The Miami Dolphins and agents for their pending unrestricted free agents met in Indianapolis over the past few days to discuss what it will take to keep the players, and those talks include the club and the agent for defensive end Olivier Vernon.The team and agent David Canter met Saturday and have remained in contact beyond that meeting. But no deal for Vernon was imminent as of this writing and it seems the team will indeed have to decide whether or not to use the franchise tag on him or not by the deadline Tuesday at 4 p.m. Placing the tag on Vernon means the team extends a guaranteed $15.7 million tender on him that hits the salary cap books immediately so that he cannot sign with another team without draft compensation coming back to Miami.
The team is keeping its intents on using tag a secret although it seems Miami must tag Vernon short of getting a deal with him to avoid the ramifications of having him hit free agency. Here are the scenarios the Dolphins are looking at if no multi-year deal is struck by the tag deadline of 4 p.m. Tuesday:
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/It would be unwise to not use the tag in some form and hope to match a contract another team offers. Although the Dolphins are confident Canter would give them the chance to match an outside offer, it seems strange to let another team negotiate a deal for you. It puts your salary cap situation in another team's hands.Tag and trade makes sense in that if the Dolphins do not believe Vernon is worth $15.7 million for one year, they can try to add a first-rounder or multiple second rounders in exchange for him. In a year the cap has been raised to $155 million, some teams are flush with salary cap space and might be willing to part with compensation for a pass rusher.
The "tag and keep" option helps the Dolphins kick the can down the road on a Vernon deal. It keeps him on the team in 2016. It also swallows 10 percent of the team's available 2016 cap, which is not great.
I look for the Dolphins to tag Olivier Vernon by 4 p.m. Tuesday. I cannot imagine letting young talent at a premium position walk.