Miami Dolphins News & Rumors

Making back-to-back playoff berths for the first time in more than 20 years, the Dolphins have elevated their operation under Mike McDaniel. The drivers of that effort became more expensive this offseason, and the team again replaced its defensive coordinator. The Dolphins ranked first in total offense for the first time since Dan Marino‘s age-33 season (1994), but another late-season letdown — albeit with significant injury problems — became the lead story for this team.

As they attempt to shake off a no-show for a frigid Kansas City wild-card game, the Dolphins also lost some key pieces in assembling their 2024 puzzle. But they sure took care of their cornerstones as well.

Extensions and restructures:

• Reached four-year, $212.4MM ($132.17MM guaranteed) with QB Tua Tagovailoa
• Reworked WR Tyreek Hill‘s deal, finalizing three-year, $90MM agreement ($54MM guaranteed)
• Agreed to three-year, $84.75MM extension ($35.98MM guaranteed) with WR Jaylen Waddle
• Extended CB Jalen Ramsey at three years, $72.3MM
• LT Terron Armstead accepted $4.25MM pay cut in exchange for $10MM in guarantees
• Extended RB Raheem Mostert on two-year, $9.08MM deal ($4.13MM guaranteed)
• Gave RB Jeff Wilson pay cut from $2.6MM to $1.13MM
• Restructured DT Zach Sieler, FB Alec Ingold, TE Durham Smythe contracts, saving $8.86MM in cap space

Even though a partial hold-in took place to open training camp, the Dolphins’ negotiations with Tagovailoa were not especially rocky. But the value debates here did become interesting during the months-long talks.

While most teams with first-round quarterbacks they plan to extend complete extensions after the player’s third year, the Dolphins were understandably hesitant about this deal. Tua submitted inconsistent work during Brian Flores‘ tenure and sustained at least two (but most likely three) concussions in 2022. Early retirement consideration transpired in 2023, but the NFL’s lone active southpaw QB1 stayed healthy last season and set himself up for a payday on a soaring market.

The NFL’s passer rating and yards per attempt leader in 2022 (105.5, 8.9), Tagovailoa showed his breakthrough (when healthy) was not a fluke by pacing the 2023 field in yardage (4,624) during a season in which both Hill and Waddle — not to mention most of Miami’s O-line — missed time. The sides began negotiations in April, but by midsummer, the fifth-year passer had rejected one offer. A subsequent report indicated the Dolphins were aiming to avoid extending their QB at a top-market rate.

Guarantees became a sticking point for the team as well, but the Dolphins were not the team to buck this growing trend of giving promising but unspectacular (to date, at least) passers $50MM-plus per year. Tagovailoa joined Goff, Lawrence and Jordan Love in expanding the $50MM-AAV club to eight this offseason. The Dolphins, who had last authorized a franchise-level QB payment upon extending Ryan Tannehill (at $19.25MM per year) in 2015, needed to adjust the per-year salary near the end of the negotiations to complete the deal.

Tagovailoa’s “the market is the market” assessment reminded of the reality the Dolphins faced. Even second-tier QBs carry tremendous leverage, and the Dolphins waiting until Year 5 to pay theirs further equipped the player. The team navigated a difficult cap situation this offseason, and a Tua 2025 franchise tag would have placed a cap hold beyond $40MM on the payroll. Another productive year with the historically explosive Hill-Waddle tandem also would have upped Tagovailoa’s price, with Dak Prescott likely set to raise the market’s ceiling once again.

The Dolphins did avoid paying Tua $55MM per year, but they both settled on the Goff $53MM-AAV level and agreed to a rolling guarantee structure that protects the QB long term. The 26-year-old passer’s 2026 base salary ($54MM) will become fully guaranteed in March 2025. This deal also gives the Dolphins two fewer years of control compared to what Lawrence gave the Jaguars or Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow provided their teams (by agreeing to five-year deals before their fourth seasons). Miami waiting until Tagovailoa’s contract year and then agreeing to a four-year deal bolstered his negotiating position, and the Alabama product will be on track to cash in again — provided he stays on this trajectory — by his age-30 offseason.

Hill might not be in a Dolphin by that point, but he has transformed the team’s early-Tua-years offenses and may well have secured first-ballot Hall of Fame entry during his Miami tenure. Although Hill’s ugly off-field incident in college and his 2019 issue in Kansas City will always be tied to his legacy, the elite speed merchant has climbed up the WR ranks historically in Miami despite separating from Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid.

Hill, 30, was on pace for the NFL’s first 2,000-yard receiving season before suffering an injury in early December. Shortly after his second Dolphins slate wrapped, the eight-year veteran began angling for an updated contract despite three years remaining on his 2022 extension.

The Dolphins had Hill on a four-year, $120MM, but that contract featured what amounted to a phony final year to inflate the AAV to $30MM. Still, the Dolphins had the All-Pro target under contract through 2026. Teams do not make a habit of redoing deals with players signed for three more seasons, but GM Chris Grier had shown a precedent by reworking Xavien Howard‘s through-2024 contract back in 2022. That gave Hill’s camp ammo; the deep threat’s impact on Tagovailoa’s performance certainly did as well. While Hill indicating he would not seek a trade to force the issue hurt his leverage, the Dolphins took care of him anyway.

The revised contract turned Hill’s 2024 and ’25 salaries from nonguaranteed to fully guaranteed. Hill remaining on the Dolphins’ roster in 2026 — his age-32 season — would bump the guarantees to $65MM. The Dolphins probably knew they would have to complete a reworking with Hill after they paid Waddle, who has shown tremendous promise but has resided as the team’s clear-cut No. 2 wideout since the Hill trade.

Grier quickly took Waddle out of consideration during the Jonathan Taylor trade talks last summer, and the 2021 first-round pick is 3-for-3 in 1,000-yard seasons. Although Hill is the more dangerous weapon, Waddle also brings elite speed for a speed-obsessed team. The former No. 6 overall pick, who cost the Dolphins a future first-rounder to acquire in 2021, led the NFL with 18.1 yards per catch in 2022. That came after a far less explosive 2021 attack used Waddle as a short-area target (9.8 YPC). McDaniel quickly revamped Waddle’s role, and the Dolphins agreed to a deal that should keep their current WR2 rostered longer than their WR1.

Waddle’s $28.25MM-per-year deal checks in seventh among wide receivers. In terms of total guarantees, Waddle’s $76MM surpasses both the contracts Hill has agreed to with Miami. The 25-year-old pass catcher’s 2026 base salary will lock in by March 2025. On Day 3 of the 2026 league year, $15.2MM of Waddle’s 2027 base salary ($23.39MM) will become fully guaranteed.

At this rate, Waddle profiles as the Dolphins’ long-term top receiver. With this three-year extension giving Waddle a chance to cash in again before age 30, he will have some time to grow back into that WR1 role during Hill’s remaining seasons.

Friday marked Ramsey’s second Dolphins agreement in two years. The team reworked Ramsey’s deal to add guarantees upon acquiring him and has now — two days after Patrick Surtain‘s landmark Broncos accord — made him the NFL’s highest-paid corner. (Miami had also restructured Ramsey’s previous deal earlier this offseason to save nearly $20MM.) This move will push out Ramsey’s contract through 2028.

Playing lead roles for the Jaguars and Rams, Ramsey secured another megadeal despite going into his age-30 season. The full guarantee is not yet known, but Ramsey will see $55.3MM in total guarantees. The NFL now having two $24MM-per-year corners — after the position’s ceiling had been $21MM for more than two years — represents good news for Sauce Gardner in 2025.

Grier has again paid a player with at least two years left on his previous deal; Ramsey’s ran through 2025 but did not include any guarantees for next year. The only active corner with three first-team All-Pro nods, Ramsey has now secured two extensions (the first with the Rams in 2020) and a key reworking. He only played in only 10 Dolphins games last season, undergoing meniscus surgery. Pro Football Focus graded Ramsey’s first Dolphins season modestly, assessing him as the NFL’s 57th-best CB in 2023. But last year’s trade, which sent a third-round pick and tight end Hunter Long to the Rams, keeps the veteran in place as Miami’s top cover man. The team will hope Ramsey can continue to play well into his 30s, which is far from a given at this position.

Armstead has navigated numerous injuries with the Dolphins but still submitted upper-echelon work. The team parted ways with starters Robert Hunt and Connor Williams, doing so after receiving assurances its veteran left tackle was planning to play at least one more season. Armstead, 33, has missed 11 games since signing a five-year, $75MM Dolphins deal. This continued a trend of injury-limited seasons for the Pro Bowl blocker. The Dolphins would take on $18.5MM in dead money if Armstead retires next year.

The fantasy universe expects De’Von Achane to usurp Mostert this season, but the veteran back parlayed a monster 2023 season into some more guaranteed money. Despite going into his age-32 season, Mostert — a journeyman special-teamer until becoming a 49ers RB regular in 2019 — has only 766 career touches. This career arc has allowed the 2015 UDFA to play this long, and McDaniel extracted plenty from his ex-San Francisco charge last season.

Mostert joined Achane among the top 10 in rushing yards over expected and led the NFL with 21 touchdowns. Injury-prone in San Francisco, Mostert has missed just three games since 2022. Injuries significantly limited the backfield speedster in the two years prior, but the Dolphins’ deep backfield supplies insurance.

Free agency additions:

• Aaron Brewer, OL. Three years, $21MM ($10.22MM guaranteed)
• Jordyn Brooks, LB. Three years, $26.25 ($9.5MM guaranteed)
• Kendall Fuller, CB. Two years, $15MM ($7.98MM guaranteed)
• Jonnu Smith, TE. Two years, $8.4MM ($3.96MM guaranteed)
• Odell Beckham Jr., WR. One year, $3MM ($3MM guaranteed)
• Benito Jones, DL. One year, $1.79MM ($1.79MM guaranteed)
• Jordan Poyer, S. One year, $2MM ($1MM guaranteed)
• Anthony Walker, LB. One year, $1.38MM ($918K guaranteed)
• Calais Campbell, DL. One year, $2MM ($790K guaranteed)
• Siran Neal, DB. One year, $1.95MM ($650K guaranteed)
• Marcus Maye, S. One year, $1.38MM ($568K guaranteed)

For a UDFA who did not play too much over his first two seasons, Brewer has done well for himself. He started 17 games in each of the past two years — no small feat on injury-battered Tennessee O-lines — and drew a second-round RFA tender salary in 2023. Shifting from guard to center last year, Brewer did not distinguish himself among the position’s best. But he still commanded an eight-figure guarantee from a team in need. PFF viewed Brewer as a better center, where he played in spurts during each of his first three years at Division I-FCS Texas State, ranking him 11th at the position in 2023.

McDaniel’s offense has not highlighted the tight end position much. Mike Gesicki‘s franchise tag went to waste in 2022, and the team rolled out a top-heavy passing attack last season. No one came between Jaylen Waddle (1,014 yards) and Durham Smythe (366) among Tagovailoa targets. Smith will be poised to change that, depending on how much McDaniel will be keen on utilizing this position. Arthur Smith sure did, infuriating Kyle Pitts fantasy GMs by regularly incorporating Jonnu (582 yards) into the offense. Topping 400 yards twice as a Titan, Smith no-showed as a Patriot. But the Dolphins could certainly use more from this position, especially with Beckham on the PUP list.

Seeing their Xavien Howard–Byron Jones tandem last just two years, the Dolphins did not opt to extend their Howard-Ramsey partnership past one. Fuller will be asked to team with Ramsey. Defecting from a rebuilding Commanders team, Fuller is coming off a year in which he was charged with a whopping nine touchdown passes allowed as the closest defender. Illustrating how the NFL coverage metrics are not exactly on par with MLB-level advanced stats, PFF ranked Fuller seventh among corners last season. Fuller, 29, has 93 career starts on his resume and has extensive experience inside and outside. For now, the Dolphins are using Fuller outside and Kader Kohou at nickel.

Poyer (33) opted to re-sign with the Bills last year, but their 2024 cost-cutting mission included the veteran safety. Poyer intercepted 22 passes in seven Bills seasons, starting 107 games as part of one of this century’s premier safety duos (alongside Micah Hyde). Maye provides an interesting third safety option, coming off a suspension- and injury-marred Saints season. The former Jets franchise player is now 31. This will be a transition for Maye, a starter throughout his seven-year career. The Ravens used three-safety looks often; Maye would give Anthony Weaver this option in Jevon Holland‘s contract year.

Brooks steps in for longtime starter Jerome Baker, though this switch came from two free agent signings rather than a Dolphins-Seahawks trade. The 2020 first-rounder made it back from a January 2023 ACL tear to start 16 games last season, putting together his third 100-plus-tackle campaign. A starter alongside Bobby Wagner in two of the past three years — as the ILB legend left Seattle and then returned — Brooks added 4.5 sacks in his contract year. Brooks, 27, comes slightly cheaper than Baker, who was tied to a three-year, $37.5MM deal.

Miami waited on the two biggest names in its 2024 FA class. Campbell is the league’s oldest defender, turning 38 earlier this week, but has remained durable and productive. A college teammate of Devin Hester and Frank Gore, the 2008 Cardinals draftee has started the fourth-most games (225) by a D-lineman in NFL history. Only Bruce Smith, Jim Marshall and Reggie White have that beat. Campbell crossed the 100-sack barrier last season, adding a Falcons-most 6.5 to his career total. Among active players, only Von Miller and Cameron Jordan have Campbell beat for sacks.

The former Miami Hurricane is near the end of a remarkable career, but he should help the Dolphins’ post-Christian Wilkins solution up front. This signing reunites Campbell and Weaver, with the ex-Ravens assistant in place on John Harbaugh‘s staff during the accomplished D-lineman’s final two Baltimore seasons.

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