Dolphins extend cornerback Bobby McCain’s contract and ink deals with first-round pick Minkah Fitzpatrick and three other rookies.

The Miami Dolphins have seen plenty of the team’s young talent leave the franchise the past few years because they did not lock them up to contract extensions before their rookie deals expired.

That approach has cost the team talents like Jarvis Landry, Dion Sims, Olivier Vernon, Lamar Miller, Rishard Matthews and Charles Clay in recent years, but it appears the team’s decision makers are altering their approach, which explains Friday’s signing of cornerback Bobby McCain to a four-year extension, which is worth $27 million.

According to a league source, $13 million of McCain’s new deal will be guaranteed, which means he’ll average $6.5 million a season for the next two years. The contract will make McCain one of the NFL’s highest-paid nickel cornerbacks.

McCain, a former University of Memphis standout the Dolphins selected in the fifth round of the 2015 draft, has started 19 of the 48 games he’s played the past three years. He’s primarily used in Miami’s nickel package defending slot receivers, but the Dolphins are experimenting with him working on the boundary too.

During the past three seasons McCain has contributed 121 tackles, three interceptions, two sacks, deflected 17 passes and forced one fumble.

This year, he’s been called on to serve as the leader of Miami’s cornerback unit because he’s the most experienced member of that group based on games played. Xavien Howard is beginning his third season, and is projected as a starter on the boundary, and Tony Lippett, who missed all of last season because of an Achilles tendon injury, and Cordea Tankersley, a 2017 thirdround pick who started 11 games last year, are competing for the other boundary spot.

McCain is the fifth player Miami signed to a contract on Friday, which happens to be the day Dolphins got $17 million in cap relief from this spring’s release of defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, who was designated as a June-1 release.

The Dolphins also signed safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, the team’s 2018 first-round pick, to a four-year deal that’s reportedly worth $16.4 million, and fellow draftees cornerback Cornell Armstrong, linebacker Quentin Poling and kicker Jason Sanders to four-year deals.

Four more of the Dolphins’ 2018 draft picks — tight ends Mike Gesicki, and Durham Smythe, linebacker Jerome Baker and tailback Kalen Ballage — still need to be signed. The salaries for rookies are slotted based on the collective bargaining agreement.