Beckham Jr. lobbies to get Landry new deal
Fellow Pro Bowler, LSU alum raves about Miami WR.
LAKE BUENA VISTA — The Dolphins haven’t st ar ted negotiating a long-term deal with Jarvis Landry yet, but he believes it’ll be a fairly painless process.
The team has said publicly it wants to take care of the star receiver and it intends to wrap up two or three extensions with unspecified players — Landry and Reshad Jones being obvious candidates — before the season starts. Landry’s been happy playing for the Dolphins and is especially encouraged by what they did this season. He’s optimistic that he and the team will be able to work something out.
“Yeah, man, I think so,” he said after the AFC Pro Bowl practice Friday. “But I haven’t really been paying too much attention to it. I’ve kinda just had my head down and tried to enjoy my family and these festivities.”
Regardless of the timeline or how this deal might come together, it’s clear from everything Landry has said about it that he envisions his future with the Dolphins.
This is Landry’s second trip to the Pro Bowl in three years with Miami. He has 288 career catches, 3,051 yards and 13 touchdowns. He played 94 percent of the team’s offensive snaps last season and led all receivers with a 71.8 catch percentage on his team-high 131 targets.
According to New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., his close friend and former college teammate Jarvis Landry “should get a big contract.”
Landry and Beckham were college teammates at LSU.
“I think he should get a big contract coming up soon,” said Beckham, a fellow Pro Bowler. “I’m excited for it. I’m excited for him and his family. They just had a baby, so I’m hoping it all goes well.”
Landry edged Beckham to win the NFL’s best hands competition at the Pro Bowl this week. Remarkably, they are tied with 288 catches in their first three NFL seasons, most in league history.
“Coincidence, I guess,” Beckham said. “But it speaks volumes to the things that we do and set out to accomplish a long time ago.”
Beckham was a first-round pick, 12th overall, in the 2014 draft. So Beckham’s rookie contract was four years, $10.4 million.
Because Landry was taken in the second round, 63rd overall in the 2014 draft, his rookie deal was four years, $3.5 million.
Landry will make $1.1 million this season, but is in line for an extension that should pay him in the range of $11 million-$13 million a season.
“Jarvis is the greatest I’ve ever seen,” Beckham said. “He’s a guy who pushes me to be better. He’s made me who I am today. And our relationship is still steadily going. It’s great. This is Year 3 and our second Pro Bowl together, so we’re going in the right direction.”
Noteworthy: The Dolphins could use another pass rusher and some help at linebacker, and Bills veteran Lorenzo Alexander is worth a look.
Alexander turns 34 this spring, but he’s coming off the best season of his career. He made the AFC Pro Bowl team after finishing third in the NFL with 12.5 sacks. At 6-foot-1, 245 pounds, he’d fit what Miami needs at outside linebacker, but for now he sounds inclined to return to Buffalo.
“It’s definitely up in the air right now,” he said of his free agency after Friday’s Pro Bowl practice. “I’ve gotta see where everything lies. We’ve got a new coaching staff and (Sean) McDermott’s coming in. I’ve heard great things about him. He has a 4-3 system. I know I can play in any scheme in the league, but obviously coaches have their own opinions.
“They’ve reached out to me, they want me to be back, but because I signed a vet minimum deal last year, I can’t sign nothing until free agency starts anyway. I’ll wait and see what all the offers are on the table ... but I would love to go back to Buffalo.”