First player from this year’s draft class signed
The Miami Dolphins have signed the first of 11 players selected as part of their 2020 draft class.
Solomon Kindley, the former University of Georgia standout selected in the fourth round, signed a four-year deal that will pay the versatile offensive guard $4,079,572 in base salary and signing bonus. Kindley, a three-year starter for the Bulldogs, will likely compete with Ereck Flowers, Michael Deiter, Danny Isidora, Shaq Calhoun, Adam Pankey, Keaton Sutherland and fellow rookie Robert Hunt for one of the two starting guard spots on Miami’s rebuilt offensive line.
Kindley, who excelled in the run game during his collegiate career, is projected to receive a signing bonus in the neighborhood of $785,000 according to Overthecap.com. The details of Solomon’s contract were not immediately available, but every member of Miami’s 2020 draft outside of the three firstround selections will initially receive a signing bonus and minimum contracts for the next four years. However, their base salaries will likely escalate based on playing time because of the NFL’s salary structure.
The Dolphins’ total pool of funds needed to sign the 2020 draft class is $17,517,278, but less than $14 million will be needed in cap space because only the top 51 salaries on the team’s 90-player training camp roster counts against the salary cap.
The Dolphins have roughly $28 million in cap space after last week’s release of defensive end Taco Charlton, who signed with the Kansas City Chiefs; the trade that sent pass rusher Charles Harris to the Atlanta Falcons for a 2021 seventhround pick; and Tuesday’s restructuring of receiver Albert WIlson’s contract, which trimmed his 2020 salary from $9.5 million to a max of $4 million.
Quarterback Tua
Tagavailoa, the fifth pick in the draft, will likely receive a four-year deal that pays him $30,275,436.
Offensive tackle Austin Jackson, who was taken with the 18th pick, will likely receive a four-year deal that pays him $13,640,353 million, and cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, the Auburn standout the Dolphins used the 30th pick to select, will likely receive a four-year deal that pays him $11,254,202.
Miami holds fifth-year options on all three of those players selected in the first round that the Dolphins must trigger in May of 2023 if they determine the player is worth the salary determined by a complicated calculation of the league’s highest-paid players at their positions. Fifth-year options are only guaranteed for injury until the start of the league year in 2024.
The contracts for first-round picks are fully guaranteed, but those are the only draftees that get full guaranteed deals. Most only have their signing bonuses guaranteed.
Hunt, the Louisiana-Lafayette standout the Dolphins took with the draft’s 39th pick, is slated to earn $8,065,742 over the first four years of his deal, and defensive tackle Raekwon Davis, whom Miami used the 56th pick to draft, will earn $5,655,510 over the first four years of his rookie deal.
Brandon Jones, the Texas safety the Dolphins selected in the fourth round, is slotted to earn a base salary of $4,079,572 during his four-year rookie deal.
Defensive linemen Jason Strowbridge is slated to earn $3,621,488, and Curtis Weaver will likely sign for $3,602,996 over four years.
Long snapper Blake Ferguson’s contract as a sixth-round pick will likely pay him $3,485,452 over four years, and former Navy standout Malcolm Perry, the Dolphins’ seventhround pick, will likely receive a $97,000 signing bonus on the four-year, $3,392,324 deal he’ll sign in the coming weeks.