Just a few days ago, it was reported that New England Patriots defensive end Trey Flowers was favored to go to the Miami Dolphins on a big payday. At the time it felt like a necessary and understandable deviation away from general manager Chris Grier’s stated philosophies on team building: don’t spend big money on the market.

Considering the staff knows Flowers well and he’s a young, impactful pass rusher, there’s plenty of justification for a move. But at what cost?

Omar Kelly shared last night that he’s been told reliably that Flowers will command between $14-17 million per season on the open market.

I’ve been told by a very reliable source that Patriots free agent Trey Flowers will get $14-17M on his next deal. Do with that whatever you’d like. — Omar Kelly (@OmarKelly) March 3, 2019

That is quite a pretty penny. And while Flowers is as good (and safe) as a player projecting into the Dolphins scheme as you will find, is he that good?

Should the Dolphins be able to keep Flowers’ market value at the lower end of that bucket, fans should have no problem with the pursuit of Flowers.

But crossing over into $16-17 million per season is an embarrassment of riches for a player who simply isn’t worth that annual average salary. Only two edge defenders currently average more than $17 million per season: Khalil Mack and Von Miller.

And no matter how reliable and sturdy Trey Flowers is as a football player, there’s simply no way to justify a salary range that puts him as the third highest-paid EDGE in the NFL.