Dolphins’ Grier addresses Howard contract, Parker, Gesicki, a top free agent and more
Miami Dolphins general manager Chris Grier said he’s continuing to work on a new contract for Pro Bowl cornerback Xavien Howard, who wants a raise, and reiterated that Howard remains in the team’s plans.
Howard has three years remaining on a contract that is due to pay him $12.9 million in 2022, $11.4 million in 2023 and $11.6 million in 2024.
The Dolphins and Howard’s agent, David Canter, made alterations to his contract last August, which resulted in Howard pocketing more money than he was originally due to make last season, mostly from incentives, and guaranteeing more of his salary in 2023.
Grier acknowledged in February that the Dolphins told Canter last summer that Howard’s contract would be revisited again this offseason.
“We’ve had conversations with Xavien and his agent,” Grier said. “We had them a couple weeks ago in person. We’ll keep those conversations to ourselves, not to the press. Hopefully we’ll get to a resolution sooner than later.
“Xavien has done a lot of good things here for this organization for years. We drafted him, my second draft pick here. We’re looking forward to him being here and helping us win.”
Grier addressed other issues in a Monday afternoon session with local reporters at the NFL owners meetings at The Breakers in Palm Beach:
▪ He said he has received calls about wide receiver DeVante Parker, as I reported on Twitter last week. The Eagles have interest, and Green Bay and Indianapolis also are possibilities.
Is there a place for Parker, who’s due $6 million (non-guaranteed next season), after the addition of Tyreek Hill and Cedrick Wilson Jr. to a room that already featured Jaylen Waddle?
“Yeah, we like having good players, you know?” Grier said. “So we feel really good about that receiver room. I think the expectation is he’ll be here but we always listen. I’ve always said, here, the guys know me, we always listen for all players on the roster.”
▪ Grier indicated the team is not looking to trade tight end Mike Gesicki, who has signed his $10.8 million franchise tag.
“I think the one thing with Mike is at the end of the day we saw a bunch of tight ends got tagged with that market,” Grier said. “Mike is a good player and our intentions are to keep good players. We don’t let them go. Mike is a very competitive person. He’s going to play.
“And we’ll have some discussions with his agents at some point in the future. But I have no reservations that he’ll not play. He’s too competitive. He loves football.”
▪ On adding left tackle Terron Armstead and left guard Connor Williams to the offensive line:
“Mike has assembled a very good staff and it’s very heavy on offensive line coaches. He’s done a great job in terms of communicating that vision for what he wants. We feel good about the young players we have, as does Mike and the staff talked about them. We understand they need to play better and can get better but I think this scheme is also very friendly for offensive linemen. Terron had mentioned that in his press conference in wanting to play in this scheme.
“Connor Williams is another one that we felt excited about because we think he’s a very good run player and he’s also very athletic and can pass block.”
▪ On the situation at center, where Michael Deiter is the only veteran under contract and another player is expected to be added at some point:
“Mike really developed as a kind of a leader, became much more vocal. He had an injury last year that was kind of a freak injury. The doctors said they hadn’t really seen anything like it when they were kind of going through that with me once he got hurt. So he really hasn’t played a ton of games at center still.
“The interesting thing about him is every offseason, we’ve had multiple teams call and offer us picks for him. We know there’s still a developmental window for him to go but we’ll have competition [on the] roster as well.”
▪ He said the team isn’t trying to sign Pro Bowl safety Tyrann Mathieu.
“No, we’re not pursuing Tyrann. Good player, think he’ll be a good addition for any team in the league, but we’re not pursuing.”
▪ On why the Dolphins decided to keep together their group of inside linebackers by re-signing Elandon Roberts, Duke Riley and Sam Eguavoen to go along with Jerome Baker:
“Inside linebacker, Elandon was a leader on the team,” Grier said. “We’re still a young defense, and his presence and his communication skills, he and [defensive coordinator] Josh [Boyer] are on the same page in terms of thinking about running the defense. That was a huge part of it.
“Duke Riley had done a great job for us in his role competing for playing time and special teams, and in terms of what he added on and off the field. A quality person.”
▪ On who will handle punt and kickoff returns:
“Tyreek [Hill], the first thing he said was I want to make sure I’m back there getting a couple of returns every game. We’re fortunate with him, Jevon Holland, Jaylen Waddle, we have guys that can do it. And we also have a couple other guys that can return. So we’re not really worried about the return game. We’ll see how it sorts out.”
▪ The Dolphins don’t have a punter on the roster; Mike Palardy was not re-signed. Will that be filled in the draft?
“We’re still looking,” Grier said. “There are a lot of veteran kickers out there, like there always are. And so we’ll go through that process as well as the draft process.”
Here’s my Monday 6-pack, with my chats with Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan and others about Mike McDaniel and this speedy offense, and a Brian Flores update.
Here’s everything notable Mike McDaniel said on Monday.
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 4:36 PM.
