Flores: 'Não há comércio' para Laremy Tunsil

As we press toward the start of the regular season, rumors surroundingJadeveon Clowneycontinue to spin.

The latest iterations of the Clowney-to-Miami rumors includeDolphinsstarting left tackleLaremy Tunsil,high draft picks and perhaps more.

After Thursday’s preseason game versus theNew Orleans Saints, coach Brian Flores brushed aside the gossip.

“There’s no trade in place for him,” Flores said,via the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Flores’ response isn’t exactly an emphatic, “Not a chance.”

One of the best young left tackles in football, it’s not a surprise that theHouston Texanswould try to pry Tunsil from theDolphinsin any potential trade for Clowney. How theDolphinswould cope by trading away their most talented player remains a question without a good answer.

TheDolphins‘ offensive line is already a disaster. Take away the best player, and it collapses onto itself like a baby star that never got to blast light into the cold darkness of space.

Trading Tunsil would also further signal to the locker room that theDolphinsare in full-on rebuild mode and are playing out the string in 2019. Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald went so far as to cite an unnamed player who saidDolphinsplayers “would revolt” if Tunsil were traded.

Brace for a potential uprising in South Beach.

TheDolphinshave the 25-year-old under contract for the next two seasons at a bargain rate. With the dearth of left tackles throughout the NFL, would Miami be willing to part with one of the rising young studs? Trade Tunsil and they could find themselves in the exact same situation Houston sits in a couple years. Also, how would theDolphinsexpect to evaluate their quarterback situation behind a Tunsil-less offensive line?

Even if there is “no trade in place,” as Flores said, and none ever materializes, it can’t be good for the relationship between Miami’s brass and its best young player that the team’s willingness to consider moving on has become public.