Will Jarvis Landry be traded by the trade deadline? Maybe

Jarvis Landry warms up for the Miami Dolphins before a game at Hard Rock Stadium - Image by Brian Miller
Jarvis Landry warms up for the Miami Dolphins before a game at Hard Rock Stadium - Image by Brian Miller /
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The Miami Dolphins are not openly shopping anyone to the other NFL teams, not even Jarvis Landry. Or so they will tell you.

There are not rumors that imply Landry could be on the trade block. There are no teams saying they have interest or that they have inquired about Landry. That makes me believe that in some way, some team, and the Dolphins have probably had that conversation.

In the NFL each team has players that they will not discuss trades about. There are players on each team that other teams won’t bother to call about but Landry is not one of those players.

Landry is in the final year of his contract. He is one of the most electric receivers in the NFL and he can take over a game all on his own if given the ball. Landry is also a team player and a hard worker and despite the occasional on field eruption, Landry doesn’t tend to cost his team much in penalties and he gets along great with his teammates.

For all of those positives however, Landry holds the key to his future and no trade will keep him from making his own path. In order for a trade to happen, which likely will be costly for the team acquiring him, they will need more than a simple shake of the hand from Landry’s camp that they will be able to sign him to a longer deal.

Landry has stated that he will not discuss a new contract while the season is in play and it has to be assumed that it extends to another team who would pony up a draft pick to bring him on board. Once the season is over that team has the rights to Landry until the league new year. They could franchise him or sign him to a longer deal.

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The franchise tag isn’t really good to use on Landry given the millions that come with it and Landry could always decline a new contract or not even negotiate with a team that he doesn’t want to play for. Thus insuring that without a franchise tender, he becomes a free agent and chooses his destination.

Landry can not however nix a trade and it’s not clear what Landry may bring in return for the Dolphins. Miami is not saying whether they view Landry in their long-term plans or not but the Miami fan base is going to be extremely dissatisfied if Landry is gone next season.

Still if the Dolphins do not plan to keep Landry beyond the 2017 season they have two choices. Let him walk in free agency and hope he brings them a 3rd round compensatory draft pick or trade him and get some value for him instead of potentially nothing later.

The trade deadline is this coming Tuesday and it’s unlikely that Miami makes any deals to bring player onto the team. They don’t have the cap space to make a move that would improve the team dramatically. So the only other trade options is to send a player away and the biggest draw on the team right now, is Jarvis Landry.