UPDATE 3:30 p.m. Eastern: Per multiple reports, Maxwell and Alonso have been informed of the trade to Miami. The Eagles will receive undisclosed draft pick compensation, pending the completion of physicals. The Dolphins do get a moderate upgrade to their pass defense here, simply because the players being replaced were so bad last season.

Alonso is a good player when he's on the field, but he's been crippled by injuries the last two seasons. Maxwell is more of a mixed bag. The Eagles, meanwhile, clear out a good deal of cap room with this trade (approximately $4.9 million), and they may not be done on that front. Running backs DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews are reportedly available for trade as well.

UPDATE 3:14 p.m. Eastern: ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that the Dolphins would also acquire linebacker Kiko Alonso in this rumored deal, and would send draft pick compensation to the Eagles. Alonso, who was acquired in a trade last offseason in exchange for LeSean McCoy, is heading into the final season of his rookie contract.

STORY: The Miami Dolphins badly need help in the secondary, and it appears they may have their sights on a particular target. According to a report from NFL Network, the Dolphins are in talks with the Eagles to trade for well-compensated cornerback Byron Maxwell.

The report did not specify what the price for Maxwell's services would be, but no matter what it is, this would be a pretty crazy deal in more ways than one. Maxwell signed a six-year, $63 million pact that contained $25 million in guarantees with the Eagles just last year. Chip Kelly -- who signed Maxwell to the deal -- is no longer in town but one year is still extremely early to give up on a big-ticket free agent signing. (Whether Maxwell should have gotten such a huge deal in the first place is another debate, but it already happened so we won't have it.)

Typically, if a contract for a big signing is so obviously bad that the team that gave it out is already attempting to trade it after just one year, there usually is not a market for that player's services elsewhere, and the team is stuck with a big mistake of a deal. But because the Dolphins are run by Mike Tannenbaum, whose M.O. is to get big names on big deals and worry about the rest later, there's apparently a market. And that is also fairly crazy, even accounting for the fact that not all of the remaining money on the deal would go on Miami's books because some would accelerate onto Philly's.

Could Byron Maxwell be headed to Miami? (USATSI)

And about the contract: there are still five years and approximately $54 million remaining. For a team already mired in cap issues that will likely hamper them for years to come (due to things like signing Ndamukong Suh to a massive deal they didn't have the space to fit on their cap last year), adding another big contract like this is a fairly sizable risk. When you consider the Dolphins are already honing in on Mario Williams in free agency as well, it's not hard to envision them being in even deeper cap trouble than they already are very soon.

And that's just the money side. That's before we get to the fact that Maxwell is being paid No. 1 cornerback money and has pretty much never shown that he's a No. 1 cornerback. He basically has a 17-game track record of playing pretty well across from Richard Sherman and in front of Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas, and not much else. His first go-round as his team's top man was fairly disastrous. The 100.7 passer rating he allowed on throws in his direction last season ranked 35th among the 46 corners that played at least 75 percent of their team's snaps on defense, per Pro Football Focus.

So what we have here is a cap-strapped team with huge issues in the secondary (reportedly) attempting to trade for a player on a huge contract that (likely) won't solve their issues in the secondary but will add even more money to their clogged cap. On multiple levels, this does not make much sense. Welcome to free agency 2016.