• Follow the money: The Miami Dolphins trading Jalen Ramsey is much more about financial freedom than it is about getting better for 2025.
• Jonnu Smith‘s days in Miami were numbered: Trading the talented tight end after a career year signals he wasn’t part of the team’s long-term plan.
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Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

The NFL can never stay quiet for too long, even in the dog days of summer. That rang true as cornerback Jalen Ramsey broke the news that he was being traded from the Miami Dolphins to the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

This wasn’t totally out of left field, even though Ramsey was one of Miami’s cornerstone players. For months, it had been reported that Ramsey, who is now 30 years old, was looking for more, or reworked, money in his contract, given the cornerback contracts that have been signed this offseason. It seemed unlikely that was going to happen in Miami; a move wasn’t an “if” but rather a “when.”

Despite playing a position that doesn’t age well, Ramsey remained one of the more reliable defensive backs in the league in 2024. He earned a 76.9 overall grade in 2024 with an 85.7 run-defense grade and 71.6 coverage grade, all while playing both slot and wide corner. Nonetheless, the Dolphins clearly weren’t interested in giving the money Ramsey was seeking in the form of totals or guarantees, so they found a trade partner in Pittsburgh.

The move itself was far less intriguing than the compensation. Since Ramsey announced the trade, the details have come out in fragments. First, it was reported that it would be Ramsey for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, which would have been a rare player-for-player deal. As more details came out we learned there was more on both sides, as Miami was also sending tight end Jonnu Smith and a 2027 seventh-round pick to Pittsburgh in exchange for Ramsey and a 2027 fifth-round pick. 

Let’s look at the Ramsey and Fitzpatrick portion of this trade. On the surface, it’s an All-Pro cornerback traded for an All-Pro safety. However, the contracts make this interesting. Prior to the trade, Ramsey had four years left on his deal, which would take him to age 34 with three more void years after that. His salary cap number would go up each season, and 2025 was the last year of any guaranteed money. No player likes to operate on a deal that has no guarantees, as a team has all the power to move on from them on their terms and timeline.

Ramsey was likely looking to get some of that money moved and reworked, something the Dolphins clearly weren’t willing to do, as the 2025 season feels like a make-or-break year for just about everyone in the organization. They were able to move Ramsey and his contract to the Steelers, who reportedly are giving him a $1.5 million raise this year. In exchange, the Dolphins take on Fitzpatrick’s contract, which only has two years remaining (no void years) and no guaranteed money on it at a lower price tag than Ramsey. This move not only kept Miami from losing Ramsey for nothing immediately in return but also allowed the Dolphins to save a few million dollars in cap space this and next year while creating the flexibility to move on from Fitzpatrick next offseason with a lot of potential 2026 cap relief.

The next part in this is tight end Jonnu Smith, who now reunites with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, who was the tight ends coach before becoming the offensive coordinator in Tennessee during the first four years of Smith’s career. The Jonnu Smith move once again points to financial freedom as a main catalyst.

Last season, Smith earned the highest receiving grade on the team with an excellent 83.4 mark. He was entering the last year of his deal in Miami, and if the Dolphins wanted to extend him, they would have already. Now, they move on from him without even having to think about it, getting his $4.6 million cap hit off the books for this season. However, moving one of your most efficient and productive receiving options last year just to get $4.6 million of cap space off the books in 2025 doesn’t seem like good business unless they had no intention of re-signing him. And if they had no intention of re-signing Smith, then their outlook was toward the future rather than 2025. You can apply this logic to the Ramsey trade, too, as the Dolphins were 19th in the NFL in cornerback coverage grade last season – and that was with Ramsey.

This lean into future financial flexibility also plays into some other contracts that could be off the books in the coming offseasons. Tyreek Hill, who has flirted with retirement, is an unrestricted free agent in 2026, as is edge rusher Jaelan Phillips. Hill could easily be a trade deadline candidate. Though Phillips is talented, he’s suffered two major lower-body injuries in the last two years (Achilles and ACL), and the team just drafted Chop Robinson. Both of those players seem more likely to be elsewhere than on Miami’s books in 2026.

Then there is quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. He’s not going anywhere this season, but his contract gets somewhat flexible after 2025 with no guaranteed money remaining after 2026. Ramsey (gone), Hill, Phillips and Tagovailoa are the four highest-paid contracts on the team for 2025. Plus, the Dolphins are still paying dead money for Terron Armstead over the next two years. If they move on from those players, they’re freeing up the space to do whatever they want in a required rebuild.

Finally, there is the draft pick compensation — though minimal, I believe it does signal something. The Dolphins received a two-round pick swap in this deal, taking the Steelers’ fifth-round 2027 draft pick in exchange for their own seventh-round 2027 draft pick. I believe this was more than just a throwaway pick swap. There’s a reason the Dolphins didn’t take a 2026 draft pick. The early signs for the 2026 class are that it is more loaded on defense than offense. Future scouting for the 2027 class predicts it could be one of the most talented skill-position classes we’ve seen in a decade. Potential quarterbacks include Arch Manning, D.J. Lagway, and Dylan Raiola while wide receivers like Jeremiah Smith, Ryan Williams, Cam Coleman, Ryan Wingo and others should be available as well. Throw in some other names like running back Isaac Brown and offensive tackle Jordan Seaton, who have shown flashes of NFL play as freshmen, and there’s a lot to get excited about, even without underclassmen who will inevitably break out in 2026. Even if the Dolphins end up holding onto Tagovailoa by 2027, I don’t think this is the last move Miami will make for 2027 draft capital.

Miami is still in a hot seat year for everyone on the roster and for those calling the shots. With that in mind, they are still going to try to win as many games as they can this year to fight for a playoff spot and their future jobs. Nonetheless, it sure feels like there’s a lot more apprehension with “one foot out the door” than it does being all in on a make-or-break year. The Ramsey trade feels much more like a signal towards financial flexibility in 2026 and an eye towards building heavily in the 2027 NFL draft.