Dolphins Notes: Brent Grimes, Dimitri Patterson, Chris Clemons, Randy Starks & Paul Soliai

Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports breaks down some of the major offseason decisions the Dolphins will be faced with in the coming months.

Brent Grimes

The first of which is impending free agent CB Brent Grimes who La Canfora’s sources refer to as the Dolphins No. 1 offseason priority.

La Canfora adds that the franchise tag is in play for Grimes, which would be unfortunate for him given that he has already received a tag a few years ago and has yet to receive a long-term deal despite playing at a high level.

Doing so would cost the Dolphins roughly $11.3 million for the 2014 season.

Dimitri Patterson

Meanwhile, La Canfora writes that CB Dimitri Patterson is “virtually certain not to be back at his $5.4M salary.”

La Canfora does add that there is a chance Patterson could be back at a much lower rate next year.

Chris Clemons

La Canfora has spoke with scouts who believe there is a case to be made that Chris Clemons actually outplayed Reshad Jones, who Miami locked up to a five-year, $30.81 million contract that included $15 million guaranteed last year.

Clemons is in position to test the open market and could find plenty of interest from teams offering a mid-level contract.

His name has come up as speculative target for the Eagles who are in need of safety help.

Randy Starks & Paul Soliai

According to La Canfora’s sources, the Dolphins will likely only be able to keep one of Randy Starks or Paul Soliai.

La Canfora expects this to be a pretty tough decision for the Dolphins front office.

Joe Philbin

La Canfora writes that HC Joe Philbin’s job is “riding on [Ryan] Tannehill progressing” next season.

“He definitely wants to push Tannehill more,” said a source who has spoken to Philbin about their quarterbacks, “and if he doesn’t see improvement he said he might go to [Matt] Moore at some point. He definitely has a lot of faith in Moore, and they’re paying him a lot of money.”