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Marcel Louis-Jacques
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Miami Dolphins and defensive tackle Zach Sieler agreed to a three-year extension Sunday, his agents told ESPN’s Adam Schefter, that makes him the team’s highest-paid defensive player.
The extension is worth up to $67.75 million, $44 million of which is guaranteed; the $22.5 million average annual value more than doubles his current AAV.
Sieler signed a three-year, $30 million extension in the summer of 2023. He has recorded back-to-back 10-sack seasons for the Dolphins. However, he was the NFL’s 29th-highest-paid defensive tackle in terms of AAV, just ahead of Cleveland Browns rookie Mason Graham.
Sieler missed the team’s voluntary OTA practices but was an active participant in mandatory minicamp and the first 10 days of training camp.
A team captain, Sieler said that while a new contract was important to him, so was being on the field with his teammates.
“Everyone’s their own human. They can handle things how they want,” Sieler said last month. “This is how I choose to handle it, but I hope the message that puts out there is that, at end of the day, we’re here to play football. Now obviously that stuff’s very important to me — the respect and the money that my family gets and makes from this game. We give it all on the line every single day, and I’m going to continue to do that every day.
“But to be able to go out there and work despite everything, I think I’m trying to show that you can go out there and play your best ball and still work through stuff without having to compartmentalize things.”
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel lauded Sieler for continuing to show up through his contract negotiations.
As the team attempts to reestablish a culture of accountability, McDaniel said Sieler’s efforts have not gone unnoticed.
“I think you define yourself by your actions, most of all in life,” McDaniel said on July 25. “I’m very aware that all players have a choice in what they do on a day-to-day basis, specifically with Zach, and his actions speak — and I think his teammates very much recognize how Zach Sieler plays football and contributes to the building every day. And I think Zach has a vision of a team that I share and he understands as a leader, he’s trying to show guys how he wants teammates to play football and I’m excited every time I see Zach Sieler.”
A former Ferris State walk-on, Sieler was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the seventh round in 2018 but was waived the following year; the Dolphins claimed him the next day.
After recording nine sacks in his first three seasons with Miami, Sieler has led the Dolphins in sacks with 10 across each of the past two campaigns.
Since the start of the 2023 season, only Baltimore’s Nnamdi Madubuike has more quarterback hits than Sieler’s 41.
