Miami Dolphins: Dolphins Should Step into the Osi Umenyiora Sweepstakes

In an offseason where the Dolphins have not only had to make changes, but also work hard to make said changes, now the Dolphins have a Giant opportunity to improve an already stellar defense.

The New York Football Giants have given Osi Umenyiora's agents the option to test the waters and see what teams are interested in him and willing to give him a raise from his current contract, which as of right now has two years and $8 million left.

According to the New York Daily News, the Seahawks, Rams, Ravens, Chargers and Broncos are interested in Umenyiora. 

The Dolphins should be one of those teams.

I know Umenyiora won't help the offense one bit (duh, he's a defensive player) but its a deal that will turn the Dolphins into possibly a top-5 defensive unit, which should help to cover for an offense that, based off of Monday night's practice, will look to be more of the same as last year. (Even though we won't really know, we don't have all of the pieces installed in the offense just yet.)

As for the offense, here's an aside: can we get off of the Kyle Orton thing for a little bit? If a deal is meant to happen, it will happen.

The Broncos need to get rid of salary and can't afford to pay a back-up QB $9 million, so they're going to have to do something with him by the end of camp, hence advantage Dolphins.

Like I said in a previous article, the Broncos are the losers if they keep Orton unless he leads them to a playoff berth, which is pretty unlikely. Broncos VP of Football operations John Elway knows this, and he will have to make a decision. Let it be for now.

Back to Umenyiora. Any team who takes him on is going to have to redo his contract, however the Giants want at minimum a first-round pick, which according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, none of the teams interested in him are willing to part with.

As much as I like Umenyiora and am salivating over the thought of him and Cameron Wake coming in from both ends, a first-round pick is too much.

That doesn't mean the Dolphins shouldn't at least make an offer of two second-rounders and a third-rounder or some other deal like that.

Umenyiora would be worth the raise he deserves as well as the deal I suggested. The Dolphins have already made a splash with Reggie Bush and attempted one with Orton.

Bringing in Umenyiora to an already very good defense would make the biggest splash of them all.

Thomas Galicia is a Miami Dolphins Featured Columnist that also covers the Miami Heat, Chicago Cubs, College Football and the WWE. See more of his non-sports writing on www.thomasgalicia.com. Also be sure to link the article on Facebook, twitter and Google+ if you like it, comment on it if you agree or disagree, and follow him on twitter, @thomasgalicia.