Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that the chances of Robert Hunt and Christian Wilkins re-signing with Miami next week when both are on the open market and able to talk with other teams aren’t looking promising.

Regarding Robert Hunt, Barry reports: “A source said Friday that Hunt’s return to the Dolphins isn’t looking very good unless the Dolphins suddenly can come up with enough cap space and financial resources to compete with offers expected to exceed $15 million annually. The Dolphins and Hunt have preserved a very good relationship through the negotiating process, but Miami — which is well over the salary cap — doesn’t appear in position to compete at the high end with other teams in a guard market that’s exploding, unless the front office suddenly changes its approach.”

In regards to Christian Wilkins, the Miami Herald sources an ESPN Adam Schefter Report that says: “Meanwhile, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that defensive tackle Christian Wilkins will very likely sign elsewhere. Schefter said the bidding for Wilkins will reach the $24 million or $25 million per year range. To this point, the Dolphins haven’t been comfortable going to that point.”

It came out earlier this week from Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald that last summer, the Miami Dolphins offered Chrisitan Wilkins a contract that would have paid him in the Top 10 of all defensive tackles in the NFL. The 10th highest-paid defensive tackle was Kenny Clark of the Green Bay Packers, who paid him an average of $17.5 million a season. So, Wilkins would have been paid more than that. How much more, we don’t know, but it would have been Top 10 at his position money.

Barry also reports that the guaranteed money would have been more than $40 million, and only ten defensive tackles currently in the NFL have contracts with $40 million or more guaranteed.

Wilkins ended the 2023 season with nine sacks and 65 tackles, a career high for sacks and a career low for tackles in a single season. When the Dolphins and Wilkins couldn’t agree to a long-term deal last summer prior to training camp, Wilkins held a sit-in during training camp last season, during which he didn’t participate in team drills or preseason games.

Chris Grier, when speaking to the media last week, stated that he and the representation for Robert Hunt discussed a contract extension mid-season this past year, but Hunt wanted to test free agency.