Evaluating a New (And Very Intriguing) Hypothetical Dolphins Draft Trade

A just-released national mock draft suggested a busy and interesting first round for the Miami Dolphins

Ohio State Buckeyes defensive back Caleb Downs catches a ball during Pro Day for NFL scouts at the Woody Hayes Athletics Center on March 25, 2026. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

With the 2026 NFL draft now almost here, there has been a new wave of national mock drafts and one of those had a very interesting twist for the Miami Dolphins.

The Dolphins are scheduled to go into the draft with the 11th and 30th overall selections in the first round, but SI national writer Conor Orr projected them to move down in the first round but in the process picking up a 2027 first-round pick.

That would be the result of a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles, who would move up to select Ohio State safety Caleb Downs.

With the 23rd selection in Orr's mock, the Dolphins would select Texas A&M wide receiver K.C. Concepcion and then keep the 30th overall pick and choose San Diego State cornerback Chris Johnson.

WHAT TO MAKE OF THE TRADE IDEA

As Orr explained, adding Downs would give former Dolphins defensive coordinator Vic Fangio a nice chess piece in the Eagles secondary and they're also looking at the likelihood of picking up an extra first-round pick when they send wide receiver A.J. Brown in a widely reported trade that likley will be consummated some time after the draft.

For the Dolphins, Downs is a prospect who would make a lot of sense because of his versatility and the intangibles he would bring as the first pick of the Jon-Eric Sullivan/Jeff Hafley era, but it's difficult to argue against the merits of this move.

Make it impossible.

As we've stated before, the Dolphins are in a position organizationally where they need volume from this draft as opposed to focusing on landing that blue-chipper. To paraphrase Sullivan, the Dolphins need three doubles more than they need one home run.

Moving down from 11 to 23 still would afford them the possibility of landing a double (very good prospect), even if it's not Concepcion because the Dolphins have needs in other places that could be addressed at that slot.

The Dolphins also are not looking at the likelihood of an immediate turnaround, so they likely are going to need more than one draft class to return to contender status and getting a second first-round pick in 2027 would be extremely valuable, though the down side is it's probably not going to be a high first-round pick given the Eagles' recent history of success.

This is where we would prefer the thought of the Dolphins being able to extract a 2027 first-round pick from the Arizona Cardinals in the event the Cardinals badly want to get back into the first round to take quarterback Ty Simpson.

But this hypothetical trade with the Eagles still looks like a winner from here — if it materializes, of course.