Dolphins Rookie Review: Grading Every Draft Pick's Performance in 2025

With the Miami Dolphins’ season coming to a rough end, it’s time for season-end reviews. We’ve covered the performance of each Dolphins rookie week by week for the entire season, so it only seems fitting to wrap everything up with some grades.

The Dolphins gave an unusually high number of snaps to rookies this season, which led to early problems, but could turn into a positive down the road if those players develop.

We won’t know if it’ll pay off for right now, but we can level set how far each of Miami’s picks needs to go to cash in on those reps.

Kenneth Grant, Defensive Tackle

Overall Stock Trajectory: Neutral

2025 Season Grade: C

Kenneth Grant had the highest expectations coming into the season since he was the 13th pick at one of the team’s biggest positions of need.

His season did not get off to a good start, as he struggled to maintain his pad level as a run defender and make an impact in the pass rush. Things slowly but surely got better for Grant, though. He raised the floor on his run defense a good bit and started to flash pass-rush skills.

Week 18 wasn’t a banner performance for him, and there’s plenty of work to be done on his game, but I would describe Grant’s rookie season as pretty average for a defensive tackle.

He does need to take a meaningful jump next season, though, because he plays too important a position to be a long-term project.

Jonah Savaiianea, Offensive Guard

Overall Stock Trajectory: Down

2025 Season Grade: F

Handing out an F in this case pains me beyond belief. Although Jonah Savaiinaea wasn’t the guard I would have taken in Round 2, seeing the Dolphins move up for a physical offensive lineman gave me hope they had learned their lesson.

Unfortunately, Savaiinaea’s game has not translated remotely well. He took some small strides in the middle of the season, but he mostly undid all of that good work in the final two weeks of the season.

The issue with Savaiinaea is in pass protection. His technique is a mess, and his poor play has resulted in a lot of sacks and blown plays this season. He allowed eight sacks and 45 pressures this past season, and the film was brutal.

The only bright side — if you want to call it that — is that Savaiinaea’s physical ability isn’t the problem like it was with Liam Eichenberg. Savaiinaea is an NFL athlete; he’s just more raw than the Dolphins hoped.

Right now, this is a major miss at a position of need that the team traded up for.

Jordan Phillips, Defensive Tackle

Overall Stock Trajectory: Up

2025 Season Grade: B+

Jordan Phillips was Miami’s best rookie this season, and he ended 2025 with one of his better performances of the year against the New England Patriots.

Phillips was drafted in the fifth round to play nose tackle, and that’s exactly what he did this season. Some games were better than others for sure, but Phillips did his job well and consistently through the year.

He’s a solid run stuffer and should be the team’s future at nose tackle. That’s a pretty big win for a player selected in the middle of Day 3. We can’t quite give this pick an A because Phillips added almost nothing to the pass rush.

That wasn’t really expected of him, though, so we still feel good about where he’s at in his development.

Dante Trader Jr., Safety

Overall Stock Trajectory: Slightly Up

2025 Season Grade: B-

Like Phillips, the bar for Dante Trader Jr. to clear wasn’t overly high, but he did clear it. The Maryland product profiles as a third safety who does his best work around the box.

He’s a physical player, who showed a good bit of versatility for a Dolphins team that struggled with safety play next to Minkah Fitzpatrick throughout the season.

Trader needs to improve his tackling, and adding anything to his coverage profile would be nice, but this looks like a hit for the Dolphins.

Jason Marshall Jr., Cornerback

Overall Stock Trajectory: Up

2025 Season Grade: B-

Jason Marshall Jr. looks like a solid depth cornerback with some starting potential, which is an absolute win for a fifth-round pick.

He deserves credit for earning the coaching staff’s trust amid a position switch to the slot this offseason, but his coverage tape from the interior isn’t great. Marshall showed some nice things in Week 17 against Tampa Bay, but he’s probably better off outside next season.

He’s a physical tackler and a solid athlete, so again, this feels like a hit for the Dolphins.

Ollie Gordon II, Running Back

Overall Stock Trajectory: Neutral

2025 Season Grade: C+

It’s hard to grade Ollie Gordon II because he was really only a part of the game plan in like three or four games this season. He received more than six carries three times: Week 3, 8, and 18.

Gordon’s numbers look brutal, as he recorded just 199 yards on 70 rushes. That said, he was limited to a short yardage role and was the victim of some horrid blocking in those spots.

There’s still reason to believe Gordon can be a piece of the puzzle in Miami’s RB room, but the preseason hype got a little out of hand.

Quinn Ewers, Quarterback

Overall Stock Trajectory: Up

2025 Season Grade: B+

In three starts, Quinn Ewers proved he belongs at the NFL level. That is legitimately impressive for the last quarterback taken in the 2025 NFL draft.

Ewers showed solid poise, accuracy, and command of the offense in his three starts. However, his limitations are also pretty clear. He doesn’t have a ton of arm strength, and Miami’s offensive game plan with him under center was incredibly simplified.

Ewers did enough to factor into next year’s QB conversation, and our projection of him as a good backup QB is an excellent outcome for his draft slot.

Zeek Biggers, Defensive Tackle

Overall Stock Trajectory: Neutral

2025 Season Grade: B

The last of Miami’s three rookie defensive tackles, Zeek Biggers, only played in nine games after starting the year on the practice squad.

Like Ewers, Biggers proved he belonged at the NFL level, which is a win. He’s got a lot of energy and size as a pass rusher, allowing him to push pockets and make effort plays.

His run defense needs major work, and he won’t be anything more than a fringe rotational player without a jump in that area. Still, that’s not a bad outcome for a seventh-round pick.

Dolphins Overall 2025 Draft Class Grade: C

Grading the Dolphins’ draft class is truly a question of how much you want to weigh the expectations associated with where the players were selected.

In a vacuum, there’s an argument that five of the Dolphins’ seven picks look like hits after their rookie season. The issue is that those five players were taken outside of round four, and mostly project as role players.

Getting a starting nose tackle, a depth safety, a CB with upside, a potential RB2, a QB2, and a rotational defensive tackle all in rounds five through seven is legitimately impressive.

That said, Miami’s top two picks were handed starting jobs this summer, and the early returns on those players aren’t ideal.

Savaiinaea was probably the worst pass-protecting guard in the NFL, who played the majority of his team’s snaps this season, and although Grant showed growth, he struggled for a solid portion of the year.

Those players weigh the class down because they’re the most valuable ones the Dolphins selected.

The caveat is that making a final call on a rookie’s career after one season is not a good process, and that’s not what we’re doing here. The jury is still out on all of these players, including Grant and Savaiinaea.

A rough rookie season isn’t uncommon; it just means there’s more work to do in the offseason. If Grant develops and a few of the role players stick, this class could climb its way into the B range sooner than later.

For this season, though, it’s just an OK class.

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