Chiefs General Manager John Dorsey said Wednesday that compensation coming back from the Dolphins is the sticking point in the Branden Albert trade talks and a report from Ben Volin of the Palm Beach Post may explain the hangup.
Volin heard from a source Thursday that the Dolphins don’t believe trading a second-round pick is worth what they’d be getting in return. There’s no word on what the Dolphins would prefer to pony up to acquire Albert as the clock ticks on their chance to swing a deal before the moment passes both teams by.
Any trade for the tackle would include a long-term deal with Albert believed to be looking for something in the neighborhood of $9 million a year to put his name on the dotted line, a neighborhood the Dolphins weren’t willing to travel to when Jake Long wound up signing with the Rams. Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald reports that the Dolphins are on board with the financial compensation for Albert, which meshes with Dorsey’s comments about the trade compensation being the snag.
Signing Long wouldn’t have cost them any picks, obviously, so it’s reasonable to believe that the Dolphins think Albert is the better player for their offensive scheme. Whether that’s enough to push them to give up what the Chiefs are looking for in an Albert trade looks like one of the biggest questions we’ll have answered in the next few days.