Derek Cameron Wake (born January 30, 1982) is an American football outside linebacker who is a free agent. He played college football for Penn State University, and was signed by the New York Giants as an undrafted free agent in 2005.
Wake has also played for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL), earning the league’s Most Outstanding Rookie Award in 2007. He recorded 39 sacks over his first two seasons in the CFL, earning Western Division All-Star honors as well as the Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award both years.
After being pursued by at least 17 NFL teams, Cameron Waked was signed by former much maligned GM Jeff Ireland in 2009. Wake signed with the Dolphins on January 18, 2009 to a four-year deal included a $1 million signing bonus and had a potential value of $4.9 million.
He was a great transitional player from one of the best DE’s in Miami Dolphins history Jason Taylor, just as JT was coming to the end of his illustrious Dolphins career, Cameron Wake was signed. Ironically that was the same time Jason Taylor was having a rocky relationship with Dolphins management in particular Bill Parcells.
It all started when reports surfaced that Miami was looking to trade Jason Taylor but no teams were willing to pay the price for JT, It reached a boiling point when Dolphins President Bill Parcells was displeased that Taylor skipped the Dolphins voluntary off-season workouts to be on Dancing with the Stars and that when “Taylor walked into a room where Parcells was watching tape, and Parcells ignored him”. Taylor was reportedly incensed”. Ireland, on Sunday, April 27, 2008, said that the Dolphins want Taylor back for the 2008 season and regard him as a team leader.
Despite what Jeff Ireland said it was clear that there was extreme friction between JT and Parcells and something was going to happen, soon after a report surfaced that a trade was agreed upon between Miami and Tampa Bay for a 2nd round pick and potentially more with then Tampa head coach Jon Gruden but shortly after Gruden traded that same pick to Jacksonville nixing the agreed deal with Miami.
Finally on July 20, 2008, Jason Taylor was traded to the Washington Redskins for a pair of draft picks as the Redskins need for a defensive end became apparent after two players had their seasons’ ended on the opening day of training camp.
Taylor’s departure opened the way for Cameron Wake to be the top Dog and he did not disappoint as he is 2nd all time in Dolphin’s history in sacks (98) to Hall of Famer Jason Taylor’s 131 sacks, and the total also ranks second all-time amongst “undrafted free agents”, only to Hall of Famer John Randle’s 137.5 sacks.
Throughout his career, Wake has established himself as one of the premier edge rushers in the NFL. He has been selected to five Pro Bowls (four at defensive end, one at outside linebacker), and is a four-time first or second team All-Pro.
Cameron Wake has always played with great class and pride and his work ethic is unmatched and to have a veteran player on the roster who has a storied history with the team and can be a perfect example to the young DE’s we currently have on the roster cannot be measured.
He was one of the victims of the great purge of 2019 and truly the one that hurt the most and he is available now as a free agent and to bring him back on a team friendly deal if they can make it happen would bring joy to my heart!
I am not sure if this will ever happen but I hope that somehow someway the Dolphins can find a way to make room for one of our Dolphins greats.
Once again I thank Wikipedia for the majority of this information!
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