Examining Opposite Reports on Waddle Trade Possibilities

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Jaylen Waddle is headed into his sixth NFL season.

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Jaylen Waddle (17) scores a touchdown against the Atlanta Falcons in the third quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins already have said goodbye to half their lightning-fast wide receiver tandem this offseason, but the status of the other remains a hot topic.

Jaylen Waddle is heading into his sixth NFL season, and the question is whether it will be with the Dolphins or with some other team amid a lot of trade speculation.

That the question has even come up dates back to last November, when teams discussed acquiring his services during a lost Dolphins season that's now been followed by a rebuilding project under new GM Jon-Eric Sullivan and new head coach Jeff Hafley.

And there were two conflicting reports this week about Waddle's status, one out of Miami suggesting the Dolphins want to keep him, and the other out of Pittsburgh suggesting the Steelers will make a move to acquire him.

THE PITTSBURGH SUGGESTION

The Steelers have a new head coach with Mike McCarthy, but a remaining shortage at wide receiver that led them to talk to the Dolphins about a Waddle trade last season, according to Steelers reporter Mark Kaboly.

Appearing on 93.7 The Fan this week, Kaboly said: “I mean, the one that is very interesting to me, and I know he isn’t on the block, but a lot of things are happening in Miami right now. Jaylen Waddle. The Steelers were definitely interested in him at the deadline last year. Depending on who you believe, Miami pulled out at the last second, or they would have at least had an opportunity to acquire him.

“I would definitely keep an eye on him. But the money is just crazy past this year. I mean, this year is fine, but they would have to rip it up and do it again. I mean, Omar is very good at that. Do it and then sign him to a longer-term deal… You can’t have 60 million bucks tied up at two receivers.”

THE MESSAGE FROM MIAMI

As Kaboly pointed out, the money is a factor beyond 2026.

While Waddle has a very modest $11.6 million cap number this year, it jumps to $33 million in 2027, and an acquiring team would take on all of that minus the $3 million for his prorated signing bonus.

While it's one thing for teams to want Waddle, there are a lot of reasons it doesn't make sense for the Dolphins.

We can start with the fact that Waddle remains a dynamic playmaker who's still relatively young, and that large cap number for 2027 can be lowered through a contract restructure.

And then there's the more practical matter of the cap hit the Dolphins would take if they were to trade Waddle.

According to Over The Cap, trading Waddle before June 1 would double his $11.6 million cap number to a little more than $23 million. And as we all know — because it's been written about 100 times — the Dolphins really are not in a good cap position.

If they were to execute the trade after June 1 — unlike player cuts, teams can't make a trade in March and designate it post-June 1 for cap benefit — the Dolphins then would save about $5 million off Waddle's cap number. But that obviously would be after the 2026 NFL draft, so any picks they got in return would have to come in 2027 or later.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The Dolphins very well could wind up making a trade this offseason, but it's much more likely to involve safety Minkah Fitzpatrick.

The Dolphins also would love to trade quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, though that will be a lot more difficult to pull off because of his contract.

Because of where they stand, it makes sense that the Dolphins will be engaged in a lot of conversations with other teams at the scouting combine in Indianapolis next week, but NFL Network reporter Cameron Wolfe said Miami has some players they don't have a big interest in moving — and Waddle is one of them.

"A lot of rival teams are eager to talk to the Dolphins in Indianapolis to see which players they are willing to trade," Wolfe said. "This is a team that is resetting towards youth. Of course, the Dolphins would love to trade Tua. There's going to be some difficulties with the money there. Teams would love for them to trade Jaylen Waddle and Devon A'chane. I'm told right now they're wanting to keep those guys as core players."

The operative words in Wolfe's comment obviously were "right now," meaning the Dolphins aren't going to actively look to trade Waddle.

But you know the old "Godfather" line about making an offer someone can't refuse.

The bottom line here is that teams likely will be asking the Dolphins about Waddle and Achane, who'll be seeking a contract extension after his brilliant 2025 season, but it's more likely than not that neither player is going anywhere.

REVISITING THE BUFFALO ANGLE

The Dolphins made one move at the 2025 NFL trade deadline, and the question remains how close they came to trading Waddle to the Buffalo Bills.

Bills director of football operations Brandon Beane discussed a few weeks ago the team's attempt to acquire a front-line wide receiver for the stretch run during an appearance with Adam Schein of Mad Dog Radio, and shared an interesting detail about one particular target.

While he didn't specify the team or the player, it's probably not a stretch to suggest that the player was Waddle because Beane said the Bills had the highest offer for a player from an AFC East team, and that matches the reporting after the Dolphins let the deadline pass with Jaelan Phillips being the only player they moved.

"It's got to work within our financials, and unless a team is willing to eat money, Cleveland had already converted (Amari) Cooper down, and so you're able to do that," Beane said about the Bills' trade for Amari Cooper in 2024. "If a club's not willing to do that, that can kind of limit the possibility of making that happen at the deadline. But we talked about a lot of those guys. (Rashid) Shaheed with New Orleans, we were involved in that.

"Obviously, he gets shipped to Seattle, and in division we talked to one or two of those teams about their players, but at the end of the day, I know we had the strongest offer on one. I know that, but they ultimately decided not to pull the trigger, which maybe they decided wasn't enough, or maybe they just decided they didn't want to send them in division. They would have to answer that."

That answer might never come because the Dolphins have a new GM and new head coach who weren't in place until January.

But Beane revealed an additional detail that might have been the most interesting of all, and it speaks to the Dolphins' hesitancy to trade Waddle. And keep in mind, there was some serious thought because Achane said on Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown's podcast late in the season that he thought Waddle was gone.

"I felt like we had the best offer from all my Intel, which I did find out we did," Beane said. "But I don't know the reason why they didn't pull the trigger. I don't know if they got cold feet on trading the player altogether, or if they just decided they needed more compensation. But they never really countered back to us. 'Hey, if you do this, you can have him.'

"So you never really know, was he really available? Was he not? Or were you just going to have to go to a deal that they just, you know, was so unbelievable that there's no way they could turn it down. I don't know. When you don't get a counter back, it's hard to truly know how willing or not they were willing to move the player."

Beane's comment would seem to counter the suggestion that he offered a first-round pick in 2027 and a third-round pick, but that the Dolphins insisted on the first-round pick in the 2026 draft because that would prompt a negotiation that Beane said never happened.