Dolphins sign Jason Sanders to extension that reportedly makes him one of NFL's highest-paid kickers

Miami is locking up the star kicker for the foreseeable future

As the NFL approaches free agency and the draft, the Miami Dolphins have taken care of some in-house business. On Tuesday, the club announced they have come to terms with kicker Jason Sanders on a five-year extension that keeps him linked to the organization through the 2026 season. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the deal is worth $22 million and includes $10 million guaranteed. 

Sanders was entering the final year of his contract in 2021 that had a base salary of $920,000. This extension now makes him one of the highest-paid kickers in the NFL with an average annual value to this extension sitting at $4.4 million. Only Baltimore's Justin Tucker ($5 million), the Giants' Graham Gano ($4.66 million) and Houston's Ka'imi Fairbairn ($4.41 million) are above him from an AAV standpoint for 2021, so Miami essentially views him as a top-five player at his position.  

The 25-year-old was selected by the Dolphins in the seventh round of the 2018 NFL Draft out of New Mexico. Since then, Sanders has proven to be one of the better kickers in the game and just earned first-team All-Pro honors for his 2020 season where he converted 92.3% of his field goals and all 36 of his extra-point attempts. For his career, Sanders has netted 86.5% of his field goals (12-for-15 from 50-plus yards) and has a 98% conversion rate on those extra points. 

Miami is one of the handful of teams with a strong cap situation heading into free agency so it wouldn't be surprising to see them be active over the next few months with free agents and in-house players they want to keep for the long haul.