What to Make of the Dolphins-Related Combine Whispers and Reports

The 2026 NFL scouting combine was wrapping up Sunday, and as always, the scrutiny of the top-ranked prospects at various positions was only part of the story because this is a time of year when news comes out regarding players who could be on the move or getting new contracts.

The Miami Dolphins have a handful of players who were mentioned in media reports, starting with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, but also including safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, and three of the team's best players in 2025 — De'Von Achane, Jordyn Brooks and Aaron Brewer.

As it turned out, though, none of the reports involving Dolphins players were terribly surprising because their plan of action seems pretty clear.

Those reports are worth discussing nonetheless.

TUA DECISION TIME COMING SOON?

The biggest issue involving the Dolphins, of course, is what to do with Tagovailoa and his highly problematic $56 million cap number.

ESPN insider Dan Graziano wrote Sunday that the expectation is that the Dolphins will cut Tagovailoa with a post-June 1 designation after failing to find a trade partner.

This isn't surprising because we (and others) have maintained all along that it would be difficult to find a team willing to take on the quarterback's salary, particularly when it's been pretty well established that the Dolphins want to move on from him.

From this end, maybe the only way the Dolphins ever would be able to find a trade partner would be by offering a sweetener in the form of a draft pick or two or by paying off some of Tua's salary (which would increase his dead cap hit).

In his conversation with the South Florida reporters who traveled to Indianapolis, GM Jon-Eric Sullivan conceded it would be difficult to take on Tagovailoa's $99 million dead cap hit in one shot, so the post-June 1 designation seemed like the expected conclusion all along.

That move, if it comes to pass, would not happen before March 11 since the post-June 1 designation can't be processed until the start of the league year.

MINKAH GOING TO A DIVISION RIVAL

The idea of the Dolphins shopping safety Minkah Fitzpatrick was reported at the start of the combine and makes all the sense in the world, given his trade value, age, salary and the fact he likely has no appetite for a rebuild.

The interesting twist came Sunday from ESPN New York Jets reporter Rich Cimini, who suggested to "keep an eye" on that team as a possible trade partner for Fitzpatrick.

Under normal circumstances, we'd suggest the Dolphins should be very hesitant to trade a high-end player to a division opponent, but these are far from normal circumstances for Miami.

There's the status of the team, and the rebuilding it's facing is compounded by its really, really bad cap situation — the Dolphins still are in the red (by more than $6 million) in effective cap space, with counts the current player cap commitments as well as the money needed to sign the expected number of draft picks.

So the Dolphins will be a lot more willing to overlook the downside of trading to the Jets than if they were, say, coming off an eight- or nine-win season and with expectations of competing for the playoffs in 2026.

POSSIBLE EXTENSIONS

The ESPN report from Graziano and Fowler also indicated a note about the Dolphins talking about contract extensions for Achane, Brewer and Brooks, but that had been reported earlier in the week after Sullivan's media session with South Florida reporters.

The Dolphins are open to conversations with running back De’Von Achane, linebacker Jordyn Brooks and center Aaron Brewer over contract extensions, new GM Jon-Eric Sullivan told a small group of reporters, but those will occur later, in the summer. https://t.co/6GoVrGDOYC
— David Furones (@DavidFurones_) February 24, 2026

It certainly makes sense for the Dolphins to want to keep those three players around because they're all still relatively young and are foundational pieces.

While it makes sense to take care of other business first, it might behoove the Dolphins to extend Brewer and/or Brooks sooner rather than later because that could help lower their 2026 cap numbers of $9.1 million and $10.8 million, respectively, by converting their base salary for next season into signing bonuses that could be spread out.

The same could be done with Achane, though his 2026 cap number isn't as high as $6 million (though the Dolphins can use all the cap help they can get right now).