Safety Swap in Free Agency?

The Miami Dolphins figure to need one new starting safety, if not two

Miami Dolphins safety Jevon Holland (8) enters the field before the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Hard Rock Stadium in 2024. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins very well might have to find two new starting safeties with Jevon Holland and Jordan Poyer headed for free agency, and it could the same route used to fill at least one of those two vacancies.

Along with Holland and Poyer, Elijah Campbell also is a pending UFA, leaving 2024 sixth-round pick Patrick McMorris and practice squad/futures contract signee Jordan Colbert as the only safeties under contract to the Dolphins for 2025.

While taking a safety early in the 2025 NFL draft certainly is a possibility — and some mocks have projected Georgia's Malaki Starks going to Miami — it's likely the Dolphins would want at least some veteran presence at that position.

Enter free agency.

THE TALANOA HUFANGA THOUGHT

The Dolphins always simply could keep Holland, but he's made it pretty clear he's more interested in the size of his new contract than necessarily staying in Miami and his price tag eventually could or should become too high.

After all, there was only so high the Dolphins were willing to go for Christian Wilkins and Robert Hunt, and the same should apply to Holland.

There should be no shortage of suitors for Holland, and one of those teams that could target him is the San Francisco 49ers, with newly re-hired defensive coordinator Robert Saleh having seen first-hand Holland's Black Friday pick-six in 2023 as head coach of the Jets.

The 49ers have a very good safety of their own headed for free agency, and it says here it's a better player than Holland, though one who has battled injuries in his four NFL seasons.

That player is Talanoa Hufanga, like Holland a member of the 2021 draft class, though in the fifth round compared to Holland going in the second round.

Hufanga missed 10 games in 2024 with a wrist injury after missing seven in 2023 with a torn ACL, so some fans immediately will reject the idea of signing an injury-prone player.

But this is where we'll bring everyone back to the 2022 season when Hufanga played all 17 games, and played well enough to be named a first-team All-Pro after finishing with four interceptions, two sacks and two forced fumbles.

For certain, it wouldn't be a move without risk, which is why the Dolphins shouldn't spend big money for him and not get involved in a bidding war.

But if his injury issues are behind him, he'd be at least an equal trade for Holland at safety, if not an upgrade.

There will be a lot of other free agent options at safety this offseason, but a lot of those will be older (Harrison Smith, Justin Simmons, Quandre Diggs) or more expensive (Marcus Williams, Justin Reid) players.

Hufanga will be 26 when the 2025 season kicks off and his bargaining power probably was affected by his injuries the last two seasons.

It says here he's somebody definitely worth investigating.