Of all the strange developments of the 2025 offseason, one of the newest is one of the strangest.
Months after making cornerback Jalen Ramsey the highest-paid player in the league at his position, the Dolphins have decided to move on.
When confirming the situation on Tuesday, G.M. Chris Grier was vague. Common sense suggests that he kept things ambiguous as a matter of strategy. If an interested team believes the Dolphins are desperate to turn the page, a better deal could be done to get him.
The Dolphins have already paid Ramsey a $4 million roster bonus. They owe him another $20.153 million over the balance of the year. Every penny is fully guaranteed.
It seems inevitable that the Dolphins will have to foot some of the bill in order to facilitate a trade. The higher the pick they want, the more they likely will have to pay.
If they keep Ramsey, they’ll have to pay it all. Based on the current circumstances, it seems hard to imagine a trade not happening. But no trade can happen unless someone will trade for him.
Both sides will have to be prepared to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Which becomes another source of tension and stress if the Dolphins don’t start, and stay, hot in 2025.
Ideally for the Dolphins, they’d lure multiple teams to the table. That’s the kind of development that can lead to a better deal. Even more ideally, they would have made a trade happen earlier in the offseason, before the $4 million was earned — and before teams began devoting their budgets to other veteran players.
It feels like there’s a lot more to this story. For now, the details are being kept under wraps. But something had to have happened to result in the sudden availability of Ramsey. Regardless of how it got started, one side or the other (or both) have decided to end the relationship.
No matter how it plays out, it’s fair to say the Dolphins regret paying him last September. The fact that they did only increases the pressure on the current regime to have a strong season. If not, massive changes could be inevitable after the 2025 season ends.
If the Dolphins struggle enough, the changes could happen during the upcoming campaign.
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