Ocean Front Property

Ocean Front Property

A day after the Miami Dolphins made waves by trading wide receiver Jaylen Waddle to the Denver Broncos, ESPN’s Adam Schefter, with contributions from Marcel Louis-Jacques, has reported that sources say the Miami Dolphins have informed teams around the league that star running back De’Von Achane is not available.

To quote the great George Strait from my favorite of his songs:

“And now if you’ll buy that…I’ve got some ocean front property in Arizona, from my front porch I can see the sea.”

What we saw in that early-morning Schefter tweet wasn’t a proclamation that Achane would be entrenched as a foundational piece of the new rebuild.

No, quite the opposite.

That was a prime example of our guy Sullivan using Adam Schefter to put the league on notice: We’re open for business, but we’re not giving away a prime asset for pennies on the dollar. If you want Achane, you’re going to have to pay (as close to) a premium to land him. Will they get Waddle-esque compensation? Eh, probably not.

After all, Achane is in the last year of his deal, and any team that wants to trade for him is going to have to sign him to a multi-year deal at a high number, so giving up a package consisting of first, third, and fourth round picks may be tough to swallow. As great as Achane was last year, he is on the smaller side of running backs at 5’9” and 191 pounds, and giving him 25 touches a game over a 17 (soon to be 18) game season can wear a guy down quickly at any size.

That being typed, if you’re part of the brain trust of a team that’s ready to win now and you have a need at running back, there’s a one hundred percent chance that you’ve talked about Achane with your people.

I don’t care whether it’s just in passing or the main topic of a Zoom meeting with a team’s head coach, general manager, and owner. You can’t NOT kick the tires on De’Von Achane. Size be damned, that man is a playmaker. So, it makes perfect sense why the Dolphins would put the word out that Achane was staying in Miami.

Who wouldn’t want a 24-year-old Pro Bowl running back just coming into his prime, even if he doesn’t quite fit your running back profile? Well, the answer may very well be Hafley and Sullivan.

Is this new regime comfortable signing De’Von Achane to a long-term deal that could pay him 15 million per year over (x) number of years?

Because if I’m Achane, I want to make more than what James Cook got last year (46 million contract, roughly 11.5 per year), and if I’m not getting extended before training camp, I’m holding out as long as it takes for me to get a contract in Miami or whatever city I’m traded to at that point.

For the record, I do believe that the Dolphins will keep Achane and sign him to a long-term deal, and I believe that they should. Again, unless some teams like the Chargers or Seahawks are at least matching what the Dolphins got for Waddle, I’m out.

Achane is a Pro Bowler coming into the prime of his career. Waddle is a solid receiver whom the Broncos overpaid for to capitalize on a short Super Bowl window.

There’s little comparison to their value on the field, but also off the field, and that brings me to my final point:

De’Von Achane isn’t just their best player; he’s also their most marketable player. Hell, Achane may be the only marketable player. I know they’re going to push Malik Willis like Vince pushed Roman a decade ago (deep cut for wrestling fans), but outside of those two, that marketing department is going to have to get really creative, and don’t think that’s lost on the bean counters.

So, for any team that wants Achane, the phone lines are open, but be prepared to pay up. If you think a second-round pick alone will get it done, well, I guess they’ll throw the Golden Gate in for free.