Armstead 'Fully Invested,' Fully Optimistic

Veteran Pro Bowl tackle Terron Armstead is hoping to lead the Miami Dolphins to an AFC East title in what could be his final NFL season

Terron Armstead / Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports

Terron Armstead will be back for a third season with the Miami Dolphins in 2024 after he made headlines by admitting that retirement would be a possibility.

But Armstead says the truth is that this wasn’t the first time the thought had crossed his mind.

"In all honesty, the past two, maybe three seasons, I've taken time to have that evaluation period, to really process," Armstead said during an interview with NFL Network on Monday. "This game comes with a lot, a lot of physical, mental and emotional toll, so just really taking time to process and like I said, evaluate what I wanted to do. Because when I'm doing this thing, I would never want to be halfway in. Full commitment, full investment. So this offseason I was a little more vocal about that evaluation period, which raised a lot more coverage, but I went through that process for the past two or three years."

News of Armstead’s return came in mid-March and was accompanied with him agreeing to restructure his contract, in large part to reduce his 2024 cap number.

With his new deal, Armstead now will count $10.6 million against the cap, per overthecap.com, about half the original amount. Armstead added two void years to his contract to spread out the signing bonus on the cap and he’s got no guaranteed salary beyond next season.

ARMSTEAD CONFIDENT ABOUT THE DOLPHINS

Based on the new structure of the contract and the fact he’s contemplated retirement the past few offseasons, it’s not out of line to suggest this very well could be (if not probably) the last go-around for Armstead.

He obviously would love nothing more than to help the Dolphins take the next step in 2024 after the team wasted strong starts each of the past two seasons.

The Dolphins had a great chance to unseat the Buffalo Bills atop the AFC East last season when they led the division by three games with five weeks left and the opportunity this year might come with the fact the Bills let go of some many key veterans in the offseason, including Stefon Diggs and new Miami safety Jordan Poyer.

But Armstead said the focus isn’t on the other teams in the division.

"It's all in house, it's all in house," he told NFL Network. "We don't really look at all the other moving pieces within the division, or around the league, because we feel like we have enough. We're talented enough, we're skilled enough, we're tough enough, we just have to do. It's now time to show improvements, to show we can win those big games and live those big moments. So it doesn't matter who's traded, we don't look at that, we have enough to beat anybody at full strength, and that's really our mindset, it's our mentality. We have that confidence, but we just have to go out and do it."