Why There's No Reason To Panic Over Lack of Brooks Extension

The Miami Dolphins are a month away from their first training camp practice of 2026, and the one unfinished item on the business agenda remains the contract of linebacker Jordyn Brooks.

The veteran is coming off an All-Pro season and headed into the final year of his contract, and he's the kind of player the Dolphins can use at this early stage of their rebuilding process, for what he brings both on the field and in terms of leadership.

The Dolphins already have given out contract extensions to running back De'Von Achane and center Aaron Brewer, the former the team MVP in 2025 and the latter a second-team All-Pro selection.

New GM Jon-Eric Sullivan said earlier in the offseason that getting Achane a new deal was the first priority, which made sense considering he's relatively younger than either Brewer or Brooks, and that ideally he'd address the other two a bit later.

The Dolphins got a little bit of cap maneuverability once Bradley Chubb's post-June 1 release was processed, and that enabled them to sign their 2026 draft class along with the Brewer extension.

So there's been nothing stopping a new deal for Brooks, other than the two sides coming to an agreement on what that new deal would look like.

That includes compensation and term, and it's never as simple as Dolphins make an offer, player accepts, deal signed.

There's some back and forth involved, and sometimes those things take time. And sometimes they simply never work out, as was the case with defensive tackle Christian Wilkins before he decided to simply play on his fifth-year option in 2023 before entering free agency the following offseason and ultimately signing a massive deal with the Las Vegas Raiders.

But when team and player want to make it work, it usually does work.

WHAT'S A REALISTIC TIMETABLE FOR BROOKS CONTRACT?

The idea that negotiations aren't simple was brought up by former GM Chris Grier early in the 2024 offseason when he was discussing the future of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

And, sure enough, it wasn't until July 26 — after training camp had started — that the Dolphins signed Tagovailoa to his extension.

But that wasn't an isolated case.

Veteran defensive tackle Zach Sieler had signed two contract extensions in recent years, both of them executed in August (in 2023 and 2025).

Fullback Alec Ingold signed a three-year extension in 2023 at the very end of August.

So the fact that Brooks and the Dolphins haven't agreed to a contract extension yet doesn't mean there won't be one coming.

While the possibility can't be eliminated that the Dolphins ultimately decide to trade him if they get the right offer or let him play out his contract and either revisit his contract situation next spring or let him leave him in free agency, the likelihood remains that Brooks will sign a new deal.

Brooks didn't miss any practice in the spring — at least those open to the media — and that includes the voluntary OTAs, and that's a positive sign in terms of negotiations.

Brooks actually strikes us as somebody who'll approach his contract negotiations the same way Sieler did, doing his work as he normally would while letting his agent do his job. It's a different approach than Wilkins or Tagovailoa, who both were limiting their work ("holding in" is the new term for this) until they reached a satisfactory conclusion — in Tua's case, that meant getting a new deal; for Wilkins, it meant suspending all talks as the regular season approached but then heading for free agency.

Until proven otherwise, there's no reason to think things will turn sour with the Dolphins-Brooks relationship, though there also are no guarantees.

But recent history tells us that it's too early still to get overly concerned about where things are headed.

Add us as a preferred source on Google