Dolphins Offseason Preview: Impending Free Agents, Draft Picks, and Top Needs

After finishing second in the NFL scoring in 2023, the Miami Dolphins were seen as a dark horse in the AFC.

That offense dried up in a hurry in 2024. They were catapulted toward the bottom of the league after another head injury for Tua Tagovailoa and poor offensive line play the entire season.

Tyreek Hill set the tone for a weird offseason with an immediate trade request, which would dent the core identity of what has been a high-flying attack in South Beach. Can they add the right pieces to get back to some of the early success of the Mike McDaniel era?

Dolphins' 2024 Schedule-Adjusted Rankings

• Overall Offense: 24th
• Pass Offense: 17th
• Rush Offense: 31st
• Overall Defense: 6th
• Pass Defense: 9th
• Rush Defense: 9th

Dolphins' Impending 2025 Free Agents

• Tyrel Dodson, LB
• Emmanuel Ogbah, DE
• Jeff Wilson Jr., RB
• Kendall Lamm, OT
• Duke Riley, LB
• Jevon Holland, S
• Braxton Berrios, WR
• Liam Eichenberg, G
• Jordan Poyer, S
• Calais Campbell, DE
• Robert Jones, G
• Siran Neal, S
• Isaiah Wynn, OT
• Benito Jones, DT
• Elijah Campbell, S
• Anthony Walker Jr., LB
• Da'shawn Hand, DE
• Cameron Brown, LB
• Jack Stoll, TE
• Anthony Schwartz, WR (RFA)
• Quinton Bell, LB (RFA)
• Kion Smith, OT (RFA)
• Kader Kohou, CB (RFA)
• Cameron Goode, LB (ERFA)
• Grant DuBose, WR (ERFA)

Here is Spotrac's lengthy list of Dolphins free agents. They'd love to retain key pieces from one of the league's best defenses, but plenty of them are on this list as Miami has the seventh-smallest amount of 2025 cap space in the NFL right now ($9.3m).

Calais Campbell seems to produce wherever he goes, and it would be a huge coup for the Fins if the 38-year-old took a discount to stay in South Beach for another season. He was Miami's highest-graded defender at Pro Football Focus (PFF) this season.

Jevon Holland and Jordan Poyer will likely command a pretty penny despite a bit of a down year at safety, but several contenders need help at the position. Holland was top 10 in PFF's grades in two of the previous three seasons, and Poyer's Buffalo Bills stint is fairly well-known.

They'll also have hard decisions to make on three starting offensive linemen from an underperforming unit overall: Kendall Lamm, Liam Eichenberg, and Isaiah Wynn.

Dolphins' 2025 NFL Draft Picks

• 13th overall
• 2nd round
• 4th round
• 5th round
• 5th round (via the Denver Broncos)
• 7th round
• 7th round (via the Chicago Bears)

(NOTE: This list does not include compensatory picks, which are typically announced in early March.)

2024's disappointing season is especially hurtful here.

Miami has mismanaged some of these assets. This running back class is deep, but Miami sent their third-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles last season for running back Jaylen Wright, who was needed for just 68 carries this year.

They swapped their sixth rounder for a seventh in the Chase Claypool deal, as well.

Currently, the Dolphins hold the 13th overall pick, and I gave them West Virginia Mountaineers versatile offensive lineman Wyatt Milum at that spot in my initial 2025 NFL Mock Draft without trades.

However, given their list of needs, low cap space, and lack of picks, they're an obvious trade-down candidate if someone wanted to leap the Indianapolis Colts for top safety Malaki Starks.

Dolphins' Top Offseason Needs

• Significant Offensive Line Upgrades
• Secondary replacements for exiting pieces
• An exit strategy on Tyreek Hill
• A starting-caliber backup quarterback

Tyreek Hill's trade request could be a blessing in disguise for a team that wasn't very good despite being fairly healthy at key positions. Hill's $28.7 million cap hit in a new place should be fine when the team still has Jaylen Waddle, Jonnu Smith, and Malik Washington coming off promising seasons.

At the end of the day, Mike McDaniel wants to run the ball. His offense won't succeed if they're numberFire's 31st-ranked team in rushing. That'll require multiple key new road-graters at offensive line when De'Von Achane, Raheem Mostert, and Jaylen Wright aren't the problem.

Holland and Poyer will likely command too much for Miami to keep. They aren't in a position to move off any key contracts to make room to keep them. Their second-rounder being a safety makes tons of sense.

Miami is stuck as a low-end team that needs to win now. Tua Tagovailoa has missed 10 games in three seasons, and this team has gone into the toilet when he has. The Dolphins desperately need to look into a backup that would be mentally comfortable handling a large chunk of 2025.

Gardner Minshew, Jameis Winston, and Andy Dalton are names that could be in their price range, but if I were Daniel Jones' agent, this is a backup job with an obvious path to start in a quarterback-friendly system that he's spent the second half of 2025 getting to learn.

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