The Miami Dolphins have been busy this offseason trying to identify their core players with a new regime in town.
There were three key players who were set to see their contracts expire who could have been potential trade candidates had the Dolphins determined that they were not part of the long-term future.
Center Aaron Brewer, running back De’Von Achane, and linebacker Jordyn Brooks. Two of them have received contract extensions, but the Brooks extension or lack thereof has been a question lingering over the team. Are they looking to trade him? Perhaps a new announcement from the team themselves has given a hint as to what their intentions are in the future.
A Giveaway Turning Into a Statement?
The Dolphins social media team offered up insight into their giveaways are going to be for fans who plan to attend training camp when it opens in the coming days.
There are some basic gimmicks and tinker toys to hand out, but one of their giveaways stood out like a big flashing red light of job security for the 2026 season.
On August 8, when the Dolphins are conducting their one practice at Hard Rock Stadium, the Dolphins are giving away a trading card of the linebacker set to see his contract expire at the end of the 2026 season. Jordyn Brooks will have a trading card of him given away seems benign on the surface.
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) July 20, 2026
It’s just a card, in theory. In this case, however, there are some differences.
For example, the Dolphins are going to give away a card of De’Von Achane. Achane is locked into the future with a contract extension signed earlier this offseason. It’s easy to give a card like that away without the worry that Achane is going to play somewhere else in the coming years, because the Dolphins have locked him up.
The Dolphins have multiple examples of players they could have used to try to draw fans to practice other than Brooks.
Brooks, however, is someone who has become a popular player and a fan favorite.Putting him on a list of a giveaway to draw fans just to turn around and trade him would be a good way to burn goodwill from the fan base early in the tenure of Jon-Eric Sullivan and Jeff Hafley.
If nothing else, this news should be a statement that Brooks is not going to be traded before the season begins.
What This Does Not Mean
There are a multitude of things this giveaway could mean. It could have just been a simple oversight, and perhaps too much is being made out of a simple trading card. The bet here is that is not the case. If nothing else, making Brooks one of the faces of training camp is something that should be a vote of confidence that Brooks will be on the team in 2026.
Unfortunately, for those rooting for an extension, this is easily justifiable as looking at the roster in the present without looking at the future.
Putting together an offer for Brooks is complicated. Two examples from the summer are free agency deals signed by Nakobe Dean for three years $36 million, and Quay Walker’s three-year $40 million by the Las Vegas Raiders in the offseason.
Would the Dolphins look at a contract around $12-15 million annually for a linebacker who is going to turn 29 in October when they just drafted Jacob Rodriguez in the second round?
It’s possible. It’s also worth noting, the Packers did not give out lucrative second contracts to linebackers. Quay Walker, for example, went to Las Vegas from Green Bay after the two sides could not come to an agreement on a contract during his final season under contract.
Brooks is older than Walker, even if he has been more productive. Brooks had 3.5 sacks and 99 tackles a season ago. Walker had 2.5 sacks and 58 tackles a season ago. Walker never grew into the player the Packers were hoping for when they took him in the first round in 2022.
That’s been the biggest difference. Brooks has developed into a top-tier player since the Seahawks took him in the first round of the 2020 draft, and grew into his own as a player who signed in free agency before the 2024 season.
Even with that being the case, the philosophy of the current regime in Miami — specifically new GM and longtime Packers exec Jon-Eric Sullivan — has been to allow players who need a third contract to sign that elsewhere.
Perhaps Brooks will be an exception. There are exceptions to every rule that has been made, and maybe putting a trading card of him on the list of giveaways for training camp was a hint he's not going anywhere. Or it also might end up meaning nothing.
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