Talk about a day.
The last day of June started with a bang when the Miami Dolphins traded away cornerback Jalen Ramsey, tight end Jonnu Smith and a 2027 seventh-round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers in exchange for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and 2027 fifth-round pick.
With the trade officially done, the question now becomes how does Ramsey and Smith’s absence affect the 2025 Dolphins as well as where does Fitzpatrick fit.
Ramsey’s departure effectively leaves the Dolphins with one of the worst cornerback rooms on paper. As of Monday afternoon, the names include Storm Duck, Kader Kohou, Cam Smith, Artie Burns, Kendall Sheffield, Ethan Bonner, Isaiah Johnson, Ryan Cooper Jr. as well as rookies BJ Adams, Ethan Robinson and Jason Marshall Jr. Only one of the aforementioned players — Kohou — had a NFL interception in 2024.
That could potentially be where Fitzpatrick comes in. A five-time Pro Bowler who the Dolphins drafted in 2018, Fitzpatrick has some experience as a nickel cornerback where he played during his first All-Pro season in 2019. This would allow Kohou, who snagged two interceptions from the slot in 2024, to play some boundary corner.
The only thing that can prevent that from happening is Fitzpatrick’s comfort at safety where he has play since the Dolphins initially traded him to Pittsburgh in 2019. Regardless, Fitzpatrick gives Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver another weapon that can be used a multitude of ways. And as Weaver has previously said, he likes to have his best players around the ball.
“When you’re thinking about your players and in particular your impact players – and we have a bunch of them – but with him, you’re always just trying to put him around where you think the football is going to be,” Weaver said of Ramsey in mid-November. “So if you know they want to target a particular receiver, you try to put him there. If you know that they want to do something protection-wise and you think you can him a free run at the quarterback or in the backfield, you try to put him there just because you know the more he can get around the ball, the more opportunities he has to make plays for your defense.”
The Smith trade, however, could potentially have devastating consequences for the Dolphins offense. It’s no secret that offense looked markedly different in 2024 than in 2023. Gone were the big plays that made the Dolphins so electric as defenses to use more two-high safety looks to limit receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.
Smith shined, rewriting the Dolphins history books as he set franchise records for catches (88), receiving yards (884) and touchdowns (eight) en route to his first Pro Bowl selection.
“You have to make people pay other places,” coach Mike McDaniel said in early January. “Case in point, Jonnu Smith’s productivity. I think he really helped us out with taking advantage of the space that was given up to cover some of the deep zones from both ‘Reek’ and Waddle and the more effective you are at doing that, once you prove that you can march down the field and beat very preventative, cautious defenses.”
With Smith gone, it’s unclear who will replace him. The tight end room is now comprised of Tanner Conner, Pharoah Brown, Hayden Rucci, Julian Hill and 2025 undrafted rookie Jaylin Conners. None of those players caught at least 15 balls, had more than 100 yards receiving and a touchdown in 2025. Put differently, the tight end room doesn’t currently have a pass-catching threat, something that, as seen in 2024, can be a huge boon for McDaniel’s offense.
“You need to have pass game threats and those can come in the form of halfback, tight end, third receiver,” McDaniel said June 12. “It helps, but by and large, you just need productivity from all five eligibles in one way, shape or form. You can be a blocking tight end that is very adept at breaking tackles and get a lot of production that pass-catching, as you’d frame it, tight ends do. But you’re not stretching field, so how do you adjust with that? You need to threaten people in multiple ways, and if you don’t, they will make you pay in one way, shape or form.”
Expect the Dolphins to be aggressive in the trade market to find Smith’s replacement as the NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero has already reported.