Buffalo Notes, Nuggets and Comments on New Dolphins Safety Jordan Poyer

With Dolphins training camp starting two weeks from today, a six-pack of notes on new Dolphins safety Jordan Poyer, who will be Jevon Holland’s new teammate at safety, with Marcus Maye also expected to play heavily:

▪ It remains to be seen whether Poyer, who turned 33 in April, can approximate his All-Pro form of 2021, when he threw five interceptions and was as impactful as a safety could be.

But one thing is for sure: people who have spent time with Bill over the past seven years have nothing but praise for him. Check out what they’ve had to say about him over the past few years:

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Center Mitch Morse (now in Jacksonville): “When you watch Jordan Poyer play football, he only knows one speed and one way to play, and that’s to get his nose in it. He plays with such passion and such a competitive spirit, he wants to win and he wants to execute his defense. Six days a week, he’s very zen, very in tune with himself and everything else, and then on Sundays, he’s completely crazy, and I think that bodes well for him.”

General manager Brandon Beane: “Jordan has been a very good player. He’s a good professional. I think he’s done a great job. He’s been a vital part of our defense.”

Coach Sean McDermott raves about Poyer’s leadership: “The advantage our defense has when Jordan plays, we have a certain edge, and that’s a great quality that a player can bring to a team beyond what he already brings to the X’s and O’s in his job. That edge, that dog that he adds to our defense, is well known.”

Former Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier: “I like what he brings to our defense, both as a player on the field, but also as a leader in the locker room and in practice. He’s a heck of a safety, one of the best safeties in our game.”

▪ Poyer, who signed a one-year, $2 million contract, will now play alongside Holland.

In Buffalo, he and Micah Hyde formed a top safety tandem for seven years.

“He’s all over the field,” Hyde said. “He hasn’t gotten the recognition he deserves. He can rush the quarterback. He can tackle. He can cover. He can do everything for us.”

▪ Besides his ball-control skills that allowed him to throw 22 interceptions in seven years with Buffalo, another of his valuable assets is that he can be deployed in a variety of ways.

Here’s how the team’s website explains it, citing a third-and-15 in a game last October against Tampa Bay, when Poyer sometimes lined up on the second level of the defense and often lined up in the dime, seemingly confusing the Bucs’ offense, and also blitzed at times:

“We moved him to the dime position on third and sometimes second down,” McDermott said. “You use the resources you have; it’s a position Jordan has played for us before and he’s tough.”

As Bills defensive line coach Eric Washington said: “We’re bombing him from the safety position. He’s great as a blitzer, as a fifth rusher.”

Poyer had 11 sacks in seven seasons in Buffalo. Last season, he had seven pressures and one sack on 44 pass-rushing opportunities. In 2021, he had nine pressures and three sacks on just 32 pass-rushing opportunities.

▪ Last season, Poyer had 100 tackles, no interceptions and one forced fumble in 16 games for Buffalo, all as a starter.

Pro Football Focus ranked him 46th among 95 qualifying safeties last season.

Poyer had a 102.9 passer rating in his coverage last season; 33 of 45 targets in his coverage were caught for 349 yards, according to PFF. He allowed one touchdown. That passer rating is concerning, considering his age.

Here are his pass coverage numbers over the previous three seasons:

2020: 104.1 passer rating against; 40 completions on 55 targets for 347 yards, 8.7 per reception; five TDs allowed and two interceptions.

2021, when he was a first-team All-Pro: an incredible 13.7 passer rating against; 13 completions on 28 attempts for 61 yards, a 4.7 average per reception; no touchdowns allowed and five interceptions.

2022: Passer rating against 86.0; 20 completions on 29 targets for 194 yards; 9.7 yards per reception; five touchdowns allowed and four interceptions.

▪ Tim Graham, a longtime Bills reporter and columnist for The Athletic, had this to say about Poyer after Buffalo released him this summer:

Although he was named a first-team All-Pro in 2021, “his most incredible season was 2022 (when he earned his only Pro Bowl invitation). He suffered a hyperextended elbow in training camp, a sprained foot in Week 2, rib injuries including a punctured lung in Week 4, a torn meniscus in Week 15 and a concussion in the playoff finale.

“His punctured lung kept him out of a game. Because atmospheric pressure prevented him from flying a week later to Kansas City for the rematch at Arrowhead Stadium, the Bills hired a driver to transport Poyer and his family 15 hours in a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van. He started, played all 67 defensive snaps and made four tackles.

“Poyer clearly had a downturn last season. He played 98 percent of the team’s defensive snaps but didn’t record an interception for the first time since 2015. He forced a fumble and had a sack but racked up 100 tackles, his fourth triple-digit season.”

Buffalo’s defense ranked ninth in total yards, eighth in passing and seventh in total touchdown passes allowed last season. Poyer finished second on the team in tackles.

▪ Among the challenges Poyer has overcome: a season-ending kidney laceration in Week 6 in 2016 while playing for Cleveland:

He was the victim of a brutal and illegal hit to the blind side during a punt return against Tennessee.

“At first I thought I was out of breath,” Poyer said. “Then I got to the sideline and threw up blood. I went to the locker room and peed blood.”

He spent two nights in a Nashville hospital.

“I was nervous, of course,” Poyer said. “You get to the hospital and you hear how bad the injury was. The doctors told me if it had been an inch higher or an inch lower, it would have been life-threatening, so it was pretty close.”