Phins sign former QB to try WR

well...

The Dolphins have also added former UTEP quarterback Kai Locksley, who threw 9 touchdown and 14 interceptions in college.

https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nfl/miami-dolphins/article250118254.html

not very good, but...

He’s hoping for a second act as a receiver in the NFL.

and since the idea of Miami giving second chances to guys has been a discussion lately...

But he comes with some significant red flags, however. In June of 2019, police charged Locksley with a number of offenses, including gun charges and making terroristic threats.

According to CBSSports.com, Locksley allegedly shouted at a group of people that he “had a handgun with a full magazine and would empty it on the individuals.”

UTEP briefly suspended Locksley before reinstating him

perhaps X Howard can give him a few tips on having your "associates" do the dirty work of threatening people with guns so as to keep your hands clean. a few more details on the additional charges...

UTEP quarterback Kai Locksley was arrested on four separate charges by police in El Paso, Texas, Friday.

Per El Paso County Jail records (h/t USA Today), Locksley was charged with driving while intoxicated, possession of marijuana under two ounces, terroristic threat and unlawful carrying of a weapon.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2840149-utep-qb-kai-locksley-arrested-on-dwi-marijuana-unlawful-weapons-charges

a little about his actual football career...

Locksley is entering his senior season with the Miners after transferring to the school from Iowa Western Community College in January 2018. He threw for 937 yards with three touchdowns and nine interceptions in nine games last year.

Prior to playing at Iowa Western Community College, Locksley spent one year redshirting at the University of Texas in 2015. He received his release to transfer in October 2016 after being unhappy with his playing time.

so why bother with a guy who had criminal issues and showed little to no talent working his way in and out of 3 different college programs? if i had to guess. it's probably a favor to a friend. Kai is the son of former Alabama OC and current Maryland HC Mike Locksley. and who said the Phins weren't willing to give guys a second (third or fourth) chance? i highly doubt he makes it past mini camps.

As you said, probably just doing a favor for Coach Locksley. At best, this is a practice squad signing, with a chance to kick the tires on a 6'4" 210 pound raw receiver. Most likely we never hear his name again, but it doesn't hurt to take a look.

JMP wrote:As you said, probably just doing a favor for Coach Locksley. At best, this is a practice squad signing, with a chance to kick the tires on a 6'4" 210 pound raw receiver. Most likely we never hear his name again, but it doesn't hurt to take a look.

I bet we hear his name in a police report! Isn't it special all the high character guys Grier is bringing in?

CarsonChris wrote:

JMP wrote:As you said, probably just doing a favor for Coach Locksley.  At best, this is a practice squad signing, with a chance to kick the tires on a 6'4" 210 pound raw receiver.  Most likely we never hear his name again, but it doesn't hurt to take a look.  

I bet we hear his name in a police report!  Isn't it special all the high character guys Grier is bringing in?  

So you're going to ignore all the leaders and team captains Grier and Flores have signed over the past 3 offseasons, as well as the culture of hard work and accountability they've built, and instead focus on a practice squad player that likely no one will ever hear of again? Be careful...your agenda is showing.

You might want to look around the NFL and see what other teams do with troubled players. You can start with the most recent Super Bowl teams, the Bucs and Chiefs. I'll even help you out: the Chiefs signed Tyreek Hill to three-year, $54 million extension despite a history of domestic violence issues dating back to 2014, while the Bucs gave Antonio Brown more than $1.25 million in 2020 after a string of off-field incidents including sexual assault allegations. There's a bunch of similar stories throughout the league. But yeah, let's kill Grier for adding a troubled practice squad player.

Just because other teams are doing it....

Character matters.

And that doesn't mean it only matters if it is going to cost the Phins a 1st round pick or a boatload against the cap.

What Grier and company are saying is "As long as it doesn't costs us picks or money, we are willing to waive our "high character"
standard for players."

High character matters for players that are not goobers.

Low character GOOBERS with High talent potential at low cost is okay too.

In other words, character only matters when picks or money is involved. Everything else is negotiable!

I just do not understand how they can talk about good character guys and keep signing these guys
with a history of "immaturity" or borderline legal issues?

If Ross is okay with it, then so be it.

finfanatic wrote:Just because other teams are doing it....

Character matters.

And that doesn't mean it only matters if it is going to cost the Phins a 1st round pick or a boatload against the cap.

What Grier and company are saying is "As long as it doesn't costs us picks or money, we are willing to waive our "high character"
standard for players."

High character matters for players that are not goobers.

Low character GOOBERS with High talent potential at low cost is okay too.

In other words, character only matters when picks or money is involved. Everything else is negotiable!

I just do not understand how they can talk about good character guys and keep signing these guys
with a history of "immaturity" or borderline legal issues?

If Ross is okay with it, then so be it.

Character does matter - and that's why these Dolphins players will be cut if they don't work out. That's what happened with Isaiah Wilson.

If the risk and cost are low, the Phins are willing to give troubled players a chance to redeem themselves. Of course the money and picks are a factor - it's a business. And the Dolphins have NOT shown a willingness to shell out big money and high picks for troubled players - we're talking about bottom-of-the-roster and practice squad players here. It's a non-issue. The core players on this team, the players that are buying in and helping to create the locker room culture, are all high character guys...that's the bottom line here. A practice squad project player doesn't change that.

This isn't a Dolphins issue at all - every team in the league talks about character, and yet they all add troubled players. The difference is, some teams don't care about the cost and others do.

BTW - when it comes to Micah Parsons, I think the Phins will look at it the same way:

--If his story checks out and the Phins find that he did nothing wrong, he's in play in the first round.
--But if they don't like what they've found out, they won't use a first rounder on him IMO.
--Now, if he did in fact do the things he is accused of and he drops to, say, the 5th round as a result - I think the Phins would take a flyer on him.

Risk/cost vs. reward. That's how this regime has dealt with character issues so far, and I expect them to continue to follow that plan.

I've been pointing out character doesn't matter in Miami. Grier makes that perfectly clear by signing all these low caliber players. As for the future in football, these types of players are going to increase in every locker room. When there's no accountability in society there won't be on teams. It's that slippery slope in society. First you allow the minor infractions, then the ones a little larger, then why does the next issue matter. It's a societal breakdown.

I am firmly on FF and CC's side of the argument here.

You can say it costs nothing all you want, but it DOES cost something--time. It's a literal and pointless waste of time to spend on players like this who never work out and don't even have the talent level to be worth the effort regardless. A bad college QB who threatened to shoot someone at a time when society wants to ban all guns for everybody who's going to convert to another position he's likely never played before at any level of football??? WHY??? At least I could kinda sorta get the rationale behind the Wilson trade but this...this is like cutting yourself on purpose just because you're so bored you want to see yourself bleed. If Grier has so much free time on his hands that he can waste it with this kind of utterly nonsensical move, then why can't he spend it doing something that would actually be productive and help the team win games? As opposed to acting like a 13-year old running a team on Madden?

The other cost that nobody talks about is that every time a player like this screws up he's always identified as an "former Dolphin" even if he only spent 3 days with the team in the offseason. And as we've seen so many times this century, perception of people and groups matters more than who they actually are. A team going out of its way to define itself as a halfway house for wayward thugs and knuckleheads is literally stupid at this point in these times.

Also, why is Locksley being some college coach's son important? Britt Reid is a coach's son too, why don't the Fins hire him while they're at it? Would he have been signed with the same character issues if he *wasn't* a coach's son? And if not that makes this even MORE ridiculous, preposterous and downright ludicrous.

(FYI I couldn't care less if other teams sign guys like this and win. Am I really supposed to believe the Bucs would've won squat without Brady, or the Chiefs without Reid and Mahomes regardless of who else they signed? Please. Don't even get me started on how Antonio Brown is apparently a karma houdini.) https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KarmaHoudini

I have no issue with giving some players an opportunity to redeem themselves at no risk to the Dolphins. If you build an infrastructure of high character like the Fins have, you can take on players like this. Sometimes people do learn from their mistakes too. If it doesn't work out then that's it.

CarsonChris wrote:I've been pointing out character doesn't matter in Miami. Grier makes that perfectly clear by signing all these low caliber players. As for the future in football, these types of players are going to increase in every locker room. When there's no accountability in society there won't be on teams. It's that slippery slope in society. First you allow the minor infractions, then the ones a little larger, then why does the next issue matter. It's a societal breakdown.

Yup. Every time a player like this is signed he gets sent the message that every bad thing he's ever done is perfectly okay and he'll never suffer any consequences whatsoever. Needless to say that's not exactly an incentive to stop that sort of behavior. It also does these players a tremendous disservice, because by constantly being enabled they're completely unprepared for life after football when they no longer get a free pass for being a pro athlete, resulting in their lives crashing and burning like the Hindenburg.

Killah Sith wrote:I have no issue with giving some players an opportunity to redeem themselves at no risk to the Dolphins.  If you build an infrastructure of high character like the Fins have, you can take on players like this.  Sometimes people do learn from their mistakes too.  If it doesn't work out then that's it.

Great post, Killah! Glad someone else gets it.

DolFan 316 wrote:

CarsonChris wrote:I've been pointing out character doesn't matter in Miami. Grier makes that perfectly clear by signing all these low caliber players. As for the future in football, these types of players are going to increase in every locker room. When there's no accountability in society there won't be on teams. It's that slippery slope in society. First you allow the minor infractions, then the ones a little larger, then why does the next issue matter. It's a societal breakdown.

Yup. Every time a player like this is signed he gets sent the message that every bad thing he's ever done is perfectly okay and he'll never suffer any consequences whatsoever. Needless to say that's not exactly an incentive to stop that sort of behavior. It also does these players a tremendous disservice, because by constantly being enabled they're completely unprepared for life after football when they no longer get a free pass for being a pro athlete, resulting in their lives crashing and burning like the Hindenburg.

Totally off base.

First, the Dolphins aren't allowing any "minor infractions"...when Callaway, Walton and Wilson screwed up, they got cut - period. And if you think there's no accountability in the Dolphins locker room, you must have been asleep the past two seasons.

Second, signing a practice squad player doesn't send any "message" justifying past behavior. It's just taking a low-risk chance on a football player - that's it. It's not some big societal downfall. If it doesn't work out, the player gets cut, the team moves on, and everyone moves forward. It's not like the team is just bringing in players willy nilly and letting the chips fall where they may - quite the opposite: the Dolphins tried to get Isaiah Wilson help - he refused. The team clearly has a plan in place for dealing with these troubled players, and just as clearly the rope is short: they fall in line, or they're gone. Nobody is getting a "free pass".