Dolphins may 'feel the most pressure to cave' to 2nd-rounder's contract demands
The issue isn't really Savaiinaea's fault nor does it fall on the Dolphins' shoulders. Almost every team is still working to get a second-round pick under contract after the Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans dished out fully guaranteed deals to the No. 33 and 34 overall selections, Carson Schwesinger and Jayden Higgins.
Now there's a standoff between second-round picks who want a fully guaranteed contract of their own and teams that are hoping to avoid setting a precedent that can't be undone. So who will blink first? One analyst thinks the Dolphins may "feel the most pressure to cave" to Savaiinaea's demands sooner rather than later.
"Savaiinaea, who is one-half of the team's offensive guard overhaul with veteran James Daniels, needs to be ready to roll when the season starts," Kyle Crabbs of A to Z Sports wrote Monday. "Missing time with an official holdout over a few million dollars off a rookie contract isn't the hill this team should be willing to die on relative to the opportunity cost of grooming Jonah to be an asset up front."
While the Dolphins' starting lineup will be sorted out in camp, there's not much mystery about Savaiinaea's role up front. After Miami allowed Robert Jones and Isaiah Wynn to exit in free agency, it seems a no-brainer that the second-round pick will take over one of the starting guard roles with free agency addition James Daniels taking the other. Before the draft, Dolphins general manager Chris Grier made it clear that the team needed to find players prepared to contribute right away.
"We're going to need NFL-ready players," Grier said in April. "There's no like, 'Hey, let's hope this guy is ready.' These guys are going to be forced into play."
Savaiinaea's readiness will go a long way toward determining if the Dolphins can get back to the offensive explosiveness that defined the first two years of Mike McDaniel's tenure with the team. And that could mean Miami doesn't have the luxury of playing hardball with the contract holdout.
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