This week, the Miami Dolphins agreed to a lucrative extension with one of their stars on offense. It wasn’t the player everyone was expecting, as wide receiver Jaylen Waddle grabbed a three-year contract extension worth $84.75 million, while quarterback Tua Tagovailoa continues to await his pay day.
Why did Waddle get the bag before his quarterback? Especially with Miami already paying Tyreek Hill top three money? One of the reasons is because this contract extension was easier to draw up than Tagovailoa’s.
Waddle is a young star in the league, and just became eligible for a contract extension this offseason. Like the quarterback market, the wide receivers market is continuing to explode — whether we are talking about the cream of the crop with guys like A.J. Brown and Amon-Ra St. Brown, or “WR2s” like DeVonta Smith. Why not lock in a player you want to keep long term as soon as you possibly can, because that asking price will just continue to go up if you wait — especially with all the receivers up for new deals. The same point can be made at the quarterback position, but that Tagovailoa extension was always going to include more money.
The Dolphins made Waddle the No. 4 highest-paid wideout in average annual salary ($28.25 million) and No. 7 highest-paid receiver in total value ($84.75 million). When Tagovailoa puts pen to paper on his new deal, his average will likely put him in the top three of highest-paid quarterbacks — somewhere north of $50 million per year.
CBS Sports lead NFL insider Jonathan Jones has said he believes the Dolphins will pay Tagovailoa. He has speculated the contract could be “a dollar more” than Justin Herbert’s deal signed last offseason — a five-year, $262.5 million extension that includes an AAV of $52.5 million. At the time, that contract made the Los Angeles Chargers quarterback the highest-paid signal-caller in the league. He was passed…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/jaylen-waddle-contract-extension-why-the-dolphins-paid-star-wide-receiver-before-tua-tagovailoa/
Author : Jordan Dajani
Publish date : 2024-05-30 18:01:56
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