Key Questions About Grier's Answers

Evaluating some of the comments from Miami Dolphins GM Chris Grier during his annual pre-draft press conference

Miami Dolphins GM Chris Grier | Alain Poupart/Miami Dolphins On SI

Chris Grier once again tried to navigate the balance between being forthcoming and not giving away state secrets during his annual pre-draft press conference this week.

But, as always, there were some answers from the Miami Dolphins general manager that raised some questions, most notably when those involved veterans on the roster.

Even more specifically, some of those answers leaving questions involved front-line players like Jalen Ramsey, Tyreek Hill and Tua Tagovailoa.

TYREEK IS A LEADER?

We'll start with the most obvious, and that's Grier's comment about the leadership on the 2025 roster and mentioning Hill right near the top.

"But I do think in-house, when you have guys like Zach Sieler — just to name a few — you can say Tyreek, (Jaylen) Waddle, Alec Ingold, Austin Jackson ... the offensive line guys love him," Grier said. "Those guys, they lead differently. They’re quiet guys in how they do it by example and stuff, so we feel comfortable, they know the expectations as we talked about as the (end of season) press conference."

Again, Hill second behind only Zach Sieler?

Is Tyreek Hill really a leader?

Would a leader have quit on his team in the season finale without alerting his coaches he was pulling himself out?

Grier wasn't wrong when he said he wasn't going to speak about anybody's personal life and would only judge him on what happens around the team, but again a leader would have spoken about frustration as a team after the Jets game last year and not about his personal frustration — you know, the whole "I'm out, bro" thing.

WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO TRADE TYREEK?

Grier said he's not looking to trade Hill nor has he gotten a phone call from another team about him, though he did say he would consider a deal if he were offered two first-round picks.

Well, we know that's not happening anywhere other than maybe in "Draft Day 2" — and Grier can then ask for David Putney as well — so the question is what Grier actually would consider a good enough offer to move Hill.

Would one first-round pick do it?

A national media outlet threw out the idea of trading Hill to the New England Patriots for the fourth overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft, which again strikes us as coming from fantasy land. But Grier absolutely should jump on that if it were offered to him — and we should remember an ESPN report citing an NFL executive predicting that Hill indeed would get traded to the Patriots.

At this stage, one would think the Dolphins absolutely would consider moving Hill for a first-round pick, with the understanding the idea here would be addition by subtraction because the roster won't be as good with him as without him.

WITH RAMSEY, WHY AND WHY NOW?

Related to Jalen Ramsey and the Dolphins mutually agreeing to explore trade possibilities, Grier didn't want to reveal the reason things have reached this point other than to say it was not contract-related.

So what could it have been?

From the Dolphins standpoint, again, there's no universe where they're better without Ramsey than with him, so it could be another case of addition by subtraction and maybe issues with Ramsey's personality or maybe a desire to start looking to the future — though Grier said the words "rebuild" or "reset" have not been discussed.

From Ramsey's viewpoint, why would he want to leave a team that redid his contract not once but twice in the 18 months after the trade that brought him over from the Los Angeles Rams? Does he have an issue with the direction of the team and wants to jump ship to play for a contender? Does have an issue with defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver's scheme? Are there personality clashes with either prominent teammates or one or more coaches?

And then the issue of why now? This is happening a month after the Dolphins paid him a $4 million roster bonus, and that's money that was flushed away if the sides knew this was coming all along. Or did something happen in recent weeks to make the situation reach a point of no return?

Ramsey has not commented since the report surfaced, either to the media or on social media, where he has 1.5 million followers on Instagram and almost half a million on X, but maybe he'll discuss his situation at some point.

In the meantime, we're left to wonder exactly what has led to this impending divorce.

WHERE WAS TUA'S NAME?

We wrap it up with where we started, and that was the issue of leadership.

Go back up to Grier's comment about the leaders on the team and look again at the names he mentioned — Sieler, Hill, Waddle, Ingold, Jackson.

One pretty big name missing there, no?

And let's understand that in giving his answer Grier was taking his time, suggesting he was going through the roster in his mind to come up with the leaders.

And the team's starting quarterback, the franchise quarterback to whom you gave a $200 million-plus extension last summer, who's got a $39 million cap number in 2025 and more than $50 million guaranteed next year doesn't come up?

It's a bit weird, and that's putting it mildly.