Poyer's Immediate Imprint on Dolphins Secondary

The veteran safety has focused this offseason on more than just on-field work

Jordan Poyer / Miami Dolphins

Jordan Poyer is more than three months away from being able to make his first on-field contribution for the Miami Dolphins, but the veteran safety is finding a way to make an impact in the spring.

Regardless of where you sit on how much can be accomplished during the offseason program, it most definitely is a time for teammates to build some rapport, some camaraderie.

And that's just what Poyer has gone out of his way to do, evidenced by a revealing comment from new Dolphins secondary teammate Nik Needham after the OTA on Tuesday when he talked about having a veteran like Poyer to help the safety group.

" He’s helped tremendously," Needham said. "I told him he’s one of the coolest dudes I’ve ever met in the league. Our first day, he was super open, wants everyone to learn from him. He’s not trying to act like, ‘I’m the big 12-year vet.’ He’s very open, he has us over for dinner. We haven’t done that as a DB group since I’ve been here. Having that I feel like will create more camaraderie and have us be successful on the field, because we’ll really know each other.

It’s not just going out and playing and see you at work. We can actually create a bond, and he’s the one that started that with everybody. We takes walks with our shoes off and (stuff), but we’re just talking and bonding. I feel like that’s what the good teams do.”

Needham pointed out that Poyer started a weekly dinner among the team's defensive backs once the players convened for the offseason program, and was the host for a dinner on Memorial Day.

To repeat, Needham says that's something the DBs had never done before, and he's been with the Dolphins since 2019 when he arrived as an undrafted free agent out of UTEP.

Needham said he had never met Poyer before he joined the Dolphins.

“No, we just started talking," Poyer said. "Like I said, he’s a cool dude. He’s one of the coolest dudes that I’ve met. So I’m like, you’re very open. He was just like, ‘We should have dinner.’ ‘All right, bet.’

The weekly dinners certainly mesh with what Poyer had said when he asked about attending the offseason program when some of the team's other high-profile veterans (such as Tyreek Hill, Odell Beckham Jr., Terron Armstead and Jalen Ramsey) have been away.

“Yeah, I think a lot of success come from just the communication part especially on the back end," Poyer said. "If you want to be successful you got to know who you’re playing with essentially. You’ve got to know the guys on and off the field. In the fourth quarter, I want to know the guy I’m playing with. I want to know about his family. You learn to trust each other that way. That’s essentially why I’m here. I don’t necessarily have to be, but I want to be. I’m excited about this opportunity, and it’s been a good OTA so far.”

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