Finnegan, Grimes ready to be Dolphins' dynamic duo

BY DAN BEGNOCHE

Last year, cornerback Brent Grimes signed a one-year deal with the Miami Dolphins with the hope he could prove he was still an elite defender following a string of injuries. He did just that, ranking second among all cornerbacks in 2013, according to ProFootballFocus, and earning a spot in the Pro Bowl.

This year, fellow corner Cortland Finnegan is hoping to follow in his footsteps.

Finnegan was brought in after a similar stint of injury-plagued years in St. Louis, where he was cut only two years into a huge five-year deal. He worked out a nice two-year deal for himself in Miami, and he's now opposite arguably one of the best corners in the league in Grimes, if he can win the starting gig.

Finnegan tallied 10 interceptions, 28 passes defended and two touchdowns combined during the 2008-09 seasons. Having been at the top once before, the 30-year-old knows there's much he and his new teammate can learn from each other, and that the two of them on the same page can only mean good things.

"One of the things that he said when he came here that he worked on was his press, and just trying to see what he can tell me as far as some things to work on that way," Finnegan said of Grimes via the Sun Sentinel Tuesday. "I think just gelling that way has been big for us. We’re going to feed off of one another because he’s a Pro Bowl player and I definitely want to get to his level again."

For Grimes, who tallied four interceptions and 17 passes defended in his "prove it" year with the 'Fins last year, it was all about absorbing as much as you can about the system coming in and working hard to utilize that knowledge. He told reporters Tuesday that Finnegan's doing just that, and he feels he'll be a welcomed addition to a unit that allowed the third-fewest passing touchdowns last year.

"You can tell he wants to learn," Grimes said. "He's asking a lot of questions to me, to anybody, to the coaches and people that have been here. You can tell he's going to help our team out a great deal.

"He asks a lot of questions. He competes. He works hard. That's all you want out of somebody on your team."

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