Per the Palm Beach Post, the Dolphins and impending free agent CB Sean Smith are "far apart" on contract talks.
Smith is said to be seeking a deal similar to the one Jason McCourty received from the Titans in August -- six years, $43 million, $20 million guaranteed. Miami is reportedly valuing Smith at a much lesser amount. The Dolphins will have until March 9 to negotiate with their long, physical corner, but it's almost certain that Smith will test the free-agent market.

http://www.rotoworld.com/sports/nfl/football

For that kind of money, I say let him go ahead and test the market.

That a hard one to stomach there. Would hate to lose Sean, but he has not even been a full time starter his whole time while in Miami.

It not an elite level contract, but I am not comfortable paying Sean 7 mill/per year with a 20 mill signing bonus.

I agree. I would have been more comfortable of paying our departed CB that kind of money. Sean Smith is too up and down to deserve that kind of a contract.

That's way too high for Sean. The total money per year isn't THAT bad, but a 6 year deal is too lengthy for my liking. And 20 million guaranteed is way too high.

5 years, 35 million, 12 guaranteed...That's about my max.

Another reason I thought trading Davis was the wrong move. It gave Smith more leverage.

20 million dollar signing bonus to SEAN SMITH?

I'd rather give Brent Grimes a big contract than Smith

Sean Smith is not the kind of player the Dolphins are going to offer a long-term deal to. He could have had a huge year............but continues to drop interceptions and wiffs on tackles. Philbin emphasizes the importance of turnovers.........he's looking for play-makers. I don't expect Smith to be back next year.

I'm starting to agree with this. As of today I think Bush, Hartline and Clemons are re-signed. I think Long, Smith and Starks hit the market and get very big contracts from other teams.

Not saying we shouldn't get rid of him, but man do Ireland's drafts just keep getting better. Two corners picked in the first two rounds, none of them with the team a few short years later....

Its $20 million guaranteed, not a signing bonus.

There is a difference.

People said I was crazy when I said it might take $6-7M to sign Smith because of his skillset and the position he plays. While I still think that he's probably worth around $4-$5M a season, again my gut is telling me he'll probably wind up getting around $6M. We're just too thin at cornerback now that Davis is gone. If we still had Davis we'd have a lot more wiggle room here. But we don't.

While Patterson and Marshall might become answers to some of our issues next season, they're more question mark right now than answer. We only got a small taste with Patterson the last two weeks and who knows how Marshall will recover from his surgery.

I'm hoping this gets resolved for somewhere around 5 years $20-$25M with $10-12M guaranteed. That way the deal is affordable for the team and we can move on and address other needs/contracts.

Now you're flat out making things up.

Did you or did you and several others not jump at my comments when I said he would be signing a deal in that range? While you may not have said the actual word "crazy", the manner with which my comments were contested certainly insinuated the notion. Now it appears that the exact numbers I hinted at were 100% accurate according to this article.

No, I jumped at your comments that YOU would resign him for that much.

He is not worth that much, we know it. No one disputed he may sign for that much elsewhere. Teams are always willing to overpay.

That being said, no one has signed him for that much yet, it is simply what he is purportedly asking for, so what are you pounding your chest about?

I have no problem giving Sean Smith a contract that can earn him between $6-$7M a season, so long as he doesn't get a lot of guaranteed money and the majority of the contract is incentive based. Incentives that would require him to significantly raise his level of play to meet. I see nothing wrong with rewarding good play. I never said I'd just hand over a huge contract with a lot of guaranteed money.

Also, I speculated that the going rate for a cornerback like him would be about that range. While the contract negotiations are ongoing, I think he'll wind up somewhere in that ballpark. No chest pounding necessary. I'm simply pointing out that my guestimate probably isn't going to be far off.

No need to get chippy Rich. Despite what you may think we probably see Smith about the same.

No need to fabricate or twist what was said...