Should Miami Work Out A Long Term Deal With Landry?

Jarvis Landry has recently been franchise tagged by the Miami Dolphins, they have until July 15th to sign a long term deal, but question is: should they sign him or trade him?
Before we get into his play, I want to state that from the research I’ve been doing I saw that Landry is willing to sign for $14.5 million per year and, bar the incentives, it tells me: sign him up! But has he shown enough to earn that much? Because comparing this contract to Antonio Brown’s there’s only $2.5m difference.
So, is he worth the money? Let’s have a look.




4 years, 4038 yards, 400 receptions in 570 targets (that’s 70,17% of his targets being hauled in), 22 touchdowns, 57 starts over 64 possible games. Jarvis Landry had two 1000+ yards season before this past year. This year he was just 13 yards away from having 3 straight one thousand yards season, and let’s not forget he played without his starting QB, Matt Moore and Jay Cutler played the whole season with Cutler playing 14 out of the 16 games and yet Landry still put up consistent numbers and even had more touchdowns this year than in past years proving to be more critical to the Dolphins than even before.
Also discussing the injury front, Jarvis Landry only had 3 injuries in the past 6 years. One of them being when he was a true freshman where he suffered a stress fracture in his foot in 2011, he saw limited action in 14 games that year. Then in 2013 he had a foot injury in October, starting 10 out of 13 games, with his last injury being in November of 2015 where he strained his left knee late in the season but wasn't forced to miss any games giving his best to the team.



The argument of Landry not being a good redzone target has been shut down. He generated the third best passer rating (124.1) when being targeted inside of the redzone, that’s the second best in the NFL when it comes to wide receivers. This continues to prove his consistency and ability to create separation even in short spaces proving the fact that he can be counted on in any part of the field.




Since 2014 Landry also has the most receptions from the slot and this year he, once again, led the NFL in from that position with 68 receptions.
So, in 3 years he’s hauled in 267 passes talling up 2,880 receiving yards from the slot, showing us his ability to not only move the chains, but to gain a lot of yards after the catch because another neat stat shows us that he can force missed tackles. Back in 2016, with 3 years in the league he had already forced 65 missed tackles proving, stat wise, the ability to make defenders miss. His 65 missed tackles are the second most in the NFL.



Another good argument as to why teams, whether it’s Miami or not, should sign Landry into a long term deal is because next year players like Stefon Diggs, Odell Beckham Jr, Golden Tate, Jordy Nelson and Brandin Cooks are free agents and some of those players will redifine the wide receiver market value and by this time next year, Landry could be asking for $24M a year, for example.
At the end of the day, Jarvis has been a consistent wide receiver and at the age of 25 he’ll only continue to improve and, just like I think Seattle should re-sign Paul Richardson, I believe the Dolphins should do the same with Landry, not at all costs though because I believe anything over $16 is already a big stretch for him but in 3 years we could be looking at a bargain if Landry continues to regularly produce 10 touchdowns, 1 thousand yards seasons.



So, taking into consideration that this year’s draft isn’t the greatest when it comes to wide receivers and how next year’s market is shaping up, my ultimate decision would be for Miami to work out a long term deal with Landry because if not, they might be more than a year without a number one receiver and whether people see it or not Jarvis Landry elevates the play of the guys around him.
He’s a great wide receiver with the ability to become elite. He’s had 2 one thousand yards season and was 13 yards away of making it 3 in a row. Playing with a subpar quarterback he was the NFL reception leader in 2017 and he’s also a 3 time pro bowler, adding all of this to the fact that he’s one of the least injury prone wideouts I can’t see why the Dolphins don’t bring him back long term.
With that said, in my opinion, Miami has to at least try and sign Landry into a long term contract because not only is he their best receiver he has the ability to be top 10 in the league.
Right now he may not be flashy but he’s been consistent and consistency is key for improvement and with hard work, success happens.