The Miami Dolphins have a big need in the secondary this off-season.

While they have added some free agents to help the safety position in Ashtyn Davis and Ifeatu Melifonwu, the Dolphins need to add more for multiple reasons.

Melifonwu is a great player when healthy, but like many Dolphins players in recent history, he is not healthy for the entire season which means they’ll need to have depth for when he is inevitably not in the line-up.

Davis, on the other hand, is more of a role player who would fit best as special teams ace and fill in for spot duty on defense making him a prime candidate to compete with Elijah Campbell for a roster spot.

Meanwhile, at the cornerback position, where they have multiple unproven players opposite Jalen Ramsey, they need to do something.

Miami can attack both of these positions by adding two players who have not even hit their prime yet in Julian Blackmon and Asante Samuel Jr.

Blackmon, age 26, played over 1,000 snaps last year for the Indianapolis Colts, which ranked sixth among all safeties in the NFL.

He made great use of the high-snap count, too, bringing down three interceptions and totaling 70 tackles.

Blackmon also ranked among the top 25 safeties in the league, out of 170, in both pass rush and pass coverage grades.

If Miami signed him, he would immediately be slotted into one of the starting safety positions, most likely filling a role in the deep half or post safety as he is at his best playing coverage, which would make him a nice compliment to Melifonwu, who does a lot of damage around the line of scrimmage as a blitzing safety.

At the corner position, Samuel Jr. is a bounce-back candidate.

While he only played four games last year due to injury, Samuel Jr. is still only 25 years old and was very productive in 2022 and 23, when he played in all 17 games each year.

In 2022, he registered 57 tackles, two interceptions and 11 pass-breakups while in 2023, he tallied 63 tackles, two interceptions and 13 pass break-ups.

If the injury concern had not existed, he would likely have been signed early on day one or day two of free agency.

I believe both of these players could be signed on one-year deals, which would benefit both the team and the player. This would allow the team an easy out should injuries persist, especially in Samuel Jr.’s case. It would also allow the Dolphins to get players who are motivated to do well in contract years, which seems like a theme of this off-season.

Also, with both players under the age of 30, you are injecting more youth onto the defensive side of the ball, which is much needed.

These signings do not automatically fix the entire secondary but are a good start.

Players Miami Should Target Next in Free Agency