The Miami Dolphins have been busy since the conclusion of the 2022 season, making quite a few moves in effort to improve themselves for the 2023 campaign. One move they didn't make, though, was to re-sign tight end Mike Gesicki, who ended up getting stolen from them by the New England Patriots.

After a fairly disappointing 2022 campaign, it wasn't totally surprising to see Gesicki leave, but now Miami has to find a proper replacement for him at the position. While it certainly won't prevent them from making more moves at the position, the Dolphins took the first step towards replacing Gesicki by signing his backup, Durham Smythe, to a new contract extension.

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Miami Dolphins head coach MIke McDaniel next to Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill. Mike McDaniel has a speech bubble with iMessage three dots/ellipsis.

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Smythe has spent the first five seasons of his career with Miami, and will now be sticking around for the foreseeable future as well. Smythe has played second-fiddle to Gesicki for most of his career, but he still put up some solid numbers in 2021 (34 REC, 357 YDS) before crashing back down to earth in 2022 (15 REC, 129 YDS, 1 TD). But with Gesicki in New England now, a path for more playing time exists for Smythe.

Given his lackluster production early on in his career, chances are the Dolphins aren't going to stick with just Smythe at the tight end position moving forward, but it's interesting that they were willing to extend him rather than re-sign Gesicki in free agency. It will be interesting to see how big of a role Smythe has in 2023, or whether the team further looks to shore up the position in the upcoming 2023 NFL Draft.