Dolphins Draft Breakdown: Why Phillips Could Be a Day 3 Steal

Miami needed to double down at defensive tackle, and it might have gotten a potential high-volume contributor in Round 5.

Maryland Terrapins defensive lineman Jordan Phillips (8) takes the field before the game against the Michigan State Spartans at SECU Stadium. | Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins’ goal in the 2025 NFL draft was pretty clear — add more size. 

After selecting Michigan defensive tackle Kenneth Grant (331 pounds) 13th overall and trading up for Arizona offensive guard Jonah Savaiinaea (324 pounds) at pick 37, the team waited until pick 143 to select Maryland defensive tackle Jordan Phillips (320 pounds). 

Doubling down at defensive tackle was a popular strategy for the Dolphins because the team came into the draft with just Zach Sieler and Benito Jones as expected contributors. Grant is likely to start, but Phillips should see plenty of playing time this season. 

This is the third part of our draft film review series, where we do in-depth breakdowns for the Dolphins’ top picks in the 2025 NFL draft. We examine each prospect's strengths, weaknesses, and fit with the Dolphins. 

Let’s dive into Jordan Phillips’ skill set. 

Phillips’ Run Defense

Phillips’ run defense is his calling card. He’s an incredibly dense and squatty player, measuring in at 6-3 and 320 pounds. He plays low to the ground and does an excellent job stacking blocks quickly off the snap. 

His power and strength pop off the film right away. When his hands land, you can see the knock-back and shock they create in the linemen’s pads. This rep against Iowa shows Phillips’ ability to stack and shed consistently while serving as a good example of his natural strength. 

It’s so rare to see a defensive tackle at Phillips’ age (he’s only 20) play with his level of polish against the run. Some of his technique and raw strength probably comes from his background as a wrestler and weightlifter in high school. 

Phillips also handles double teams well. He can drop to a knee to stall them out and eventually squeak his way through to get into the backfield. Bruce Feldman’s “College Football Freaks” list said Phillips can do a 665-pound squat and power clean 365 pounds, which absolutely shows up when he’s dealing with double teams.

What makes Phillips such an intriguing prospect is that he has flashes of quickness and speed that are rare for a player of his build. 

This rep against Oregon shows Phillips using a swim move to get a clean win into the backfield. 

Although this is less of a common occurrence on his tape, he does make plays like this enough to make you believe he’s got some upside to be more than just a run-stuffing nose tackle with some added development. 

Maryland even trusted him not to always play in the A-gap (where the nose tackle lines up). He took 243 of his 537 snaps in the B-gap last season. While it’s a smaller sample size, it’s a similar split to the one Grant had at Michigan. 

The only concern with Phillips’ run defense is his length. He has a sixth-percentile arm length and a 37th-percentile wingspan, which will make it slightly harder for him to stack and shed blocks at the NFL level. 

Phillips’ Pass Rush 

The Dolphins could wait so long to select Phillips because his pass-rush profile needs a lot of work. Last season, Phillips did not record a sack and had just 16 quarterback pressures to go with 10 quarterback hurries. 

Maryland didn’t ask Phillips to be a high-impact pass rusher. His job was to stop the run, which he’s good at. That said, there is a difference between having poor production and essentially zero. Phillips had the latter at Maryland, and it’s why he was available in the fifth round. 

While Phillips’ pass-rush production is disappointing, he does have some impressive flashes that point to some upside worth developing. 

He’s quite quick for someone his size, and his speed-to-power conversion allowed him to create consistent push into the pocket, even putting a few interior offensive linemen on the ground, like this one from Northwestern. 

He’s got a club and swim move that he likes to use to win with more finesse. The spin is a counter for most players, but Phillips saw some success using it as his first move. Here’s an example of him spinning into the backfield against Michigan State. 

Expecting Phillips to come into the NFL and win pass-rush reps like that isn’t realistic. The most likely outcome is that he’s a quality pocket pusher who will occasionally make a splash play and get into the backfield. 

There’s still some value in that, though. An effective pocket pusher can prevent quarterbacks from stepping up in the pocket and extending plays downfield. 

The Bottom Line With Phillips 

When judging Day 3 picks, you always have to keep expectations in check. 

There is a reason players fall to the last day of the draft. That doesn’t mean Day 3 players can’t become stars or quality starters,  but that is a rare outcome — not what should be expected. 

We don’t think Phillips will become a star at the NFL level, but there’s no reason he can’t be a valuable contributor who eventually becomes a starter as he develops. Phillips sat somewhere between 104 and 118 overall on most media boards. 

That’s usually a range where players who can become starters are ranked, so the Dolphins got pretty good value by selecting him at pick 143. With Grant, Sieler and Phillips, the Dolphins will have three interior defensive linemen with above-average run defense profiles.

Additionally, Phillips continues the trend of Miami selecting and signing players known for their physicality. 

He joins Kenneth Grant, Jonah Savaiinaea, James Daniels, Larry Borom, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, KJ Britt, Willie Gay, Ifeatu Melifonwu and Pharaoh Brown as players known for their toughness and physical mentality at their respective positions. 

General Manager Chris Grier and coach Mike McDaniel have spoken at length about the team's need to change narratives about its toughness and its desire for high-character players. 

Well, Phillips won the Pat Tillman Award, which is given to the player who “embodies character, intelligence, sportsmanship, and service” at the East-West Shrine Bowl this offseason. 

Phillips probably won’t blow up the box score or make a ton of highlight plays — he’s a nose tackle after all — but he does project like a potential starter with some development, and at worst, a reliable rotational player. 

It is a huge win to get a player with that profile in a significant position of need in the fifth round.