Handing Out Dolphins Grades for the Ewers and Atwell Trades

It's a really busy time for every NFL team, with the roster cutdown deadline set for Sunday at 6 p.m. ET, and the Miami Dolphins have been among the busiest.

In the past eight days, the Dolphins have claimed two players, waived more than a dozen, and consummated two trades involving veteran players and not simply draft picks.

But how well did they do in those trades?

The first saw the Dolphins send wide receiver Tutu Atwell to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for running back Jarquez Hunter. The second deal, made Saturday, sent quarterback Quinn Ewers to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a 2028 sixth-round selection, pending Ewers' physical.

Let's examine each and hand out a gade.

THE TUTU ATWELL TRADE

We could call it the Jarquez Hunter because he's the one who's coming Miami and not Atwell, but it's the latter who's the bigger name.

But, big name or not, Atwell wasn't going to be playing for Miami in 2026 one way or another because his training camp performance simply didn't justify keeping him on the roster over any number of young wide receiver or even if it meant the Dolphins keeping five wide receivers instead of six.

By moving on from Atwell, the Dolphins saved themselves $1.1 million of cap space with his guaranteed salary and the only financial hit they took was the $187,500 signing bonus (along with the cap charge) they gave him when they signed him as a free agent in March.

For a team already dealing with $180 million of dead cap space, what's another $187,500, especially since they save the additional $1.1 million.

To be honest, simply being able to find a taker for Atwell and his contract was a win for the Dolphins.

This means that whatever they get from Hunter, who comes with no financial obligations (because the Rams are on the hook for his signing bonus) and is signed through 2028 will be a bonus.

In a best-case scenario, Hunter develops as a quality backup and overtakes Jaylen Wright and Ollie Gordon II as the No. 2 back behind De'Von Achane and the trade becomes a major steal.

In a worst-case scenario, Hunter doesn't pan out, he makes no impact for the Dolphins and they move on from him quickly. Even then, there will have been nothing lost because his contract the Dolphins inherited from the Rams isn't guaranteed.

This become a win-big trade or simply a win trade.

Grade: A

THE QUINN EWERS TRADE

This one isn't so clear cut, or nearly as good for the Dolphins.

We've seen reactions online suggesting this was a win for the Dolphins because they were able to get something for Ewers, who by all measures had a really, really rough summer.

But did they really get something?

I mean, a sixth-round pick in 2028? Like, calling that "getting something" is almost a stretch.

Understand that trade value charts deduct a full round for every year in the future a draft pick lands — for example, a first-round pick in 2027 would be like a second-round pick in 2026.

Well, if you apply that math, a sixth-round pick in 2028 would be the equivalent of an eighth-round pick in 2026. Since we all know there are only seven rounds in the draft, the Dolphins basically got an undrafted free agent for Ewers.

Again, this basically was giving him away, much more than "getting something for him."

And then we get to the second part of the equation, and it's what this means for the Dolphins quarterback room.

Are the Dolphins wrong for wanting to upgrade from Ewers at the No. 2 QB spot? Not at all, based on what we saw this summer, not only in the preseason opener against Washington when he was 1-for-7 but just as much in the training camp practices.

But could an argument have been made to simply keep Ewers and still bring in another quarterback to compete with him or replace him? Are the Dolphins going to be able to land a quarterback either via trade or the waiver wire who's going to be a clear upgrade?

Or did the Dolphins decide they simply couldn't keep Ewers because his performance dropped so dramatically from his rookie season of 2025 when he was at least serviceable in his three starts at the end of the season? Is it possible that the Dolphins decided that Ewers badly needed a fresh start after maybe he thought he'd be competing for the starting job in 2026 — remember the Darren Waller comments about what Mike McDaniel told him before being fired — and then watched Malik Willis being signed and given the keys to the offense.

Ewers gave the politically correct answer when asked about that idea in the offseason and also when I asked him last week whether he was concerned about his job security as the number 2, but maybe there were things going on behind the scenes.

There basically are no financial implications involved with trading Ewers because the Dolphins will have less than $100,000 of cap space, the remaining proration of his signing bonus with $33,000 going against the cap in 2026 and $66,000 next year.

So this wasn't about saving money.

It also wasn't about getting an asset in return because, again — and as respectfully as we can say this — but a 2028 sixth-round pick — basically is the equivalent of getting a newspaper and a cup of coffee in return.

This wasn't even a salary dump.

This was moving on from Ewers and because quarterbacks are an asset, there's usually no reason to give up on those players unless the team feels there's no coming back after a regression or to do the player a solid. This is why we're almost thinking that maybe Ewers asked the Dolphins for the trade and they saw no harm in acquiescing.

Outside of that, the Dolphins might just as well have hung over to Ewers for an emergency situation instead of just giving him away.

Grade: C-

Add us as a preferred source on Google