Examining the Idea of a Dolphins Draft Trade-Down

The Miami Dolphins currently hold the 13th overall selection in the 2025 NFL draft

Penn State Nittany Lions defensive end Chop Robinson is selected as the No. 22 pick of the first round by the Miami Dolphins during the 2024 NFL Draft at Campus Martius Park and Hart Plaza. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins currently sit with the 13th overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft in a first round that has seen not one single selection change hands yet.

"Yet" clearly is the operative word because it's really hard to imagine a scenario where there's not a trade involving a first-round pick at some point.

To that end, NFL.com draft analyst Chad Reuter recently suggested six trades of first-round picks that he believes would benefit both teams involved, and one of them featured the Dolphins.

In Reuter's hypothetical scenario, the Dolphins would move down from 13 to 16 in a trade with the Arizona Cardinals that would also bring Miami a third-round selection.

The reflex reaction is to give an emphatic yes to the idea from a Dolphins standpoint because the organization needs to build up a supply of quality young players on cheap contracts, and accumulating (and hitting) on draft picks is the way to do it.

Moving down three spots would mean the Dolphins would lose the chance at the three players selected 13th, 14th or 15th, and the danger there is losing out on the one player who could make the biggest (and most immediate) impact for the team.

What works in the Dolphins' favor is that they have so many needs that the chances of running out of good options to fill one of those needs at 16 seem slim.

Logic would suggest that before they make that kind of move, the Dolphins likely would want to see how the draft is unfolding and which of their targeted prospects remain available.

Beyond this hypothetical, it's certainly possible the Dolphins could make another trade down, maybe even further back into the first round. That would produce a better return, but also affect the talent pool more.

So it's always an issue of balancing things out.

DOLPHINS HAVE TRADED DOWN BEFORE

The Dolphins stayed put last year before selecting Chop Robinson and didn't have a first-round pick in either 2022 or 2023, but they did a trade down in the first round in 2021 that had an interesting twist.

That, of course, was the year the Dolphins moved from No. 3 to No. 12 in a deal with the San Francisco 49ers before moving back up to No. 6 after another deal, this one with the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Dolphins also traded down in 2020, sending the third of three first-round picks to the Green Bay Packers while moving from 26 to 30 and picking up an extra fourth-round selection. They selected cornerback Noah Igbinoghene with that new first-round pick.

And we should point out that one of the times the Dolphins made the 13th pick, it came after a trade down.

That happened in 2016 when the Dolphins initially were scheduled to select eighth before sending that pick to the Eagles for the 13th pick as well as linebacker Kiko Alonso and cornerback Byron Maxwell, who both would end up playing big roles for the Miami team that ended the longest playoff drought in franchise history.

And with the 13th overall pick in 2016, the Dolphins drafted Laremy Tunsil, and we all know how that turned out.