Schulters returns to winless Dolphins to play safety

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Desperate for an experienced, able-bodied safety, the Miami Dolphins have reached back into their past and signed veteran Lance Schulters, who played all 16 games for the team in 2005 but who was not in an NFL training camp this summer.

The nine-year veteran, who had been working out at his home in New Jersey in the hopes that some team might need his services for the second half of the season, is expected to play on Sunday when the winless Dolphins meet the New York Giants in London.

After losing starting free safety Renaldo Hill to an anterior cruciate ligament injury last Sunday, further thinning an already decimated safety corps, the Miami personnel department scoured the list of available free agents and young players on the practice squads of other teams, and considered several alternatives.

But Schulters, 32, possessed two key elements: a basic familiarity with the schemes of defensive coordinator Dom Capers and -- almost as important this week -- a passport.

Team officials put Schulters though a workout Tuesday and were sufficiently impressed with his conditioning and recall of the defense to sign him to a two-year contract. The financial details of the deal were not immediately available.

Originally a fourth-round choice of the San Francisco 49ers in the 1998 draft, Schulters last played with the Atlanta Falcons, appearing in seven games in 2006. For his career, he has played in 114 regular-season games and has 497 tackles, 7