Miami Dolphins
Projected Cap Space: -$6.7 million
Draft Picks: 10
- 1st (No. 13)
- 2nd (No. 48)
- 3rd (No. 98, comp)
- 4th (No. 115)
- 4th (No. 135, comp)
- 5th (No. 151)
- 5th (No. 156, DEN)
- 7th (No. 226, CHI)
- 7th (No. 233)
- 7th (No. 252, comp)
Notable Free Agents:
- S Jevon Holland
- DT Calais Campbell
- S Jordan Poyer
- DE Emmanuel Ogbah
- LB Tyrel Dodson
- G Robert Jones
- OL Liam Eichenberg
- OL Isaiah Wynn
- CB Kader Kohou (RFA)
- LB Anthony Walker Jr.
- LB Duke Riley
- DT Benito Jones
- DL Da’Shawn Hand
- OT Kendall Lamm
- QB Tyler Huntley
- OLB Tyus Bowser
Top Three Needs
1 – Interior Offensive Line
The Dolphins are set to lose both starting guards from last season in Jones and Eichenberg, plus a player in Wynn who the team had hoped would be part of the solution before a quad injury scuttled the majority of the past two seasons. Eichenberg is a former high draft pick who never settled into a solid role, while Jones is a former undrafted free agent who was pressed into a starting role after the Dolphins lost G Robert Hunt to the Panthers in free agency last year.
It’s not out of the question any of the three could be back but this is also an opportunity for Miami to try and upgrade a spot that’s been a bit of a weakness over the past few years. The Dolphins also seem to be managing injuries on the line every season, so making sure the depth is in a good place is also important.
2 – Defensive Line
Last year, the Dolphins threw a bunch of one-year darts to try and replace the turnover up front on the defensive line after losing Christian Wilkins, Raekwon Davis and others. Now that those deals are set to expire, they’ve got to do it again, as veteran DL Zach Sieler is the only non-futures defensive lineman under contract for 2025.
Miami could make a run at re-signing Campbell, who was excellent for the Dolphins in 2024. But even though he continues to defy widely accepted beliefs about aging each season, the 38-year-old is not a long-term solution. He might not even have the Dolphins first on his wish list, as winning a championship is about the only thing Campbell hasn’t accomplished in his long and illustrious career.
With how tight the budget is for the Dolphins, expect Miami to devote a couple of its 10 selections to defensive tackle in what’s widely viewed as the deepest draft at that position in some time.
3 – Safety
Continuing a theme for a Dolphins team that has 26 pending unrestricted free agents, Miami is currently set to lose both starting safeties from last year with Holland and Poyer on expiring deals. Of the two, the Dolphins are far more likely to try to press through their financial limitations to keep Holland, who is turning 25 years old this March and has flashed high-level potential. But the only way to keep him from testing the market is the franchise tag, which is projected to be $19.6 million. All of that hits the cap at once, which is a tough sell for Miami when it needs to get under the cap and handle a significant amount of roster turnover.
Re-signing Holland isn’t out of the question, but there will be strong competition. Holland has a case to at least match Packers S Xavier McKinney, who inked a four-year, $67 million contract last year that puts him just inside the top five of the safety market at $16.75 million a season. A deal worth $18 million a year for Holland is within the realm of outcomes.
Even if Miami finds a way to keep Holland, the other starting spot across from him will need attention, as well as additional depth. Poyer turns 34 in April and it feels like both sides are ready for a split.
One Big Question
Can the Dolphins become more hard-nosed?
While the Dolphins have had some success since hiring HC Mike McDaniel three seasons ago, putting together a 28-23 record and making the playoffs twice, they’ve crashed into a hard ceiling every year and extended Miami’s playoff victory drought to 24 seasons — the longest in the NFL. Every year is different yet somehow also the same. When everything is going well, usually early in the season, the offense is difficult to deal with thanks to the combination of McDaniel’s inventive designs and a collection of skill position talent that would be the hands-down favorite to win an NFL 4×100 relay.
But when things don’t go well, the Dolphins crumble. Losing a starting quarterback to injury would be a tough challenge for any team but every year there are teams that work through it. But when the Dolphins have lost QB Tua Tagovailoa to a concussion in two of the past three years, it’s sent their season off the rails. The offense is built so painstakingly around Tagovailoa and his particular skillset that it feels like it impedes the ability of anyone else to run it properly, and McDaniel hasn’t been able to make the necessary adjustments.
Miami’s offense has also gotten worse over the last three years the deeper into the year it gets as the natural attrition of an NFL season takes its toll and the weather gets colder. When things are good, the Dolphins are like a high-performance sports car on offense, but just as finicky if something goes wrong compared to other teams that might be less explosive but far more rugged.
The Dolphins knew all of this was a problem going into last season and talked about needing to prove they were a more physical, strong-minded team. Losing Tagovailoa for a month to a concussion was something they couldn’t overcome, however, and the culture problems got even worse at the end of the season with current and former players calling them out, WR Tyreek Hill pulling himself out of a game and McDaniel acknowledging after the season that there were rampant tardiness and discipline issues.
It’s past time for the Dolphins to show they can deal with adversity because things aren’t getting any easier. Between last offseason and this offseason, the Dolphins will have let a significant swathe of players leave because they can’t afford to keep them with deals for Tagovailoa, Hill and others eating up most of their cap space. Beyond the personnel challenges, though, the biggest factor in Miami’s success in 2025 will be whether McDaniel can make the changes to his scheme and the culture he sets to prevent a repeat of the last three years.
If he can’t, it’s not out of the question to think he won’t get another year to try again.
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