New Contract Coming For Dolphins DT Paul Soliai?

The Miami Dolphins were unable to reach an agreement on a long-term contract with franchised DT Randy Starks before Monday’s deadline. While that may not come as much of a surprise given the lack of buzz regarding an extension in the past few months, Miami appears prepared to enter the 2013 season with Starks and fellow DT Paul Soliai heading into the final year of their respective contracts.

Soliai’s agent, David Canter, told the Palm Beach Post that he expects the Dolphins to make his client a contract offer at some point during training camp.

“I’m optimistic the team will come to us with a fair market deal to try to get it done,” Canter said. “If not we’ll play it out.”

“One reason Randy has been so successful, Cameron Wake has been so successful, all the other guys on the front seven are so successful, a lot of it has to do with the big man up front,” Canter said. “It all starts with him, he knows that, and he has accepted that role.”

Pro Football Focus rated Starks as the No. 38 and Soliai as the No. 49 defensive tackles in the league last season.

Starks, 29, will make $8.5 million guaranteed for the upcoming and will almost certainly test the open market next March. Soliai, 29, has a base salary of $5.7 million this season.

The Dolphins do have some options to consider.

They recently drafted DE Dion Jordan with the No. 3 overall pick, so it seems likely that he will be playing opposite of Cameron Wake for the years to come. Jared Odrick, 25, was reportedly been taking snaps at defensive tackle during OTAs and is under contract for less than $1 million for the next two seasons.

With the defense moving to a 4-3 this season, it would make sense for them to get Odrick involved as a defensive tackle and offer a set contract to Starks and Soliai. This is similar to what the Bengals recently did with defensive ends Michael Johnson and Carlos Dunlap.

We will have more regarding the situation in the coming weeks.