Dolphins Saturday Mailbag: What Could Big-Name Veterans Fetch in Offseason Trades?

Part 1 of a post-trade deadline/pre-Buffalo game Miami Dolphins On SI mailbag:

From Nick Soto:

How much longer are Jackson and Daniels out and when is the IR deadline to bring them back? I'd like to see how the line looks when the actual starters are in the lineup.

Hey Nick, there is no clear timetable for when either Jackson or Daniels will be back, but Mike McDaniel said last week he was expecting both of them to be back at some point this season. And there is no deadline for players to return from IR, just the limit of eight players allowed to be designated for return. The Dolphins have used three of their designations so far, with Andrew Meyer, Jason Sanders (the two allowed to be designated at the time of the cuts to 53) along with Jason Marshall Jr.

From NYCFinFan4Life:

As always appreciate you. So realistically what does your crystal ball think? Is Ross capable of landing a stud GM or do you think he will handcuff the new GM to McDaniel? Also is there a realistic way to move on from Tua post-June next year?

To be very honest, my crystal ball at this point tells me to expect Champ Kelly to become the full-time GM, Mike McDaniel to be back and Tua to be on the roster. Moving Tua with a post-June 1 designation would cost the Dolphins $67 million against the cap next year and $32 million in 2027 instead of the $56.4 million he’s scheduled to count in 2026.

From Ed Helinski:

Who needs to step up and have a great game against Buffalo? Who do you got?

Hey Ed, would Tua Tagovailoa be too obvious an answer?

From 26QBsandCounting:

What should I do with my Sundays now?

If you’re a true Dolphins fan, you watch their games looking at which young players should form the nucleus of the team moving forward and which veterans are still putting in quality efforts. We actually offered a primer Friday on what Dolphins fans should want to see over the final eight games.

From Mark Khouri:

If college QBs continue to show out Saturday and Tua puts up another stinker, then can I please start seeing your evaluations on the future of the most important position? Can add some intel of the ones I’m liking so far. Think it will also unite the clans like Braveheart did.

Hey Mark, you’ve got a deal, but with the understanding that it’s probably north of the 50-50 that Tua will be the starting quarterback in 2026.

From Jorge boyd:

Hi Alain, do you think the Dolphins are going to rely more on Mathew Judon now that JP is gone and Chop is in concussion protocol or do you see one or more players emerging to take that position for a while?

Hey Jorge, yes, Matthew Judon will get an increased role with Phillips now in Philadelphia and Robinson likely out with his concussion and I also would suspect that Cameron Goode will get more snaps on defense. And Andre Carter II will get a look, though it will come mostly in obvious pass-rushing situations at first.

From Jayco:

What grade would you assign to assess the performance of Patrick Paul to this point of the season?

I would say that Patrick Paul has had a pretty solid season overall, particularly in terms of pass blocking. He’s one reason for optimism down the road amid this disappointing season. I would give something like a B or B+.

From MD928:

Do you think we will ever see a consensus LT 1st overall pick like Jake Long again? Which btw is my favorite draft pick by the Miami Dolphins of all time. And why haven’t we seen that in a long time, do you think?

Was Jake Long really a consensus first overall pick? Would every team have made him the first pick like Bill Parcells did? Not so sure about that. There was an argument then and to this day whether the Dolphins instead should have taken Matt Ryan, who wound up going third overall to the Falcons after St. Louis took Chris Long. And the reason you don’t see left tackles as consensus overall picks is they simply don’t impact the game the same way a quarterback does, which is why the discussion always starts at QB and then moves along if there’s no clear-cut stud at that position.

From Harry:

What could Chubb-Minkah trade get Miami after season and before draft? 3-5 Rd picks?

Hey Harry, I don’t think there ever was any realistic shot the Dolphins would get anywhere near a third-round pick for Chubb at the trade deadline and that won’t change in the offseason. Beyond his age and injury history, he’s got a big contract and the Dolphins probably will wind up releasing him. As for Minkah, I think his reputation around the league isn’t anywhere near what it was when the Dolphins traded him back in 2019, so I think a third-round pick would be a best-case scenario and even then Miami might have to sweeten the pot from their end.

From Earl Gottfried:

Hello Alain, your "where did the roster go?" article on Friday is a very good picture of how not to build a football team and the pitfalls of "all in" construction. It might provide for a short fix but the penalties come to bear hard in future years as the Dolphins are feeling now. Why did they go away from the philosophy started with the hiring of Brian Flores? It’s like they had a little success and started feeling good without a look to maintaining a solid foundation. Their biggest mistakes were the prices paid for tampering, Tyreek Hill and Bradley Chubb since they were running out of the gains from the Laremy Tunsil trade and squandered them with wasteful moves. How do they get back and how long will it take, realizing that it is not a linear process to get there? They seemed to have forgotten that setbacks always come. how can they get out of their hole without cleaning house?

Hey Earl, first off thanks and hat tip also because you make a lot of very valid points. The tipping point for going “all in” came when the opportunity to acquire Tyreek Hill arose and the Dolphins simply couldn’t say no. And it’s easy after the fact to look at the results and say it was a bad mistake, but that same “F dem picks” philosophy helped the Rams get a championship — and then they were able to reload with brilliant drafting. How long it’s going to take for the Dolphins to be able to rebuild a solid foundation is anybody’s guess, but it likely won’t happen overnight and I’m not so sure it’s a route that Stephen Ross is ready to go on right now.

From Damian Werts:

What's your feeling on the speed of finding the new GM, now that the trade deadline has passed? Going off the assumption that the next GM is going to be strongly encouraged to make it work with Mike McD/Tua for at least one more year, I'd think they'd want to get the GM in quickly in order to begin staff/roster assessments. Thoughts? With the recent trade of Phillips, I was thinking about an underdiscussed tendency of Grier's — his inability to retain good-not-elite players. If you look back over the past years, there's a pretty long list (Wilkins, Hunt, Van Ginkel, Holland....) of players that were never quite elite, but certainly good building blocks. With players like those, if you don't lock them up early, there's always a CAR or LV willing to overpay in free agency. When you combine Grier's mediocre drafting record with a tendency to let so many of his good picks depart.... you get the roster we have now. Thoughts?

Hey Damian, I don’t think anything will happen on the GM front until the end of the season and I’ve said before it wouldn’t surprise me one iota if Champ Kelly wound up getting the job on a full-time basis. And for point about Grier, there’s some validity there but you can’t keep all your players when you’re acquiring high-priced players from other teams like the Dolphins did with Hill, Ramsey and Chubb.

From Ohio Jon:

With so many rookies being thrown into the fire this season, have you gotten a read on why Zeek Biggers hasn't gotten in to take his lumps yet? If they aren't afraid to put Tua at risk with Jonah out there, what are they afraid of with Biggers in the trenches?

Hey Jon, the Dolphins have other options at defensive tackle that they consider better than Biggers at this time, and that’s not necessarily the case along the offensive line with Jonah Savaiinaea, who’s also a second-round pick that the Dolphins have to make sure winds up working. If Biggers doesn’t pan out — and again, if he were so impressive, the Dolphins wouldn’t have him inactive every week just for the fun of it — it’s not nearly as big a deal as if the same thing happens with Savaiinaea.

From Ed Hafner:

Can you explain why we have a cap hit for Terron Armstead in ‘26? He retired. When I retire, my company doesn't keep paying me. Also Jonnu Smith, who we traded? Seems crazy.

Hey Ed, Terron Armstead won’t keep getting paid in 2026, but he’ll count money against the salary cap because of the prorated portion of his signing bonus. As a quick explanation: The two biggest elements of a contract are the base salary and the signing bonus. The base salary is paid yearly by the team that employs the player at the moment and all the base salary counts against the cap every year. The signing bonus is paid all at once, but is spread out over a number to count against the team’s salary cap. For example, if Player A gets a $40 million signing bonus, it likely will be spread over five years and the cap hit on the signing bonus will be $8 million each of those five years.

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