The Miami Dolphins have arrived at the most important month of the year when it comes to putting together their 2025 roster.
The highlight, as it is every year, will be the free agency period, which will kick off with the start of the new league year March 12 after two days after legal negotiating with impending free agents from other teams.
March 12 also is the day when trades officially can be consummated, even if they can be agreed upon beforehand — see Washington Commanders, San Francisco 49ers, Deebo Samuel.
The first big date on the March calendar comes Tuesday (March 4) with the deadline for teams to apply the franchise or transition tag on one of their players.
And that’s when the first domino to the Dolphins roster will fall (or stay upright), as we offer our best guess at some of the moves the team will be making.
Head coach Mike McDaniel said at the combine that Holland had “earned the right” to test free agency, which basically means the Dolphins will not use the franchise or transition tag on him — understanding that they always have the right to change their minds.
The issue with Holland is the salary he’s likely to command on the open market — at the minimum $15 million annually — and the team’s reluctance to go that high considering he plays a position with perhaps a tad less value than others and the fact that he’s been a good but not great player.
This is similar to what happened with Christian Wilkins and Robert Hunt, who we’d argue both were better at defensive tackle and guard than Holland has been at safety and wound up leaving because their price tag was too exorbitant.
There really is no other impending free agent significant enough to justify a tag and the cap commitment that comes with it.
Before the March 12 signing period begins, we can expect the Dolphins to have re-signed at least a couple of their pending UFAs.
The team currently has 25 of them.
Along with Holland, there’s QB Tyler Huntley, RB Jeff Wilson Jr., WR Braxton Berrios, WR River Cracraft, WR Dee Eskridge, TE Jack Stoll, T Jackson Carman, T Kendall Lamm, G Isaiah Wynn, G Robert Jones, G Liam Eichenberg, DT Benito Jones, DT Da’Shawn Hand, DT Calais Campbell, EDGE Emmanuel Ogbah, EDGE Tyus Bowser, EDGE Cam Brown, LB Tyrel Dodson, LB Duke Riley, LB Anthony Walker Jr., CB Siran Neal, S Elijah Campbell, S Jordan Poyer, and LS Jake McQuaide.
The best guess from here is that the most likely candidates to re-sign early would include Cracraft, Robert Jones, Hand, Brown, Dodson and Campbell.
Thanks to where the final salary cap number came in ($279.2 million), the Dolphins found themselves under the limit heading into the month.
But they’ll want to create additional space to re-sign some of their player or be able to sign free agents from other teams.
That means we’re going to see some contract restructures and/or extensions, and the first place to look is at the players carrying a cap number in excess of $10 million for 2025. There currently are nine such players on the roster, per Over The Cap: Tua Tagovailoa ($39.2 million cap number), Bradley Chubb ($28.7 million), Tyreek Hill ($27.7 million), Terron Armstead ($22.8 million), Jalen Ramsey ($16.7 million), Austin Jackson ($13.5 million), Jaelan Phillips ($13.3 million on his fifth-year option), Zach Sieler ($12.4 million) and Jordyn Brooks ($11.1 million).
The two that stand out here are Armstead and Chubb because of their injury history and, in Armstead’s case, the fac the Dolphins have 2024 second-round pick Patrick Paul waiting in the wings.
Armstead reportedly is willing to lower his base salary from $13.3 million to the veteran minimum of $1.2 million, which would bring his cap number to about $9 million would help and ostensibly would give him more time to decide whether he wants to continue playing by lessening his cap burden, but there’s no guarantee the Dolphins aren’t ready to move on anyway.
In fact, we’d be inclined to believe it’s going to play out that way.
As for Chubb, we see practically no chance the Dolphins bring him back at that cap number when he’s got no guaranteed salary for 2025.
The best guess here is he will return after taking a pay cut rather than dare the Dolphins to make him a post-June 1 release because we’re not sure what kind of market there would be after he missed all of the 2024 season working his way back from a severe knee injury.
We’ll have a lot more on this in the coming days, but let’s just say the expecation should be that the Dolphins will be focused more on quantity over quality because they currently have only 47 players under contract to 2025.
Jordyn Brooks got the biggest contract of any incoming UFA last year at three years for $26.3 million, and we shouldn’t anticipate anything higher (or much higher) than that in 2025.
March 4 — Prior to 4:00 p.m., New York time, deadline for clubs to designate Franchise or Transition Players.
March 10-12 — During the period beginning at 12:00 noon, New York time, on March 10 and ending at 3:59:59 p.m., New York time, on March 12, clubs are permitted to contact, and enter into contract negotiations with the certified agents of players who will become unrestricted free agents upon the expiration of their 2024 player contracts at 4:00 p.m., New York time, on March 12.
— During the above two-day negotiating period, a prospective UFA who is not represented by an NFLPA Certified Contract Advisor (“Unrepresented Player”) is permitted to communicate directly with a new club’s front office officials (excluding the head coach and other members of the club’s coaching staff) regarding contract negotiations. The club is responsible for confirming the player’s status as an Unrepresented Player.
— No prospective unrestricted free agent is permitted to execute a contract with a new club until 4:00 p.m., New York time, on March 12.
March 12 — The 2025 League Year and Free Agency signing period begin at 4:00 p.m., New York time.
— Trading period for 2025 begins at 4:00 p.m., New York time, after expiration of all 2024 contracts.
— The first day of the 2025 League Year will end at 11:59:59 p.m., New York time, on March 12. Clubs will receive a Personnel Notice that will include all transactions submitted to the League office during the period between 4:00 p.m., New York time, and 11:59:59 p.m., New York time, on March 12.
March 30-April 2 — Annual League Meeting, Palm Beach, Florida.
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