Miami Dolphins Hidden Gems: 3 Secret Superstars on the 2025 roster

Generally speaking, professional organizations that talk a lot abut “culture” don’t have enough of the right kind in the building. That would seem to apply to the Miami Dolphins of late, a franchise that has had to deal with more than its share of veterans unhappy with the ways in which things have been going, and some to the point where they want out of town outright.

Tyreek Hill had to deny his own rather pointed statements about wanting a trade back in January, and now, Hill is lobbying the team to avoid trading cornerback Jalen Ramsey. Earlier this month, edge-rusher Bradley Chubb said that the team was not entirely aboveboard when speaking of a culture change in 2024.

“I’m going to say last year, we were lying, honestly,” Chubb said with a laugh. “Point blank, period. We felt it. We put our toe in the water, but we didn’t dive all the way in. We didn’t get all the way there with each other. We weren’t making the effort to go the extra mile, and I would say this year, we’re doing that. I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out for us, but we are putting forth that foot to change it because last year, like I said, we said we wanted to change, yeah, we’re doing this, we’re doing that — but it’s not going exactly how we want to.

“But this year, I feel like everybody has the right mindset and moving forward, so if it works out, it’s going to work out. If it doesn’t, we’re going to get back to the drawing board and make sure it works out.”

That’s the intangible stuff. The tangible stuff amounts to the 2024 season being the first missed postseason under head coach Mike McDaniel, and everything fell a bit off the plank when it came to both offensive and defensive efficiency. There are those who would say that the NFL has figured these Dolphins out from an offensive perspective; those looking on the brighter side might insist that when everyone’s healthy, it’s a lot tougher to suss out what any team is doing.

“It would have been awesome if he would have told me on the front end when they were lying,” McDaniel said on June 12 of Chubb’s comments. “Beyond that, 2024, unless I’m using it directly for an analogy, I’m much more concerned with 2025. I think you do a lot more for the organization if you spend your time thinking forward in terms of not this, that, or the other, or whose fault it was. No, we want it like this, let’s do it like this and this is who we are. I don’t even – what year did you speak of? I guess I’ll read about that in history books.”

Well, if the 2025 Dolphins are to get past last season’s disappointments, it will take the entire roster to get that done. In the continuation of our “Hidden Gems” series, where we look at one Secret Superstar veteran, free-agent signing, and draft pick for every NFL team, we turn our attention to these Dolphins, and the under-the-radar guys who could help make things better.

Underrated Veteran: TE Jonnu Smith

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In the 2023 season, only the Los Angeles Rams (5%) had a lower rate of 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends, two receivers) than the Dolphins did at 9%. In the 2024 season, that ramped up to 21%, which was much more in the middle of the league’s multi-tight end percentages. The primary reason for this sea change was the acquisition of former Tennessee Titans, New England Patriots, and Atlanta Falcons tight end Jonnu Smith on a two-year, $8.4 million contract with $3.96 million guaranteed, and another $1.6 million available in incentives.

While all the targets around him were dealing with injuries, Smith led the Dolphins with 88 catches on 109 targets for 886 yards and eight touchdowns. It was Smith’s most productive season to date — not bad for a guy who’s been in the league since 2017, when the Titans selected him with the 100th overall pick in the third round of the draft out of Florida International.

Now, Smith wants a reworked deal, and that has added his name to the list of the guys who may be on the wrong side of Miami. Though in Smith’s case, it’s reportedly not of his own volition.

When you rank fifth in targets in a season among tight ends, fourth in receptions, fifth in receiving yards, and you’re tied for second in touchdown catches with Sam LaPorta, Zach Ertz, and George Kittle, but you rank 32nd at your position in average annual salary, you probably have a point.

“Jonnu is a very important player and person to me and to the guys,” McDaniel said on June 3, as Smith was holding out from minicamp. “One thing that we can stand on is his professionalism and how he goes about his business. There’s times that business can play a part, for sure, and a team can make it as complicated as they would like. If they have a lot of time to focus on what’s going on with Jonnu, I would encourage them to focus on their own game. Fortunately, I haven’t had to have those conversations. Guys have been very focused on what they can do today to get better for the Miami Dolphins organization.

“Regardless of my feelings, my hope – I haven’t really considered anything other than I want Jonnu on the team. I think he wants to be here, and so my experience with business is you let that play out. In that time, Jonnu is depending on me to focus on the players that I have the ability to coach and influence, so that’s where I’m at.”

We’ll see if that’s where everybody is at. What we do know is that as weird as Miami’s offense could be at times last season, it would have been a lot weirder without Smith’s presence.

Underrated Free-Agent Signing: WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine

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Speaking of former Titans pass-catchers, there’s the addition of Nick Westbrook-Ikhine to the Dolphins’ receiver room on a two-year, $6.5 million contract with $3.2 million guaranteed. This could present a massive issue for enemy pass defenses, because when you have Westbrook-Ikhine, Hill, and Jaylen Waddle on the field at the same time, it’s not just about who you leave one-on-one — it’s also about which receiver will scald the asses of your cornerbacks and safeties with their pure speed.

While Hill and Waddle are smaller receivers, Westbrook-Ikhine clocks in at 6’2 and 215 pounds, though that doesn’t stop him at all from being a ridiculous vertical threat. Last season for the Titans, Westbrook-Ikhine had four catches of 20 or more air yards on eight targets for 197 yards and three touchdowns. Impressive enough on its own, but when you put up those kinds of numbers and tape with Will Levis and Mason Rudolph as your quarterbacks… well, you get bonus points for that.

Moreover, Westbrook-Ikhine loves to get grimy in the run game as a blocker — at his introductory presser after signing his new contract, that was more a point of focus than even the vertical stuff.

“It’s a gritty game,” he said. “I feel like with wide receiver blocking, you’ve just got to get dirty, you’ve got to find a way to make it work. It’s not going to look pretty half the time. You’ve got really athletic DBs, safeties, linebackers, d-ends sometimes and it’s just finding a way to get a piece of them at the right time so the back can get through. So yeah, it’s something I’m excited to do. I’ve always enjoyed blocking and as a receiver. I feel like it’s a lost art. I’ve luckily been coached pretty well in the last few years about it, and how to get it done.”

Westbrook-Ikhine also said that he loves to box defenders out and win contested-catch situations as a bigger-bodied receiver. The tape also confirms this, so what’s not to like?

Underrated Draft Pick: DI Jordan Phillips

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There was no question whatsoever that going into the draft, general manager Chris Grier and defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver were on the same page about getting bigger and more physical along the interior of the defensive line. That’s why they took Michigan megadude Kenneth Grant with the 13th pick in the first round, and if you had any questions about this particular philosophy… I mean, they took Georgia Tech’s Zeek Biggers with the 255th pick in the seventh round, and when you take a 6’6, 320-pound man with a last name like that, how much more clear do you need to be?

The interesting guy here, though, could be Maryland’s Jordan Phillips, the 6’3, 320-pound tackle they took with the 143rd overall pick in the fifth round. Phillips may have been an underrated force because he never had a sack in three seasons and 1,045 defensive snaps with the Terps, but there’s a lot more to the tape than you may think if you’re basing his potential NFL oeuvre on nothing but quarterback takedowns.

Last season, Phillips did have five quarterback hits, 11 quarterback hurries, 26 solo tackles, and 20 stops, and if he hadn’t been double-teamed on 266 of his 520 snaps last season, maybe his numbers would have been better. Instead Phillips was tasked to be one of those linemen who soak things up to make life easier for everybody else, and he did that with a great deal of aplomb. Even when doubled as a head-over or shade nose tackle (where he played 71% of his snaps in 2024), Phillips still found ways to get to the pocket with leverage, quickness, and all-out effort.

When Phillips hit Shrine Bowl week, he did everything possible to stand out. The Dolphins paid attention.

“With Jordan, one thing is [that] he is a really good run stopper, run player,” Grier said of the pick. “So what he was asked to do for them, he excelled in what he could do. We had some of our coaches work at the East-West game, he was there, and really showed some stuff in the pass rush with different stances and different techniques he was being taught down there. So for us, we were excited watching thatI know Coach Weaver was the first one who came to us, and [defensive line coach] Austin [Clark] were like, ‘Hey, watch this from the East-West and what he was doing.’ He’s 20 years old, has an unbelievable love for football, so we do think there’s some things we can unlock with him.”

Phillips is also a tape fiend who loves to study other interior maulers. Not only was he more than familiar with Kenneth Grant’s tape by the time he was drafted, he’d also done work on another defensive tackle named Jordan Phillips, who was selected in the second round of the 2015 draft by the Dolphins, and played for the team until he was waived following a beef about playing time in 2018.

“Yes,” the new Jordan Phillips said when asked whether he had studied his same-name representative. “Absolutely. So one thing about me, I study every D-tackle that’s like… in terms of being at the top of their game, I study every great D-tackle. And even all different types of D-tackles in the league and I have watched Jordan Phillips, as a matter of fact. I watched him early on in his career when he was with the Dolphins and then when he went to the Cardinals and then now the Bills. He’s [a] physical, real good run stopper. He gets after it pretty good, and he’s a 10-plus-year vet, so that’s great.”

If this Jordan Phillips is able to match the other Jordan Phillips’ 27 sacks, 169 total pressures, 123 solo tackles, and 114 stops in his own 10-year career… well, that’s a pretty sweet deal for a fifth-round pick.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions).