The Dolphins have several players who could be traded before Tuesday’s deadline. One is reportedly drawing interest from more than one team. And one of the teams is noteworthy.
Cameron Wolfe of NFL Media reports that multiple teams have significant interest in trading for Dolphins pass rushers Jaelen Phillips and Bradley Chubb.
Wolfe adds that the Eagles have specific interest in Phillips. Philadelphia defensive coordinator Vic Fangio reportedly thinks highly of Phillips from 2023, when Fangio worked as Miami’s defensive coordinator.
That year, Phillips had 6.5 sacks in only eight games before suffering a season-ending torn Achilles tendon on Black Friday against the Jets.
A first-round pick in 2021, Phillips is in the fifth year of his rookie deal, at a salary of $13.251 million.
Chubb, the fifth overall pick in the 2018 draft, was traded three years ago today from the Broncos to the Dolphins. His base salary is only $1.255 million. Miami would take a dead-money charge of $23.858 million next year if Chubb is traded before Tuesday’s deadline. He has four sacks in nine 2025 games.
The Dolphins parted ways with General Manager Chris Grier on Friday and it appears they are taking a different approach to the trade deadline in the wake of that move.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the Dolphins will consider offers for Waddle over the coming days. Per the report, teams had called about Waddle before Grier left the team and were told that they would not make a trade.
Waddle signed a three-year contract extension with the Dolphins last year that put him under contract through the 2028 season. He has a cap number of over $11.65 million for next season and cap numbers north of $33 million in the final two years of the deal.
Waddle has 41 catches for 586 yards and four touchdowns this season. Teams interested in adding that kind of production will likely be calling interim G.M. Champ Kelly quite often ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.
The Dolphins installed an interim General Manager on Friday. And Champ Kelly has plenty of work to do.
The trade deadline arrives on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. ET. And it’s believed that most of the current roster is available.
As one source put it, if Kelly is going to have any chance at the permanent job, he’ll need to make a big splash. Turn contracts that will either not be extended or will be terminated into draft picks. Dump salary. Create future cap space. Target practice-squad guys who can come in and be competitive.
Of course, it remains to be seen how competitive the Dolphins want to be. Owner Stephen Ross allegedly offered former head coach Brian Flores $100,000 in 2019 for each additional loss the team absorbed. (Ross said he was joking. Good one?)
So maybe Kelly placates Ross by gutting the roster and greasing the skids for a continuation of the 2025 free fall.
Regardless, multiple Dolphins players are in play. One guy to watch, we’re told, is safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who was traded from Miami to the Steelers in 2019 and who was traded back to the Dolphins before the season.
Pass rushers Jaelan Phillips, Bradley Chubb, and Matt Judon know they could go, too. Receiver Jaylen Waddle also has been mentioned as a potential trade possibility.
Kelly has three days to do any deals he’s considering. And with 13 games still to be played in Week 9, the inevitable possibility of injuries could create and/or heighten demand for the various available Dolphins players.
Dysfunctional teams do dysfunctional things. It should be no surprise, then, that the dysfunctional Dolphins did something dysfunctional on Friday.
Owner Stephen Ross fired (sorry, “mutually parted ways with”) long-time G.M. Chris Grier. Ross made no other changes.
The Dolphins simultaneously got the word out that coach Mike McDaniel will finish the season. (Which could be viewed as an even worse punishment than being mutually parted ways. With.)
McDaniel is now an obvious lame duck, barring the kind of miracle that persuades Ross to keep him for 2026. Even then, Ross will have a mismatched G.M. and head coach, with the new G.M. waiting for the opportunity to hire his own head coach.
Every future G.M. scouts players and coaches. Every G.M. has a list of coaches with whom the G.M. wants to work. And so, if McDaniel survives, he’ll enter 2026 on the hot seat, as the new G.M. bides his time for the right time to move on from McDaniel and to install one of the coaches the new G.M. has earmarked for eventual hire.
And if Ross lets the new G.M. make the decision on McDaniel, when will that happen? Even if it takes only two weeks after the season ends to install a new G.M., the Dolphins will be two weeks behind everyone else who is looking for a head coach in a cycle that starts spinning in little more than two months.
Ross felt compelled to do something after Thursday night’s embarrassing home loss to the Ravens. He opted for a half measure.
The reasons are his and his alone. Maybe he has no faith in any of the potential interim candidates. Maybe he wants to let nature take its course, so that the Dolphins will earn the highest possible draft position in all seven rounds.
Regardless, the properly functioning teams that currently aren’t functioning at a satisfactory level don’t fire either the coach or the G.M. They clean house and start over.
Dolphins rookie running back Ollie Gordon suffered an ankle injury during Thursday night’s loss to the Ravens, but it shouldn’t keep him sidelined for long.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, Gordon is considered day-to-day.
He’s set to miss limited time — if he misses any additional time at all. He had to exit Thursday’s contest in the first half.
Gordon, 21, has rushed for 122 yards on 40 carries with a touchdown. He’s also caught six passes for 30 yards with a TD.
