Braxton Berrios may be one of the Miami Dolphins who has possibly the most unique adjustment to make this offseason.

The veteran wide receiver and return specialist, who enters his second season with the Dolphins after once starring for the Miami Hurricanes, is at the heart of the NFL’s biggest rule change in the 2024 offseason as a kick returner.

The changes involve a “landing zone” for kicks between the receiving team’s goal line and 20-yard line, keeps kickoffs at the kicking team’s 35-yard line but brings the remaining 10 players on that side to line up at the opponent’s 40-yard line while the receiving team mostly lines up in a “setup zone” between the 35- and 30-yard lines as a maximum of two returners can be in the landing zone.

“First and foremost, I love it,” said Berrios, who re-signed with Miami for another year this offseason, on Tuesday in a web conference with reporters. “I think it brings back a really exciting play in the game where it was kind of eliminated the last few years, especially earlier in the season in the warmer conditions. Just been bouncing off each other strategies, what we think might what we can see happening, what we think is the best way to go about it.

“I think Week 1, that opening kickoff of the season is going to be very interesting, all across the board.”

There’s a lot of uncertainty around the league over how it will play out once teams do it beginning with August’s preseason and then the upcoming regular season in September.

“My best guess is just that, a guess,” Berrios said. “That opening kickoff Week 1, there’s going to be a lot of trial and error. I don’t think we’ll see much in preseason. I think everybody’s going to pop it up and let your cover guys cover and see who can block on the return team. Week 1, everyone’s going to think they have the ace of cards up their sleeves.

“The zone is a lot tighter. There’s not as much drops on the kickoff return teams. You’re going to have to get on guys earlier. And the cover team, they’re going to have to make decisions quicker and with way less of a running head start.”

Berrios said he expects holes to open up.

The new kickoff rules resemble those utilized in the UFL and XFL, and Berrios said the Dolphins have studied tape from kickoffs in other leagues.

“That’s obviously the starting point for trying to figure out what’s going to happen,” Berrios said. “Seeing what other teams did, what worked, what didn’t. … One returner, two returners? All those things are questions.”

Berrios was pleased to return to the Dolphins this offseason, even as the team is openly looking to add another talented wideout to its receiving corps.

“Absolutely ecstatic to be back here,” he said. “That was the hope, and I’m really happy that it worked out.”

South Florida return

New Dolphins defensive tackle Teair Tart had his time with the Tennessee Titans come to a sudden end during the 2023 season when he was released.

“I think I just needed a culture change,” Tart said. “I think it was better to just not be part of that situation anymore and me, personally, I felt like I needed a culture change, honestly.”

Tart said he was the one that asked for his release late in the year, to then get picked up for two games with the Houston Texans before becoming a free agent this offseason.

“I never had work ethic questions, work ethic issues until I asked for a release,” Tart said. “You can expect me to be competitive, spirited. I’m not afraid to show emotion out there and really get after it.

“I’m really just excited for a new beginning. Tennessee’s the past.”

Tart returns to South Florida in his fifth professional season after the Philadelphia native stood out at FIU in college.

“The biggest reason why I signed back here is, obviously, a familiar area for me,” he said. “I went to college here, so it’s just really great to be back in a comfortable environment, a family environment.”

Tart says there was no role for him discussed with the Dolphins, but he would have a fair opportunity to play.

He knows he’s going to be in for a hot summer of workouts and then training camp in Miami Gardens before the season.

“I know one thing: You’re going to be in shape,” Tart said, as he recalled just how hot it was at FIU. “I remember the second week of camp, the turf got to like 148 degrees, and the glue started melting on the cleats. You start sliding across. You got to keep spraying ice cold water to keep the glue on the cleats from melting.”

Tart had eight tackles for loss with Tennessee last season in just 350 snaps, a high rate.

“Playing within the scheme and sometimes just taking the opportunity when it presents itself,” Tart said. “You need a lot of nasty to play D-line.”

The first question isn’t the one everyone’s asking. It’s not who the Miami Dolphins will draft Thursday night with the 21st pick. It’s not if another offensive lineman is the best option or which player could provide the mostt immediate help.

The question, as always, is this: Do you trust Chris Grier’s offseason?

This is Grier’s sixth year running the show as General Manager, upper-case, the boss in charge. It’s his ninth year running the draft as general manager, lower-case, answering to Mike Tannenbaum.

The Dolphins in that span have had three coaches, an expired three-year plan, an expired five-year plan, 10 first-round picks and still no playoff wins. Zero.

One recent narrative is the Dolphins might have to pause their Super Bowl hopes this season to organize their salary cap after over-spending so much and having the least draft capital of any team in history over a three-year stretch ending this weekend.

That’s rich. Have the Dolphins been a legitimate contender lately to pause that? Can you contend while having a 24-year stretch without a playoff win, the longest drought in the NFL?

The pressing issue this offseason includes following a plan where the Dolphins had a measly eight draft picks (and only one as high as the second round) the previous two years and enter Thursday without a third- and fourth-round pick. Grier can draft players. Go down his drafts. They’re fine. But his most proven three picks thus far — Minkah Fitzpatrick, Laremy Tunsil and Christian Wilkins — aren’t with the team anymore in a way that illustrates larger problems.

Wilkins was a dollar decision caused by all this recent overspending. Fitzpatrick, who is on a Hall of Fame path in Pittsburgh, was traded because Grier ceded to coach Brian Flores’s stronger wishes. Tunsil’s trade to Houston might prove to be the most bountiful trade in team history.

Grier created that trade, too. But the larger result all these years later is Houston rebuilt, won a playoff game last season and looks set up to contend for years while the Dolphins used all those picks and still haven’t won anything.

See how the issues go far beyond the non-stop, who-do-they-pick-at-No.-21 question?

Consider: How do they build? What positions do they value? How is this offseason helping last year’s prime problem of scoring points against good teams? And, always, what quarterback do you invest in — and re-invest in, as the case will be for the Dolphins coming up with Tua Tagovailoa?

There’s also the need for a strong football voice to steer this franchise in proper ways. Look what owner Steve Ross has stepped into in recent years: hiring a coach in Brian Flores who wouldn’t follow the tank-for-tomorrow blueprint; offering Flores money to lose games; publicly lying about the manner of chasing quarterback Deshaun Watson; and the tampering charge in going after Tom Brady that the NFL conflated in reporting the pay-to-lose idea to take away a third-round pick this draft.

Isn’t part of Grier’s and CEO Tom Garfinkel’s job keeping this franchise pointed toward winning? Look at the ways they’ve gone off course in embarrassing manner.

Yes, ’tis the season of mock drafts. Everyone has one. But the real mock draft is of the talent picking the talent — of those organizing and building teams at each franchise.

First, there’s your elite architects whose teams have made Super Bowls and/or challenge every year thanks to their decisions: Kansas City’s Brett Veach; Philadephia’s Howie Roseman; San Francisco’s John Lynch/Kyle Shanahan; Baltimore’s Eric DeCosta; and the Los Angeles Rams’ Les Snead.

Then there’s the mixed-bag, next level from those who made one bold decision to those with good success to those raising the Titanic: Buffalo’s Brandon Beane; Texas’s Nick Caserio; Green Bay’s Brian Gutekunst; Detroit’s Brad Holmes; Cincinnati’s Duke Tobin, Seattle’s John Schneider; Tampa Bay’s Jason Licht and, maybe, Chicago’s Ryan Poles.

The third level is of functional managers who have been around: New Orleans’ Mickey Loomis, Dallas’ Jerry Jones and the Dolphins’ Grier.

That’s where the Dolphins are. It’s not down with those who have done too little or were part of a franchise-strapping deal: the New York Jets’ Joe Douglas; Jacksonville’s Trent Baalke; Cleveland’s Andrew Berry; Atlanta’s Terry Fontenot; Denver’s George Paton; and the New York Giants’ Joe Schoen. (There’s also a too-new-to-rate level from the New England Patriots to the Carolina Panthers).

Grier had a rare chance starting in 2019 when Ross decided not to tank in a way to build this roster and create a sustained contender. Yet they haven’t contended. And there are such pressing decisions coming it’ll demand great work from Grier to sustain anything after this season.

The Dolphins are on the clock for the 21st pick. More than that, isn’t Grier on the clock as this latest, five-year plan continues into a sixth year?

Is midnight striking?

Or are good answers finally coming?

A video purporting to show the brother of Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic punching a fan after the Nuggets’ game vs. the Los Angeles Lakers has gone viral on social media.

The TikTok video posted following the game at Ball Arena displays text that says, “Jokic brothers going wild,” with a flushed-face emoji. It shows two men in the stands walking toward another man, and as someone yells an expletive, one of the men, who the poster said were the brothers, punches the man sitting lower in the stands.

It’s unclear what caused the altercation Monday and if the man who punched the other fan will face charges.

Denver Police Department spokesperson Jay Casillas said on Tuesday morning that he is looking into the issue. Nuggets spokesperson Nick O’Hayre did not return a request for comment.

Strahinja and Nemanja Jokic, Nikola Jokic’s brothers, often attend their younger brother’s games. During one game, a security guard had to restrain Strahinja Jokic after he became angry at a referee.

Strahinja Jokic has a criminal history in Denver — he was arrested in 2019 over allegations that he choked and pushed a woman, and that he prevented her from calling 911. He pleaded guilty in 2020 and received a deferred sentence, meaning the case would be dismissed if he followed the terms of his probation and didn’t commit another crime before Feb. 3, 2022.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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By ED WHITE (Associated Press)

DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department announced a $138.7 million settlement Tuesday with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016, a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue to prey on victims before his arrest.

When combined with other settlements, roughly $1 billion now has been set aside by various organizations to compensate hundreds of women who said Nassar assaulted them under the guise of treatment for sports injuries.

Nassar worked at Michigan State University and also served as a team doctor at Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics. He’s now serving decades in prison for assaulting female athletes, including medal-winning Olympic gymnasts.

The Justice Department has acknowledged that it failed to step in. For more than a year, FBI agents in Indianapolis and Los Angeles had knowledge of allegations against him but apparently took no action, an internal investigation found.

FBI Director Christopher Wray was contrite — and very blunt — when he spoke to survivors at a Senate hearing in 2021. The assault survivors include decorated Olympians Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.

“I’m sorry that so many different people let you down, over and over again,” Wray said. “And I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed.”

After a search, investigators said in 2016 that they had found images of child sex abuse and followed up with federal charges against Nassar. Separately, the Michigan attorney general’s office handled the assault charges that ultimately shocked the sports world and led to an extraordinary dayslong sentencing hearing with gripping testimony about his crimes.

“I’m deeply grateful. Accountability with the Justice Department has been a long time in coming,” said Rachael Denhollander of Louisville, Kentucky, who is not part of the latest settlement but was the first person to publicly step forward and detail abuse at the hands of Nassar.

“The unfortunate reality is that what we are seeing today is something that most survivors never see,” Denhollander told The Associated Press. “Most survivors never see accountability. Most survivors never see justice. Most survivors never get restitution.”

Michigan State University, which was also accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a $380 million settlement.

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Associated Press reporter Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this story.

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For more updates on the cases against Larry Nasser: https://apnews.com/hub/larry-nassar