Miami Dolphins
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The Dolphins received some bad news in terms of draft pick compensation
The Miami Dolphins’ 2025 season was a disappointment, as the team went 7-10 and missed the postseason for the second consecutive year. Their record was the worst since 2020 and it resulted in changes in the team’s front office and coaching staff.
One of the reasons the team disappointed was that they did not receive positive contributions from their 2025 free agent signings. Their top free agent addition was veteran offensive lineman James Daniels, whosuffered a season-ending injury three plays into Week 1. Wide receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine signed a two-year, $5.9 million contract with the Dolphins, but totaled less than 100 receiving yards during the season despite not suffering an injury.Both players were released after one season with the team.
Now,Sports Illustrated’s Alain Poupart has detailed how the disappointing free agent class found a way to provide the Dolphins with some bad news.
Miami Dolphins Will Not Receive Compensatory Pick
Poupart wrote, “The NFL will be announcing its list of compensatory picks for the 2026 NFL draft pretty soon, and based on the latest projections by Nick Korte of Over The Cap, the Dolphins will not be getting one of those because they not only didn’t lose more compensatory free agents last offseason than they signed, they actually were in the plus-column.”
This is due to the fact the Dolphins added five free agents last offseason, which were: James Daniels, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Zach Wilson, Ifeatu Melifonwu and Ashtyn Davis. Meanwhile, they lost four compensatory free agents which were: Jevon Holland, Calais Campbell, Robert Jones and Emmanuel Ogbah.
Not gaining a draft pick for losing Campbell stings as the team had a trade in place to send him to the Baltimore Ravens for a fifth-round pick. Instead,head coach Mike McDaniel nixed the tradedespite the team being 2-6, because he felt they were capable of making a push toward the postseason. While the Dolphins expressed interest in re-signing Campbell after the season, he ended up signing with the Arizona Cardinals.
2025 Dolphins’ Free Agent Class
Regarding Miami not getting a compensatory pick, Poupart wrote, “The Dolphins lost six other unrestricted free agents last offseason, but none of them got a high enough annual average salary to qualify as a compensatory UFA.
The truly sad part for the Dolphins is that only one of the five compensatory free agents they got last year is under contract with the team for 2026, that being Melifonwu. And the contributions of the whole group in 2025 were, shall we say, rather underwhelming.”
Aside from the previously mentioned two underwhelming players, the Dolphins also signed former second overall pick Zach Wilson, who failed to make much of an impact on the team. He was the team’s primary backup the entire season,but he was not selected for the starting job once Tua Tagovailoa was benched. Despite his $6 million salary, former head coach Mike McDaniel believed seventh-round rookie Quinn Ewers gave the team a better chance to win. Wilson expressed confusion at the decision. He appeared in only four games for the Dolphins during the season, in which he completed only six passes.