Jake Bailey Punts Patriots' Tension Talk At Dolphins Introduction

Miami vice? Jake Bailey won't hear of it. 

The former New England Patriots punter was introduced as a member of the Miami Dolphins on Wednesday, as one of the last remnants of his original employer's cursed 2019 draft class officially moved on to a divisional rival. He's the second member of that group who now gets two yearly cracks at the Patriots, joining new Buffalo Bills rusher Damien Harris. 

"I am the best punter in the league in my own head," Bailey said in his first public comments as a Dolphin, per The Palm Beach Post. "I'm going to go out there and perform to the best of my abilities every single time I touch the football."

Bailey's career perhaps represented the best and worst of times in post-Tom Brady Foxboro: when it became clear that the Patriots would be punting more often than usual, he originally responded well to the challenge, posting in the top 10 in yards per boot in consecutive seasons and becoming the first New England leg to earn first-team All-Pro honors after finishing fourth in 2020. 

But after he was bestowed a four-year extension worth $13.5 million, Bailey struggled mightily, his 2022-23 season offset by inconsistency (NFL-worst 35.1 net last season), injury (soreness that Bailey blamed on an overreliance on squatting in his offseason workout program), and a bizarre suspension at the end of the season, one stemming from his status on injured reserve and one that threatened his new payday.

Bailey is thus understandably trying to move forward with his career, one that has him working on a one-year deal in Miami. But interest understandably gravitated toward his less-than-amicable divorce from the Patriots ... one that Bailey is more than happy leaving in the rearview mirror.

"A lot of it is between them and me," Bailey declared. "I've talked to (Bill) Belichick about this and how, you know, we want to talk about all this stuff. Obviously, you don't want to end up on a list like that, ever."

"Confusion was a lot of it and I think we're just past it, now at this point. It was something that happened and it was something that was unfortunate for both sides ... now I think both parties are in a better situation."

As far as Bailey is concerned, his Patriots career is over ... especially because, as he declared, a contractual grievance has been filed and resolved.

"Everything surrounding it is in the past. I'm totally on a new team now and just looking forward to seeing how I can contribute," Bailey said. "(The Patriots are) another team on the schedule."

"I think part of why people go in and out of the AFC East is you know what you're getting. You know you have a player that can go play up in Foxborough. You have a player that can go play up in Buffalo and the weather's super bad. You also have a player that can go play down in Miami at the start of September. So there's a variety of the different elements."

New England currently has no punter stationed on its active roster.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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