Miami dolphins submitted formal proposal to sign…

After months of wrangling for a better deal elsewhere in free agency, and perhaps regret over passing up an extension proposal from the Miami Dolphins last year, wide receiver Oronde Gadsden is returning to the team.

The two sides reached agreement in principle on Thursday night, fine-tuned some details the following morning, and Gadsden officially signed the one-year contract Friday afternoon. The contract is worth $555,000, and includes a signing bonus of $25,000 and base salary of $530,000, the minimum for a player of Gadsden’s tenure.

Because of a rule implemented last year, which provides a cap break for teams who sign veterans to minimum-salary deals, Gadsden will count just $475,000 against the Dolphins’ spending limit for 2003

Gadsden, 31, had hoped to do far better financially in what became an unrestricted free agency misadventure. He agreed to the minimum deal with Miami essentially because he had no other suitors, and Dolphins teammates and coaches urged him in recent days to re-sign. Negotiations were also slowed in part because Gadsden and his wife are expecting their first child and on Thursday, she went into labor.

“It’s been a roller-coaster of emotions, definitely,” Gadsden allowed after signing the contract. “We did what we could. It’s not a total loss. I’m looking forward to playing some football now.”

A five-year veteran, Gadsden last year rejected a three-year offer from the Dolphins that included a signing bonus of $750,000. He drew interest early in free agency from three or four teams, but the only franchise that made him a formal proposal was Minnesota, which offered options of one-, two- and three-year deals. The three-year offer was worth about $3 million.

But as Gadsden kept attempting to raise the stakes, the market bottomed out on him, and teams began to fill their wide receiver needs with other players. When the Jacksonville Jaguars decided Monday to sign former San Francisco starter J.J. Stokes, and to cancel a visit with Gadsden, he ran out of options.

The former Winston-Salem star, signed as a free agent in 1998 after starring in the Arena Football League, is coming off a campaign cut short by a wrist injury. Gadsden chose to have the surgery last October, rather than continue playing with the injury for the balance of the season, and perhaps risking further damage.

That surgery reduced his season to just six games, all starts, and he had 16 receptions for 228 yards and no touchdowns. All those numbers represented career lows.

During his first four NFL seasons, Gadsden averaged 51.7 receptions, 744 yards and 5.5 touchdowns. In his first three years, he scored 19 touchdowns and he never had fewer than 48 catches in any of the first four seasons in the league.

Blessed with great hands and body control, Gadsden is noted for the acrobatic catch, and his size and aggressiveness make him a solid “red zone” threat. Those qualities aside, he will have to compete hard to regain his starting position, and to even earn a roster spot.

In the offseason, Chris Chambers and James McKnight have lined up as the starters, and the Dolphins acquired former Washington starter Derrius Thompson in free agency and drafted J.R. Tolver in the fifth round. The rookie from San Diego State has drawn plenty of praise from Miami coaches in offseason workouts.

For his career, Gadsden has 223 catches for 3,204 yards and 22 touchdowns. He has played in 69 games and started 56 of them.