The Miami Dolphins may be moving on from linebacker Tyrel Dodson before the regular season starts. Multiple reports around the league point to Dodson as the most likely candidate to be traded off the Dolphins roster in the coming weeks.
Dodson signed a three-year, $24 million deal with Miami last spring after a career year in Buffalo. He was supposed to be a stabilizing veteran in the middle of a young Miami defense. Instead, he has struggled to lock down a starting role in camp, and the Dolphins have some difficult decisions to make about how to spend their linebacker snaps.
The team drafted rookie linebacker Chop Robinson last year and has been leaning heavily on him this camp. Undrafted second-year man Anthony Walker has also impressed. Combined with the veteran presence of Willie Gay, the Dolphins simply have more linebacker bodies than they have snaps to give.
That leaves Dodson as the odd man out. His $8 million cap hit this year is the problem. Miami can absorb it if they have to, but they would rather flip him for a pick and use that cap space elsewhere. A rebuilding team looking for a proven starting linebacker could get Dodson at a discount, and the Dolphins would get a Day 3 pick and cap relief in return.
The names most often floated as potential trade partners are the Chicago Bears, who need help at inside linebacker after losing T.J. Edwards to injury, and the Las Vegas Raiders, who have been quietly rebuilding their defense under new head coach Antonio Pierce.
Dodson himself has been professional about the situation. He has continued to practice hard, has not asked for a trade publicly, and has said the right things when asked about roster competition. That is exactly what makes him tradable. If he had been sulking or complaining, his value would already be zero.
The Dolphins have to make final roster decisions by August 30. That means the window for a Dodson trade is essentially the next two weeks. If nothing gets done, Miami has to decide whether to keep him as a rotational piece and $8 million cap hit, or cut him and eat the money.
Neither option is great. A trade is the clean solution, but only if a trade partner shows up.
The larger context here is that the Dolphins are in a soft rebuild despite what the front office says publicly. Tua Tagovailoa is gone. Tyreek Hill’s future is uncertain. The team is trying to reset its cap situation without fully tearing the roster down. Moving Dodson is part of that reset.
Miami is not the only team doing this, either. The last two weeks of preseason always turn into a small-scale trade market as contenders and pretenders alike sort out their final rosters. Some of those trades change the trajectory of a franchise. Most just clean up depth charts.
The Dodson trade, if it happens, falls into the second category. It is not a season-changer for the Dolphins. It is a course correction. That is fine. Not every trade has to be a blockbuster.
The clock is ticking. August 30 is not far away.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
