Miami Dolphins Evan Mathis holdup not all price

The Miami Dolphins have interest in Evan Mathis. We know this now as fact, or at least as close to fact as fact can get without actually being, you know, a fact. Evan Mathis’ agent was at training camp earlier this week talking with Mike Tannenbaum and the team isn’t denying interest in the player. Hence the fact/not-fact part.

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Each day it seems as though there is more talk about Mathis. Some of that is due in large part to the failures of the offensive guard positions through seven days of camp. Most believe that the contract Mathis wants to sign is hindering his attempts to find a team. I don’t buy that the $5.5 million asking price is the biggest part of the problem. To me, it’s the length of the contract.

Mathis was the oldest guard in the NFL last season at the age of 33 and while he is still ranking up in the top five guards in the league he isn’t getting younger and his options will eventually be limited. In other words, like it or not his playing career is winding down quickly.

Most of this is my own assumptions and we all know what “assume” can make of us. For me it’s not big deal as many of our readers already think I’m an donkey. It was reported last year that Mathis wanted a contract extension and the Eagles weren’t willing to give him one. He held out for a new deal and this year the Eagles decided that we would release him rather than put up with it again. So if you follow the dots it’s easy to see that while money is important, so is the longevity of the deal. We all just tend to get hung up on the $5.5 million asking price.

The Eagles weren’t willing to pay him the $5.5 million and that is why he isn’t on their roster. Thus far no other teams are willing to pick up the tag either. If Mathis didn’t want to play on the 5.5 and wanted a new deal that would give him some comfort in the next two maybe three years, it’s easy to see that immediate talk would have to include what exactly Mathis wants in what will likely be either his last long contract or the inevitable series of one year deals.

One year deals have been common for the Dolphins. Brent Grimes was added as a one year deal, Louis Delmas and Cortland Finnegan were too. The Dolphins added C.J. Mosley to the same type of contract and it’s likely they are looking at Mathis as a one year fix until they can get their salary cap situation in 2016 ironed out and head into the draft looking to make a splash at the position. If the reports last year of Mathis wanting a longer contract are true, Miami is likely looking at that as a contract block.

The Dolphins are not in the business of giving out longer term contracts this late in the season and at some point Mathis may steer away from his current demands financially, and it’s likely that if in fact length is an issue he may forget that as well.

For now it’s a waiting game for the Dolphins and for Mathis. One of the best guards in the NFL is without a home because his demands seem to be too high. Both in pay and likely in length. While we all harp on the $5.5 million portion of the rumors, the reality is that there is probably more to it than that and if I’m the Dolphins, investing in a 33 year old guard might not be in my best interest long term.

Mathis is unquestionably a fix for the Dolphins offensive line problems. Jamil Douglas has spent some camp time at right guard and would likely compete for that role if Mathis were signed but Douglas was drafted as the Dolphins solution to the left guard spot so the length of the contract is important. We will see what happens down the road but for now it appears that both sides are standing on their own grounds. Someone will give whether it’s the Dolphins or another team.

And then we can stop talking about Evan Mathis.

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