Jared Odrick to Jaguars: Latest Contract Details, Comments, Reaction

Jared Odrick has developed into one of the NFL's most reliable defensive tackles in recent years, and he parlayed that progression into an imminent free-agent deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

According to Chris Perkins and Omar Kelly of the Sun Sentinel, Odrick has agreed to terms with the Jags. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported the deal will pay him $8.5 million annually with $22 million guaranteed.      

The Jaguars confirmed the deal via their Twitter account on Wednesday.

The Miami Dolphins made Odrick the 28th overall selection in the 2010 NFL draft, and he quickly became a key part of one of the NFL's strongest defensive lines.

While defensive ends Cameron Wake and Olivier Vernon garnered much of the attention, Odrick did yeoman's work inside and showed a great deal of versatility.

The former Penn State standout played in all 16 games for the Dolphins in each of the past four campaigns, and he averaged over five sacks per season from 2011 to 2013.

His sack total dipped to just one in 2014, but he was still a productive player with 29 tackles and a career-high five passes defended.

Based on the fact that Odrick was such a good fit in Miami's defense, the prevailing thought was that he would remain in South Beach, according to Andrew Abramson of The Palm Beach Post:

Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

As much as the Dolphins wanted to keep the 27-year-old lineman, there were other factors at work as well. Kelly had heard that Odrick was expected to command as much as $7 million per year on the open market, which evidently turned out to be the case:

With such a high price tag, Rapoport conceded that it would have been difficult for Miami to hang on to him:

The Dolphins had an extremely difficult decision to make, and they ultimately came to the conclusion that the money would be better spent elsewhere. That point was further proved by the reported signing of Ndamukong Suh, per ESPN's Chris Mortensen.

Miami has a decent amount of depth along the defensive line, but with needs in the linebacker corps as well as on the offensive line, it may have been difficult to justify signing Odrick to such a lucrative contract.

There is no question that Odrick has the ability to succeed outside of Miami, and it will certainly be interesting to see if he is able to live up to his contract.

For Jacksonville, Odrick should be a valuable addition as the team continues to build on both sides of the ball.

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