The Miami Dolphins have picked up the fifth-year option for wide receiver DeVante Parker, according to a source. It's a move that's mildly surprising considering Parker, the 2015 first-round pick, has been inconsistent over his previous three seasons.
Parker, who will earn about $9.3 million for the 2019 season, has 139 receptions for 1,908 yards and eight touchdowns for his career. He totaled 57 receptions for 670 yards and one touchdown last season.
Parker, tremendously talented but afflicted by injury and professionalism issues, has been somewhat of an enigma with Miami. Prior to last season former offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen and wide receivers coach Shawn Jefferson both predicted big things for Parker.
But Parker didn't deliver, instead taking a backseat to fellow wide receivers Jarvis Landry, who was traded to Cleveland recently, and Kenny Stills. Landry had a career-best and league-leading 112 receptions while Stills had 58 receptions for 847 yards and six touchdowns, each registering as the second-best totals of his five-year career.
Securing Parker, for now, means Miami figures to have a 2019 wide receivers group that includes Parker, Stills, newly-acquired Danny Amendola and Albert Wilson and Jakeem Grant, among others. Parker, Stills and Amendola figure to be the starters for the 2018 season.
Dolphins coaches have alternated between scolding Parker and coddling. Parker was openly criticized two years ago by Gase, who basically said Parker needs to learn to take care of his body and develop better habits away from the field.
But at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando in March, Gase struck an optimist chord.
"I would say I feel like we know what he can do in our building," Gase said. "I don't think there's any question about what anybody feels of what he can do. I don't even think it's a potential thing. I think it's a health thing. It's just about how are we going to keep him healthy? I think that's when we get our best DeVante Parker.
"I think we're trying to do as much as we can to figure out a way to make sure when we hit spring, we start from there and we just keep building on it. It's just unpredictable. We need a little bit of luck. We need him to do the right things and he has been. He's been trying to do everything the right way. We've just kind of got to see ... let the chips fall where they may."
While Parker, selected No. 14 in the 2015 draft, has lagged behind expectations he has company from many of his other fellow first-round wide receivers that year.
Oakland's Amari Cooper (No. 4) has been good but Chicago's Kevin White (No. 7), Philadelphia's Nelson Agholor (No. 20), Baltimore's Breshad Perriman (No. 26) and New England's Phillip Dorsett (No. 29 to Indianapolis) have all had their struggles.
By making sure Parker is under contract for 2019 the Dolphins won't have the financial standoff they had with Landry during this offseason when the sides couldn't agree on a salary. The difference is Landry was a second-round pick and the team didn't have a fifth-year option because those only go to first-round picks. Regardless, the Dolphins now know they'll have Parker under contract and can move to other things.
Miami has now picked up the fifth-year option on four of their last five eligible first-round picks with only defensive end Dion Jordan (2013) being omitted. The others who had their fifth-year options picked up or contracts extended are center Mike Pouncey (2011 draft), quarterback Ryan Tannehill (2012), and right tackle Ja'Wuan James (2014).
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