Omar Kelly: Dolphins have belt-tightening to do to go free agent shopping

Omar Kelly, Miami Herald on Mar 4, 2025

Published in Football

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MIAMI — The one thing Chris Grier’s history has taught us is that the Miami Dolphins’ general manager should have learned his lesson about drafting for need.

Let’s hope that’s the case.

Grier’s best picks have happened when he’s selecting the highest-rated player on the draft board, despite what the Dolphins’ depth chart looks like.

That’s why the pattern for the past couple of offseasons has had a repetitive theme of the Dolphins addressing every need in free agency — even if it’s with a lower-tier talent — before the draft, putting the franchise in position to select the best available player.

And sometimes, like last year, the Dolphins don’t even address the team’s top need (defensive tackle or offensive guard) in the draft because they refuse to force the pick, instead signing Teair Tart and Calais Campbell late.

We will see how this approach impacts the Dolphins a week from now when the formal NFL negotiations between teams and agents [the illegal one took place last week at the NFL Combine] for free agents begins on Tuesday.

Miami presently has holes everywhere on the roster.

The roster’s Swiss cheese impersonation is so bad there are entire units — defensive line, offensive guard, safety, and quarterback — that only have one player on the roster, and need to add at least two, if not three or four before training camp.

For instance, 2024 sixth-round pick Patrick McMorris, who only played eight snaps on defense last season, is the only safety under contract. Miami needs at least four safeties for the regular season.

Braeden Daniels, a 2023 fourth-round pick who is on his sixth NFL team in two seasons after joining the Dolphins in January, is the only guard under contract because Robert Jones, Liam Eichenberg and Isaiah Wynn are all free agents. The Dolphins typically take six into training camp, and carry at least three on the 53-man roster.

That means there’s work for Grier and staff to do, and the Dolphins have very little cap space to do it heading into next week’s March 12 deadline to be cap compliance.

Terron Armstead’s willingness to restructure his contract, reducing it to the NFL minimum ($1.25 million) until the Pro Bowl-caliber left tackle figures out whether he wants to retire or play his 12th NFL season in Miami, will help Miami get to roughly $14 million under the projected salary cap.

Keep in mind the Dolphins would need to place a $3.3 million right-of-first-refusal tender on nickel cornerback Kader Kohou to avoid losing him in free agency. When that happens Miami would have less than $11 million to work with to improve the roster through free agency.

That’s like going to Bloomingdales or Saks Fifth Avenue with $500 thinking it can purchase a new wardrobe.

For context, keep in mind that Miami’s top five 2024 offseason signings —- inside linebacker Jordyn Brooks (three-year, $26 million deal), center Aaron Brewer (three-year, $21 million deal), cornerback Kendall Fuller (two-year, $14 million deal for a starter who got released earlier this month), tight end Jonnu Smith (two-year, $8.4 million deal) and safety Jordan Poyer (one-year deal worth $2 million) — collectively accounted for $12 million in cap space in their first season in Miami.

So that means in Miami’s present cap situation the Dolphins might be able to afford about five mid-tier NFL starters on multiyear deals.

Miami could create additional cap space by releasing more players, restructuring more deals like quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s contract ($19.3 million in cap space could become available in exchange for more of a cap hit in later years), and/or shakedown/release pass rusher Bradly Chubb. However, if someone such as Chubb is designated a June 1 release the Dolphins would be waiting till that actual date to gain the $19.5 million in cap space.

That approach doesn’t help the Dolphins improve the team this month, when the first, second and maybe third wave of free agents are in the process of finding new employers.

None of these are easy decisions to make, but that’s the position the Dolphins find themselves in, but history says Grier will be active adding to Miami’s roster, which sits at 47 players and will feature at least a dozen rookies, mainly because of Miami’s 10 draft picks.

Unless belt-tightening gets done before next Wednesday, when deals can become official, Miami will seemingly be bargain shopping because that’s what the budget allows.

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