We led off our morning round-up of free agent rumors with a note on Charles Clay, passing along a report that suggested the veteran tight end is still very much a part of the Dolphins‘ plans. However, if Miami does want to re-sign Clay, he won’t come cheap. A league source tells Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald that the market for Clay is expected to be about $6MM+ annually.
While that may seem like a steep price for a player coming off a fairly modest season (605 receiving yards, three touchdowns), a $6MM annual salary would put Clay right in between Greg Olsen and Dennis Pitta, who are solid players but certainly not start tight ends. As Over The Cap’s data shows, Marcedes Lewis, Jared Cook, Antonio Gates, and Kyle Rudolph are among the players whose annual salaries range from $6.8-7.3MM, a notch above where Clay is expected to land.
Here are a few more items out of the NFL’s two East divisions:
- The contract signed by offensive lineman Dallas Reynolds with the Giants last week includes $25K in guaranteed money, per Adam Caplan of ESPN.com (via Twitter).
- Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com rounds up some notes from the scouting combine, with a focus on the Jets. Cimini leads off his report by suggesting that the Jets don’t seem to be in quarterback-or-bust mode for the draft, and that the team isn’t necessarily a lock to select Marcus Mariota if he falls to No. 6.
- Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk clarifies some points from a weekend article on Dez Bryant, suggesting that all players who – not just the Cowboys receiver – should take certain steps to regain leverage if they receive a franchise or transition tag from their respective teams.
- While Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald agrees that the Dolphins should consider off-field actions when deciding which players to add to their roster, he expresses some concern that the team’s criteria may be too strict — in Salguero’s words, Miami seems to be taking “extra steps” to ensure that the players on the squad “fall in line.”