The most recent precedent of a trade out of the 11th overall pick bodes well for the Dolphins and their options in the 2026 NFL Draft
Recent history seems to bode well for Miami.
If the Miami Dolphins ultimately decide to pursue a trade down from the 11th overall pick in the NFL Draft, they’ll have some recent precedent to lean on.
Miami’s current war-chest of draft picks features eleven total draft selections scheduled for the 2026 NFL Draft, which is just the third time since the late 1990s that Miami is scheduled to make 10+ selections in the same draft. But with a laundry list of team needs and Miami’s aspirations to build a new culture of young players, it’s hard to dismiss the idea that Sullivan may go hunting for more.
Should that involve pick No. 11, there’s a recent trade to know from just a few years back.
2022 NFL Draft offers price baseline if Miami pursues a trade out of 11th overall pick
The New Orleans Saints are the last team in an NFL Draft to trade UP into the 11th overall pick. That happened in 2022, when New Orleans jumped up in the queue from the 16th overall selection in order to target wide receiver Chris Olave. The Saints traded with the Washington Commanders, leaping up five spots total in the order.
The full terms of that trade:
- New Orleans received: 2022 first-round pick (11th overall)
- Washington received: 2022 first-round pick (16th overall), 2022 third-round pick (98th overall), 2022 fourth-round pick (120th overall)
That’s a pretty good haul — one that this year’s Dolphins team could probably benefit from if they felt that the talent pool left at pick No. 11 would leave them with a similarly graded player in the teens. That said, it’s probably unwise to expect that Miami will get a deal done with the team picking 16th overall this year: that would be their AFC East rivals, the New York Jets.
The Jets currently own the pick courtesy of the Sauce Gardner trade with the Indianapolis Colts; but they could ironically be the team best positioned to offer Miami a similar trade package thanks to their own surplus of picks. The Dolphins would need two things to see this come to life. The first is conviction by the Jets in QB Ty Simpson as a player they needed to go up and get. The other is comfort that the Jets’ assessment of Simpson (or any other player, for that matter) is wrong.
The odds favor Miami sticking and picking at No. 11, just because you always need two to tango (or trade) and that is usually much easier said than done. But if they d0 have the hunger to trade out of No. 11, the most recent track record of a deal in that range would seem to bode well for the Dolphins.