Heading into this offseason most of the media and the fans believed that Christian Wilkins had probably played his last game in a Miami jersey. With Wilkins being a pending free agent and the Miami Dolphins in cap hell for 2024 it seemed like a remote chance that they could afford him. There was also and still is speculation that they would franchise-tag him. Applying the franchise tag to Wilkins allows the team to keep him at the franchise tag price (22.1M), for 2024, assuming he sings it. More than 20 million is probably more than they wish to be on the hook for this season with the cap issues. It does give them the time to continue negotiating with him on a longer-term deal to keep this season’s cap hit manageable or trade him if push comes to shove.
Yesterday the story took another turn with the Dolphins’ general manager stating that the team would both like to keep Wilkins and that he would be talking to his agent by the end of the week. While Wilkins is probably not considered at the very top of his position he is still very near the top. This had led the media to speculate that he would receive a “market setting deal”, in free agency making him at the very top salary-wise. The team had tried, during the last offseason and even during the season to get something done but the two sides just never got close enough so it just got kicked down the road and here we are.
So assuming that the Dolphins can sign Wikins to a long-term deal there is zero doubt that he will then be one of the very highest-paid players on the team. But at what cost? The team is in a pinch money-wise as it is and has a long list of other free agents this year and then again next year that they are going to want to keep that are also going to demand some large paydays.
So tonight’s question of the day is what is Wilkin’s value in YOUR opinion? If you are Grier do you just say, “Okay, here’s more money than any other DT makes because we want you here!”, or do you tell him, “Look, if you want to continue to win we have to keep some of this other talent and we need you to be a team guy!”, or maybe you take an entirely different approach. Either way tell us what his value is to you and how the team should see it. What kind of a deal would you like to see the two sides come to that you think would be fair to both sides? OR, maybe you think they would be better off signing him to the tag, assuming he would sign it, thus not putting further strain on their cap numbers and acquiring either other talent or picks to add younger, cheaper talent?
Please give us your answers and thoughts on the Wilkins deal and what, if you were the GM, you would be willing to do to keep him in the comments section below-