Gosselin: A major headache awaits Cowboys, Tony Romo in Miami

The Miami Dolphins made Ndamukong Suh the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history last offseason.

The Dolphins gave him a six-year, $114 million contract with more than half of it ($60 million) guaranteed. They expected him to be the defensive dynamo in the middle of their scheme that he had been the previous five seasons in Detroit when he went to four Pro Bowls and was named the 2010 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.

That Ndamukong Suh didn't show up for Dolphins coach Joe Philbin, sleepwalking through the first month of the season with 10 tackles, no sacks and no impact. Philbin was fired after a 1-3 start, but interim coach Dan Campbell has since found a way to motivate Suh.

In the five games under Campbell, Suh has 20 tackles and four sacks and has batted down four passes, helping the Dolphins scramble back into the AFC wild-card chase with three victories and a 4-5 record. Suh is coming off his best game as a Dolphin last weekend -- an eight-tackle, one-sack performance in a 20-19 upset of the Eagles in Philadelphia.

Tony Romo returns for the Cowboys on Sunday in Miami, and it will be the task of right guard Zack Martin to keep Suh away from a quarterback with a tender back and collarbone. If the 2-7 Cowboys have any hope of making a late charge at a playoff spot, the blocking front will have to do a better job of protecting Romo than it did his backups.

In the last two weeks, the Eagles sacked Matt Cassel four times and the Buccaneers got him three times. The Saints and Patriots sacked Brandon Weeden three times apiece during his spin as the starter in October.

Include the three sacks Romo suffered in his last start against Philadelphia in September and Dallas quarterbacks have hit the turf 20 times at the hands of pass rushers this season. In 2014, when this line was heralded as the best in the NFL with three Pro Bowlers, the Cowboys allowed only 29 sacks on the season.

Suh can be a major headache. He was last January, anyway. Suh had two of Detroit's six sacks of Romo in a wild-card playoff game in which the Cowboys needed a fourth-quarter rally to survive 24-20. Suh beat Martin for the first sack and Ronald Leary for the second one on consecutive plays in the fourth quarter.

The Cowboys cannot afford to let Romo get sacked six times in Miami. And Martin cannot let Suh use his 320-pound body to crush Romo. The last thing the Cowboys need in this forgettable season is to turn a struggling offense back over to Cassel.

A year ago in Detroit, Suh was the defensive hub of the NFL's second-ranked defense and best run defense. But through the final four games of the Philbin era, the Dolphins were among the NFL's worst defensive teams, with a No. 30 ranking.

With Suh dialing up his game under Campbell, the Dolphins have shown incremental improvement, moving up to 26th in defense. Yards and points are becoming a bit tougher to come by now. Suh had six tackles, two sacks and broke up two passes in a victory over Houston and batted away two more passes in a victory over Tennessee. He had his other sack against Buffalo.

Suh is capable of dominating a game. It's Martin's job to prevent it. The health of a quarterback could be at stake.