The Dolphins’ trade of Jaelan Phillips to the Eagles marks more than a roster move — it’s a full-circle moment powered by Miami’s growing 2026 draft capital
Time is a flat circle, friends.
The Miami Dolphins‘ trade deadline maneuvering is underway. 2021 first-round pass rusher Jaelan Phillips’ tenure with the team is officially over — he’ll play the remainder of this season for the Philadelphia Eagles after being traded for a 2026 third-round draft selection this morning. It’s a disappointing end to Phillips’ run with the team after so many bright flashes of potential. Injuries derailed the heart of his run with Miami.
The Dolphins, who are currently under the direction of interim general manager Champ Kelly, are loading up on draft picks and partying like it’s 2020 all over again. The team is missing the plethora of first-round draft choices that jumpstarted this now crumbling chapter of the organization. But Miami, on the heels of the Phillips trade, finds themselves in waters they’ve been absent from in years.
Miami Dolphins’ current collection of 2026 draft picks after Jaelan Phillips trade
As things currently stand, the Dolphins hold five picks scheduled in the top-100 of the 2026 NFL Draft. They hold their own picks in rounds one through three, plus two more third round draft choices courtesy of a 2025 NFL Draft trade with the Houston Texans and the trade of Phillips on Monday morning ahead of the deadline.
Five top-100 draft choices can serve as a great foundation and nucleus for which the early chapters of Miami’s next build can be poured into with. Draft choices are mystery bags but teams with good process typically find good ways to weaponize them with cheap players and/or in the form of player trades. For Chris Grier’s Dolphins, it was too much of the latter in the final years of his run with the team.
Let’s put five top-100 draft choices in perspective for the 2026 Miami Dolphins: Miami made six top-100 draft selections in the 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 NFL Drafts. Combined. That comes on the heels of making 11 top-100 draft picks between the 2020 and 2021 NFL Drafts combined.
Miami Dolphins current top-100 draft pick schedule for 2026 NFL Draft
- Miami Dolphins 1st-round selection (currently 4th overall)
- Miami Dolphins 2nd-round selection (currently 35th overall)
- Miami Dolphins 3rd-round selection (currently 68th overall)
- Houston Texans 3rd-round selection (currently 75th overall)
- Philadelphia Eagles 3rd-round selection (currently 95th overall)
The irony of Miami pooling major draft assets to kickstart a build and then swearing them off like they’re a toddler with their steamed vegetables isn’t lost on me. Especially when the trade of Phillips comes at the hand of Eagles executive Howie Roseman — he’s mastered the art of pooling assets and then rolling them over annually to add, subtract, and shuffle his deck of cards year over year.
Miami filled up the treasure chest with picks from 2019 through 2021 and then emptied the chamber. They’ve been scrambling ever since.
And that, my friends, is why Miami’s depth is as shoddy as you currently find it. And that’s exactly why a move like the trade of Phillips needed to be done. The Dolphins’ team-building philosophy needs to get back to basics. The draft matters. Flexibility matters. And getting these assets now can be a part of the effort to attract the next general manager, which is an important subplot amid the uncertain future of QB Tua Tagovailoa and the financial implications of what it would look like to move on.
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Chris Grier’s greatest sin as the Dolphins general manager wasn’t something he was — it was something he wasn’t
It’s time for a new era. Let’s learn a lesson from this one.
