This isn't exactly what the Miami Dolphins envisioned when they traded up to draft Dion Jordan in 2013. The 25-year-old was absent from the team's offseason workouts this week, prompting the Dolphins front office to sidestep questions about his whereabouts.
"If someone chooses not to be here, that's obviously their decision,'' vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum said (via the Sun Sentinel). "Look, I think what we're expecting now is to just get through this press conference and get back into the room. We'll deal with other issues down the road and I'm sure there will be plenty of those to deal with."
General manager Dennis Hickey did little to defuse the situation when asked about Jordan's status. Following an uncomfortable pause, Hickey added: "This is a pre-draft [press conference]."
Unsurprisingly, Miami's non-committal approach has sparked the rumor mill.
The beneficiaries of said rumor mill are—also unsurprisingly—the Philadelphia Eagles. Chip Kelly's propensity to turn the team into the professional version of his collegiate endeavor does little to spark creativity.
His close relationship with Jordan doesn't help curb the rumors, either.
"Trust me, the guy who went No. 3, we considered him heavily," Kelly told reporters following the 2013 NFL Draft. "We didn't get a chance to pull the trigger on that one."
"When you start to get getting emotionally involved, and I was very conscious of that, then what do you have to do to move up?" he added. "If you move up to get him, then that means you don't get Bennie Logan because you don't have a third-round pick or you don't get Matt Barkley because you don't have a fourth-round pick. It's the accumulation of putting the whole team together. It's saying, 'What are you willing to sacrifice to get one player?'"
Two years later, Kelly will be forced to ask himself that same question again.
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