MIAMI — Tua Tagovailoa’s contract situation is clearly the Miami Dolphins most pressing financial matter.

The Dolphins have until the start of the regular season to figure out how to follow through with their promise to lock up the NFL’s leading passer, a 2024 Pro Bowler, to a multi-year deal that provides his financial security, and ensures he’s Miami’s starting quarterback for the foreseeable future.

But Tagovailoa isn’t the team’s only Pro Bowl talent who wants, if not needs his contract addressed in the coming weeks, if not months.

Tyreek Hill, an elite talent who was named to the Pro Bowl in each of his first eight seasons, is entering the final year he has guaranteed money ($19.7 million) on his contract. When a player of his caliber, his cache and market appeal, reaches that status they generally want the contract reworked, possibly extended with a guarantee of more money in future years.

This is how business typically gets done in the NFL for elite players like Hill.

Considering Hill’s the Dolphins’ most important player, all All-Decade talent who is one of the NFL’s top five offensive weapons, the 30-year-old has a right to hold his hand out.

Like Tagovailoa, Hill has seen his peers be compensated handsomely this offseason, and even though he remains the third highest paid NFL receiver $23.9 million in salary receivers will actually get deposited in their bank accounts (no fake money allowed), Hill has made it clear he wants his salary standing elevated back up into the position’s upper echelon.

“If you are one of the best Amazon delivery drivers, you’re going to feel some type of way [if someone earns more],” said Hill, who has been the league’s most productive receiver over the last two years, averaging 119 receptions, nearly 1,755 receiving yards and 10 touchdown catches during his two year tenure in Miami. “You’re going to go to your boss and say, ‘Hey bro, I’m doing 100 routes, and this person is only doing 65 routes. I’m supposed to be the top paid person.’ You feel me?

“So if you feel like you deserve something, go get it.”

Hill is scheduled to make $19.8 million this year, $22.9 million in 2025 and is on the books for $45 million in 2026 for a total of $87.7 million over the three years. Problem is, that 2026 salary was something the Dolphins never intended to honor. It was put into his contract to artificially inflate Hill’s average salary per season, bumping it up from $24 million to $30 million.

...continued

©2024 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.