Christian Wilkins is probably smiling ear to ear after seeing what the Baltimore Ravens just did.
The Ravens and defensive lineman Justin Madubuike came to an agreement on a new contract on Friday. The contract is reportedly a whopper, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, at four years and $98 million.
Madubuike has a monster season for the Ravens in his fourth year in the league, and the latter rewarded him handsomely. He notched 13 sacks with 56 tackles and 12 tackles for loss while earning second-team All-Pro honors. Before 2023 he had just 8.5 career sacks in 42 games across three seasons.
Likewise, Wilkins had a breakthrough season in the sacks department. With a previous career high of 4.5 in 2021, Wilkins doubled it in 2023 with 9. The Dolphins’ 2019 first round pick also completed his third straight season with Miami where he played in every single game. With the staggeringly bad injury history of this franchise over the last two seasons, that kind of reliability is something that’s hard to disregard.
With Madubuike’s signing, Wilkins and his agent have a frame of reference to negotiate a deal with the Dolphins. And Wilkins’ productivity goes further than the breakout year that Madubuike enjoyed in 2023, so it’s reasonable to believe he could get a deal in the same neighborhood.
With Tua Tagovailoa’s contract extension a priority this offseason, which could take Miami into the $45-50 million annual range, it’s hard to see the cap strapped Dolphins being able to keep Wilkins at a contract anywhere close to what the Ravens just did with Madubuike. Per OverTheCap.com, the Dolphins are dead last in the NFL in effective cap space at $30.8 million in the red as of March 9.
But the Houston Texans or Las Vegas Raiders certainly could use a player like Wilkins and have far more cap room to be able to pay $24-25 million per season for his services.
It would certainly have been optimal to keep both of their talented defensive tackles Zach Sieler, whom the Dolphins re-signed in August, and Wilkins. Unfortunately, it’s starting to look more and more like the dollars Wilkins will be getting don’t add up for the Dolphins to be able to pay.
