When the Miami Dolphins take the field Tuesday for the first time this season as a 90-member squad, they will begin to try to impress coaches to move up the depth charts. There will be a lot of competition at every position as Miami looks to capture its first AFC East title of the Mike McDaniel era.
The Dolphins will have 37 players on the field this week that might not even make it to training camp in July. They almost certainly will not be on the active roster camp breaks and the regular season starts. Today is the day that coaches will begin to learn where the position battles are going to take place and where their players rank against those on the other teams in the AFC East.
This is a mandatory minicamp and the veterans and rookies will be present. In this edition of the series, we take a look at what to look for in the three-day minicamp and what the story lines will be as we head into training camp.
The Wide Receiver Contract Quandry
The Dolphins signed Jaylen Waddle to a three-year extension last week that will keep him with the Dolphins at least through the 2028 season. Tyreek Hill, the perennial Pro Bowl superstar has already let the team know that even though he loves Waddle like a brother and is happy he is going to get paid, he wants them to know that he is expecting an extension and Waddle type money. Hill used to be the highest paid receiver in football, but now he is out of the top five.
Look for the Dolphins to extend Hill sometime between now and the start of the regular season. With Justin Jefferson signing a four-year $140 million contract extension with the Minnesota Vikings on Monday, Hill is gunning for those types of figures and will want to eclipse the annual average value that Waddle signed for. They might be as tight as brothers, but Hill is letting everyone know that he is the big brother in the relationship.
There are also other starting receivers that are up for extension around the league like Brandon Aiyuk, Courtland Sutton and others. Hill also saw the wide receiver explosion in free agency.
Hill's agent, Drew Rosenhaus, already commented locally in Miami, that he has been in discussions with general manager Chris Grier about a new deal for Hill, who has also expressed his desire to finish his career in Miami as a member of the Dolphins.
This is the final guaranteed season of Hill's contract and something has to be done about that forthwith. Hill is another proven commodity who is at the top of his game. He needs to be paid.
Now that the Justin Jefferson deal is done, I spoke to Drew Rosenhaus about getting his client, Tyreek Hill, more money to put him back in line with the top-5 highest paid at his position. @DrewJRosenhaus saying, “ I have a fluid line of communication with Chris Grier and Brandon… pic.twitter.com/Gx53yj69Qv
— Josh Moser (@TheMozKnowz) June 3, 2024
The Dolphins know that Waddle is the present and the future, but Hill is still at the top of his game and caught over 170 balls last season for 1,799 yards. If the Dallas Cowboys and the Indianapolis Colts had the triplets, with their quarterback, running back and wide receiver combination, Miami has the quintuplets as they have two receivers that are both game breakers.