What to Know About New Dolphins RB Jarquez Hunter (And the Great Trade That Brought Him to Miami)

The Miami Dolphins' neverending tweaking of their roster continued Thursday, this time with a trade.

The Dolphins acquired running back Jarquez Hunter from the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for veteran wide receiver Tutu Atwell.

Hunter (5-9, 204) is a second-year back who was a fourth-round pick out of Auburn in the 2025 NFL draft and appeared in five games as a rookie but played only 22 snaps, all of them on special teams.

Hunter is coming off a strong preseason performance against the New Orleans Saints last weekend when he rushed 12 times for 68 yards and a touchdown.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT HUNTER AND HOW HE FITS IN

The acquisition of Hunter comes after the Dolphins signed running back Coleman Bennett on Wednesday in the aftermath of both Ollie Gordon II and Donovan Edwards missing the final practice of training camp.

Because this trade happened so late in the week, one has to think there's no way Hunter will be able to play in the preseason finale against the Atlanta Falcons on Friday, so perhaps the Dolphins already have a strong enough conviction on Hunter to want to land his services.

Gordon's status also bears monitoring considering he sustained a rib injury in the preseason game against the New York Giants last Saturday and missed practice Wednesday.

While he never got a chance on the loaded Rams offense, Hunter did enter the draft as a solid prospect, with NFL.com analyst Lance Zierlein giving him a grade that translates to a good backup with the potential to develop into a starter.

"Run-after-contact machine who can extend the play well beyond what you might expect," Zierlein wrote. "Hunter is a compact back renowned for his lower-body power and battering-ram mentality. He frequently tears through arm tackles and drags tacklers for extra yardage. He could use less “fight” and more “flight” when there are still moves to make on the second level. While the burst is average, he’s decisive and sees run-lane development as a zone-scheme runner. Hunter is a little limited, but his role is easily definable as a two-down pile-mover for teams looking to impose their will on the ground."

The Rams liked Hunter enough coming out of Auburn when they gave the Colts a sixth-round pick to move up 10 spots (from 127th to 117th in the fourth round of the 2025 draft to get him.

Sean McVay when the Rams drafted new Dolphins RB Jarquez Hunter:

"No question that's who I want.

That was my top player for today." #PhinsUp pic.twitter.com/M927bpoOgk
— The List - Dolphins Podcast (@TheListFinsPod) August 27, 2026

But they didn't like him enough to make him more than their fourth running back, which is why he got no offensive snaps last year and head coach Sean McVay recently made it clear that Ronnie Rivers was the No. 3 back behind Kyran Williams and Blake Corum because "I trust the guys."

Regardless of how things work out with Hunter, this was a no-lose trade for the Dolphins because based on training camp performance it was practically impossible to see how Atwell making the 53-man roster.

The former Miami high school frankly was one of the biggest disappointments of camp with an inability to make many plays and too many dropped passes.

Instead, Atwell returns to the Rams, where he played his first four NFL seasons before signing with Miami as an unrestricted free agent.

There's also a very minor — and potential — cap benefit to this trade that only will materialize if Hunter doesn't make the 53. Atwell has about $1.2 million of guaranteed salary this season, for which the Dolphins would have been responsible had they released him Sunday. Hunter doesn't have guaranteed salary, meaning the Dolphins wouldn't take a cap hit if they decided not to keep him.

So essentially the Dolphins either will get Hunter at the same cap number (or close to it) as Atwell or save a modest cap space amount, makes it a nice win-win move.

TRADE RETROSPECTIVE

This is the second trade the Dolphins have swung this summer, the first being the acquisitions of offensive lineman Caedan Wallace and a 2029 seventh-round pick from the New England Patriots for a 2028 sixth-round selection.

It's also the fifth trade between the Dolphins and the Rams over the past 10 years.

The last came in 2023 when the Dolphins acquired defensive back Jalen Ramsey for tight end Hunter Long and a third-round pick. Before that, the Dolphins had acquired defensive linemen Robert Quinn (2018) and William Hayes (2017) from L.A.

And then there was the bizarre 2019 trade involving cornerback Aqib Talib, who the Rams sent to Miami to create cap space, giving the Dolphins a fifth-round pick as a sweetener with only a seventh-round selection going back to Los Angeles.

Talib remained on IR the rest of that 2019 season and never played in the NFL again.

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