The Miami Dolphins have a secondary issue heading into the 2025 season.

Their secondary looks like it will be really, really bad this upcoming season, and there is nothing left on the free agent market in early May that will change this.

The Dolphins lost all four starters in their secondary, and they have done little to replace any of them.

Kendall Fuller was an ordinary cornerback for Miami in 2024. The issue was that he was injured three times, including a concussion, and only played in 11 games. His final injury seemed a bit serious, which may carry over into 2025.

Jalen Ramsey, we know the story there, so there is no need to dive into that more.

Jevon Holland had a down season in 2024, but is still a young, up-and-coming safety that Miami cannot replace. While most of the fan base was down on Holland, he is still an elite talent with great physical tools.

Jordan Poyer was god awful last season, and nobody is sad to see him go, so this is the one loss that is truly an addition by subtraction.

Sticking around are Cam Smith, who has been a bust, Storm Duck, a nice UDFA find from last year but has a low ceiling, Artie Burns, who is more of a special-teams player than a corner at this stage of his career, and Ethan Bonner (see Storm Duck).

The Dolphins did sign safety Ifeatu Melifonwu in March, but expectations for him should be tempered. He played in only three games last season and is an injury-prone player. He has only 14 starts in 4 seasons with the Lions and is nothing more than a career backup.

In the three games he played last season, he was on the field for a whopping 136 snaps, had all of nine tackles, and his passer rating against was 82.4.

In 2023, he played in 17 games (the one time in his career he has done that), he was only on the field for 398 snaps, and had 25 tackles. He also had five missed tackles that season.

Melifonwu is a career backup any way you slice it, and if Miami tries to force him into a starting role, I would expect the injuries that have plagued him his entire career will rear their ugly head, and the play on the field may be underwhelming.

Then Miami signed another career backup safety in Ashtyn Davis from the Jets. Someone who has played in 69 career NFL games with only 22 starts.

In 2024, he was only on the field for 260 snaps and had 23 tackles.

In 2023, it wasn’t much better. He was on the field for 218 snaps, he had 13 tackles, and four missed tackles.

Again, these are career backup numbers for a player who is nothing more than a depth piece, and if Miami tries to force him into a starting role, they are going to regret it immediately.

Yes, Miami has Patrick McMorris, who missed 3/4 of the season in 2024 and then only saw the field for nine snaps and had one tackle. A late-round draft pick in 2023, he is a total project at safety.

Just like Dante Trader Jr., the safety Miami selected this year in round 5. He is undersized, not very fast, and, at best, will be a special-teams contributor on the Dolphins if he even makes the team this August.

The Dolphins also drafted cornerback Jason Marshall Jr. out of Florida in Round 5 who struggled mightily at Florida this past season and isn’t known for his great hands or tackling ability, and bites often (make that always) on play action passes.

The Dolphins also have Elijah Campbell at safety. But he is known more for his special teams play, and when he does play safety, his overall PFF grade last year was 39.8 (which is really really bad). Heck, he had 6 total tackles last year and three missed tackles, that isn’t a good ratio!

So, what can Miami do in May to fix this?

The answer: Not Much!

The free agent market has been picked dry, and the guys who are left and unsigned may make Jordan Poyer look like Deion Sanders.

Rasul Douglas is the name being linked to Miami. He is about to turn 30 and is durable, but his passer rating against last season was 123.7, and I am guessing that is why Buffalo was more than happy to let him walk and not re-sign him.

James Bradberry is another name linked to Miami. I cannot give you any of his 2024 stats because he missed the entire season with an Achilles injury. Miami has James Daniels returning from an Achilles, Jaelan Phillips returning from an ACL (after an Achilles in 2023), and Bradley Chubb returning from his 3rd ACL surgery. Would adding another player coming off a significant injury to this roster be wise? I wouldn’t do it!

Mike Hilton is out there; he is also 31 years old and on the downside of his career. He has played in 123 games, starting 56. He is primarily a nickel cornerback, which is probably the main reason Miami is hesitant to sign him. They already have Kader Kohou as a nickel corner, and if Miami signs Hilton, it would probably kick Kohou to the boundary as an outside corner. In the past, when Kohou has been forced to play in that role, it has been disastrous.

Oh yeah, Hilton’s passer rating against last year was 105.6 (again, not good).

Miami could turn to Stephon Gilmore, who is about to turn 35 soon. Would go against the “getting younger” trend. All joking aside, even at his age he has been very durable in his career especially the past three seasons.

He has played in 180 games, starting 173, so he has an overabundance of experience. The downside, though, was that his passer rating against last season was 100.6, and his PFF coverage grade was 60.4.

Other names at cornerback that are available include C.J. Henderson, Shaq Griffin, and Jack Jones, but their numbers are at best equal to and in many cases worse than those of the players I mentioned above.

At safety, there are popular names like Justin Simmons, who had a passer rating against of 105.1 and 16 missed tackles, and Julian Blackmon who had 15 missed tackles and a passer rating against of 91.5

So, even if Miami signs one or two of these guys, or more, it’s literally scraping the bottom of the barrel.

The Dolphins have nothing in-house to fix the secondary, and there is nothing left on the market that can be brought in to truly help.

I have no idea what the plan is.

Miami could look to trade for a safety prior to the start of the 2025 season; one name out there is Greg Newsome II of the Browns. But as I wrote about last week, he is god awful as a player and has a $13 million salary.

And should Miami, in a rebuilding year, part with future draft picks for a marginal cornerback that a team is looking to unload? And if the team wants to unload a CB now, it’s because it’s a salary dump or the guy can’t play (or both).

I know, I know. I’m probably more worried about the secondary than they are. And even though they won’t admit it, 2025 is a rebuilding year.

But again, for the people who yell and scream and proclaim Chris Grier and Mike McDaniel are on the HOT SEAT, this is another example why they are not.

The Dolphins’ secondary in 2025 is probably going to be historically bad. And don’t tell me this: “If the pass rush is great, it will help the secondary.”

In theory, yes. But the 2025 Dolphins don’t have a pass rush on par with the 1985 Chicago Bears.

The approach Miami has taken this offseason has been confusing every step of the way. The lack of urgency to do anything with the secondary is surprising.

 

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