More Evidence That the Dolphins Are All In On Willis

Over the past week, a couple of interesting nuggets have surfaced regarding the Miami Dolphins trade of Jaylen Waddle, and one of them actually spoke volumes about another player.

The Dolphins traded Waddle to the Denver Broncos back on March 18 in exchange for first- and third-round picks in the 2026 NFL draft, with the teams also swapping fourth-round selections (to the Broncos' benefit, by 19 spots).

Since the trade, South Florida TV announcer Josh Moser has said on a podcast that Waddle wanted out before he was trade, and that was followed late this week by NFL Network reporter Cameron Wolfe saying that the Dolphins gave new quarterback Malik Willis a heads up that they were going to make the move.

WHY WILLIS WAS INFORMED

In the big picture for the Dolphins, particularly moving forward, the second revelation clearly was more significant because it speaks to a commitment to Willis.

And if it wasn't already clear that Willis will be the starting quarterback for the Dolphins in 2026 based on the two-year, $45 million commitment made when they signed him in free agency, giving him a heads up about the most dynamic playmaker in the passing game being moved, then nothing can happen between now and opening day to make that obvious.

Let's face it, if the Dolphins intended to have Willis be involved in a competition for the starting job with 2025 seventh-round pick Quinn Ewers, would there really have been a need for inform here?

And we're going to make a guess here and suggest that Ewers wasn't told about the Waddle move, which is significant even if unlike Willis he was a returning player and not somebody who just got signed.

Again, for those Ewers fans, the Dolphins didn't veer off their offseason strategy of signing players to one-year contracts for the minimum or barely above it with Willis to have him be part of a competition, though they're always going to be hesitant about saying anything other than something like competition makes everybody or the ever-popular "iron sharpens iron."

Besides, maybe what Jon-Eric Sullivan meant when he talked about wanting competition at quarterback was competition for the No. 2 spot or maybe he meant to add (in parentheses) competition if the Dolphins weren't able to land a clear starter.

But they did that with Willis, and the Waddle news only reaffirmed that.

WADDLE'S WISHES

As for Waddle wanting out, that also shouldn't be overly surprising, even though he never really stood out as a player to make demands — unlike some of his more high-profile teammates of the past few years like, say, Tyreek Hill or Jalen Ramsey.

Then again, maybe Waddle decided he didn't want to go through a rebuilding project like the one the Dolphins have embarked upon or maybe he figured he could wind up being a salary-cap casualty next offseason when his cap number was scheduled to jump to more than $33 million and wanted to get ahead of it.

Regardless, he's now in Denver, with a team coming off an AFC Championship Game appearance and reunited with his college roommate Pat Surtain II and got a restructured a contract.

So he should be happy and the Dolphins also should be happy with the return they got for him.

And Willis should be happy to have been kept in the loop for everything it meant.