Per Adam Schefter of ESPN the Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans have agreed to a trade that will become official on Wednesday of this week. The Dolphins are trading OLB Shaq Lawson to Houston in return for MLB Benardrick McKinney. The trade also includes the teams swapping late-round draft picks. The Dolphins will send one of their 2021 6th round picks and get back a Houston 2021 7th roudn pick
Houston and Miami have a deal: Texans are trading LB Benardrick McKinney to the Dolphins for LB Shaq Lawson, per league sources. The deal also will include a swap of late-round picks, but the focus is the LBs.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 14, 2021
McKinney was a 2nd round pick in the 2015 draft (#43 overall). In October of 2020, the Texans placed McKinney on IR with a season-ending shoulder injury. McKinney will be under contract through the 2023 season with Miami on what one would say is a very team-friendly deal. He has 11.5 career sacks and averages in the neighborhood of 100 tackles per season. McKinney has no more guaranteed money on his contract and the Dolphins can move on from him at any time with no dead cap money moving forward. Prior to this season, McKinney has been a very durable player who misses little time and games. He also made the Pro Bowl in 2018 for Houston.
The Dolphins need a middle linebacker as Elandon Roberts is set to become a free agent in a few days and expected to miss substantial time this upcoming season with a knee injury he suffered vs the Raiders during Week 16 last year. Middle linebacker is also a position of need on Miami they will be filling here with the addition of McKinney.
The Dolphins, who are indeed trading Shaq Lawson for Benardrick McKinney, structured Lawson's deal in a way that allowed for this with minimal cap pain. Will cost them just $2.7M against the cap to move him, plus an additional $7.2M to absorb McKinney's contract. Total wash.
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) March 14, 2021
Shaq Lawson for Miami in 2020 started 7 of 14 games he played in, had 32 tackles, 4 sacks, and a touchdown.
