The Dolphins’ trade deadline strategy could come back to haunt them — Stephen Ross’ hopes for his coach may prove costly in the long run
The Dolphins are trying to have their cake and eat it, too.
The Miami Dolphins have taken the first step. They’ve accepted there is a problem — and the team has begun the process of facilitating some much-needed change atop their football operation. That’s the good news. The bad news is that there are still plenty of football games left to be played in 2025. And, after flirting with some more massive changes to the roster this week, Miami ultimately stood pat after moving EDGE defender Jaelan Phillips on Monday.
The decision not to make any additional moves ahead of the Tuesday trade deadline was curious to many — but the more we hear about the mindset in the building, the more it all makes sense. The Dolphins are attempting a delicate tightrope act of prepping for change while also trying to give the rest of the football operation a fair chance to perform and win amid the evaluation process for the future.
It’s a bit messy. And, courtesy of a recent report from NFL Network’s Cam Wolfe, we know now that it did ultimately prompt them to turn down more action at the deadline for players who do not appear to be a part of the long-term picture in Miami.
The Dolphins strategy at NFL trade deadline could come back to bite them in more ways than one
“There was some thought that Bradley Chubb might be sent out on a deal — this could be his last year here. (The Dolphins’) thought process there was ‘we’re not going to trade guys for late-round pick swaps’, which was a lot of the offers they received for guys like Chubb and Minkah (Fitzpatrick), when they feel like they could still have a chance to fight through the year. This is going to be an important end of the year for Mike McDaniel, for Tua Tagovailoa, and they want to give these guys a shot.”
— NFL Network’s Cam Wolfe on why Miami wasn’t more active at the trade deadline
How long have key figures in Miami been in place?
- Head coach Mike McDaniel: 2022
- QB Tua Tagovailoa: 2020
- General manager Chris Grier: Held title from 2016 through October 31st of 2025
- Owner Stephen Ross: Acquired majority stake of team in 2009
Mike McDaniel, on Wednesday, discussed with the media how he, Brandon Shore and interim GM Champ Kelly tackled the trade deadline process together. It has also been reported the team owner Stephen Ross would prefer not to fire McDaniel, but he needs to keep this team playing for him and get the product on the field improved to keep his position.
I would not suspect there to be great motivation from that coach to voice support to ship out names like Chubb for late-round pick swaps, as Wolfe is reporting Miami was presented with. That’s small potatoes versus a top-100 pick, which the team got for Jaelan Phillips on an expiring contract. Those two personnel decisions are different beasts, so it is understandable why there was an appetite for one such move but not the others.
But that doesn’t mean this wasn’t, in isolation, bad business.
Miami now enters into a critical evaluation window for their coach having voluntarily bypassed on business for aging, expensive veterans to give him a chance to “fight through the year”. Miami is 2-7. The writing is on the wall here and we’d be foolish to pull the wool over our eyes and pretend that a 25-point smackdown at the hands of the *squints* two-win Cleveland Browns didn’t just happen in October. Nor should we pretend like this team hasn’t scored six points in two of their last three contests and failed to break single digit points in a third of their first nine games.
Mike McDaniel had better win after a deadline strategy like this, or else what already feels like an inevitable end-game and final decision is going to have a whole lot more insult added to the injury of more seismic changes. The Dolphins want to bring about change but they don’t know how much of it — setting the stage for missed business and cash saved in exchange for a coach who has rolled up a number of fireable offenses already. On one hand, it makes Stephen Ross’ looming decision that much easier if the wins don’t start coming. But there will have been a cost. And every little margin matters in a the NFL.
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The future is, in some ways, now for the Miami Dolphins. It’s just a matter of fighting to determine who is here in the present and will have earned the right to be here for it. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa? Consider his seat hot. Head coach Mike McDaniel? What’s hotter that hot? Scorching? This iteration of […]
