Smokescreen season is in full effect but the Miami Dolphins were twice linked to the same 2026 NFL Draft move in the same day
When you hear something this time of year, it’s usually for a reason. There’s gamesmanship involved in the final run to the 2026 NFL Draft — but this hypothetical for the Miami Dolphins is hard to ignore since it happened twice.
The Miami Dolphins‘ war chest of 2026 NFL Draft picks could be put to use in a lot of different ways.
There’s been buzz about trade downs. Trade ups. Future draft picks. You name it. At the end of the day, we may end up seeing a little bit of everything, too. So with everything on a the table for a Dolphins franchise that is very much playing the long-game with their rebuild, smoke and rumors in this final week before the 2026 NFL Draft should be taken with a grain of salt. Most information that goes public at this stage does so for a reason: someone wants you to hear it.
But when you start hearing the same thing from multiple people, you can’t help but notice. And that’s exactly where we sit this morning thanks to ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. and his former cohort, Todd McShay.
Both Todd McShay and Mel Kiper cooked up the same mock draft trade for the Miami Dolphins in the same day
In the same morning, we’ve seen both Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay mock draft trades with the Arizona Cardinals and Miami Dolphins involving pick No. 30. Kiper Jr.’s deal was, frankly, too good to be true. But McShay also mocked the Dolphins trading down from 30 to No. 34 overall — although his haul was much more modest than Kiper’s pick swap.
The details of the trade are secondary. It’s more so the buzz of Miami doing business with the Cardinals to open the door for Arizona to go get their quarterback in QB Ty Simpson.
Miami does own an advantage of being near the bottom of the first round order. They can dangle pick no. 30 to the Cardinals (or any other team) and offer modest pricing since the distance to move up is shorter than teams in the 20’s. Perhaps Kiper and McShay, long-time companions at ESPN, both woke up to write these mocks feeling inspired by that leverage. Or, alternatively, perhaps they’ve heard something. Either from the Miami Dolphins side of the fence or the Cardinals’ side. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the rest of the insiders over the next week — if we see more Cardinals & Dolphins trades projected, there may be some fire to go with all this smoke.
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