perfect season. A native of Montreal, Canada, whose first language is French, Alain grew up a huge hockey fan but soon developed a love for all sports, including NFL football. He has lived in South Florida since the 1980s.

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