Make It Two Free Agents the Dolphins Have Re-Signed

For the second time in three days, the Miami Dolphins have re-signed one of their pending free agents.

Linebacker Cameron Goode re-upped with Miami on Wednesday before he was set to become a restricted free agent, joining cornerback Ethan Bonner, who the Dolphins tendered as an exclusive-rights free agent Monday.

Goode has played 37 games for the Dolphins over the past three years after he spent all of 2022 on the practice squad after arriving as one of the team's seventh-round picks that year along with QB Skylar Thompson.

Goode played all 17 games in 2023 and 2025 and made his first career start this past season in the finale against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium. He was limited to three games in 2024, spending most of the season recovering from the knee injury he sustained in the 2023 finale against the Buffalo Bills.

For most of his time in Miami, Goode has been a core special teams player and his role doesn't figure to change much under new head coach Jeff Hafley.

Goode made the veteran minimum salary of just over $1 million last season and it's probably safe to expect the compensation to be about the same.

THE RESTRICTED FREE AGENT PICTURE

Goode was one of three Dolphins players scheduled to become restricted free agents at the start of the league year March 11, the others being tight end Julian Hill and defensive lineman Matthew Butler.

Restricted free agents are those players whose contracts have expired and have three vested years in the NFL. They don't have the same freedom as unrestricted free agents because teams can earn the right to match an offer sheet or receive compensation if they extend qualifying offers.

To receive a first-round pick as compensation, a team has to tender an RFA at a cost of about $8 million; it's about $5.8 million for a second-round pick; and a $3.5 million qualifying offer gives the original team to right to match any offer sheet but with no compensation coming otherwise.

Butler and Hill both were at the minimum salary (it varies based on NFL experience) in 2025, so there's zero reason to think the Dolphins will be extending a qualifying offer to either.

That means that Hill and Butler will become unrestricted free agents with no restrictions by March 11 unless the Dolphins re-sign them before then.

Of those two, it's obviously a lot easier to envision the Dolphins bringing back Hill, who has value because of his size and blocking ability, than Butler.

Along with their RFAs, the Dolphins also have 28 players who will become unrestricted free agents next Wednesday.

The list of those pending UFAs consists of QB Zach Wilson, CB Kader Kohou, CB Ifeatu Melifonwu, T Larry Borom, S Ashtyn Davis, P Jake Bailey, TE Darren Waller, IDL Benito Jones, CB Elijah Campbell, CB Rasul Douglas, T Kendall Lamm, LS Joe Cardona, CB Artie Burns, LB Willie Gay Jr. RB Alexander Mattison, LB K.J. Britt, WR Dee Eskridge, T Germain Ifedi, K Riley Patterson, LB Caleb Johnson, G Daniel Brunskill, WR Cedrick Wilson Jr., CB Jack Jones, LB Quinton Bell, G Cole Strange, CB A.J. Green, T Yodny Cajuste and TE Greg Dulcich.