Jevon Holland is about to cash in — big time.
The Miami Dolphins safety will be hitting the free agent market next week, and expectations are that he's going to land quite the lucrative contract no matter what team winds up signing him.
National media outlets have speculated throughout the week that Holland could fetch a deal worth somewhere around $17 million annually, and then came a truly eye-opening report from CBS Sports from Joel Corry, who as a former agent would know a little something about things like this.
Holland's target price, Corry wrote, should be something like four years for $80 million, an annual average of $20 million, with $42.5 million guaranteed at signing.
"David Mulugheta, Holland's agent, has his finger on the pulse of the safety market," Corry wrote in a story highlighting 10 intriguing defensive free agents. "He did a three-year, $54 million extension, averaging $18 million per year, for Budda Baker with the Arizona Cardinals. He made Antoine Winfield Jr., who was designated as a franchise player by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the NFL's highest-paid defensive back last May with a four-year, $84.1 million contract, averaging $21.025 million per year. Mulugheta also had the top safety contract in 2024 free agency. It was Xavier McKinney's four-year, $67 million deal worth up $68 million through incentives and salary escalators with the Green Bay Packers. Mulugheta will be looking to put Holland in this salary stratosphere."
As Corry mentioned, it's possible that no team will be willing to give Holland that lucrative of a contract, but it's also undeniable he's going to do well for himself regardless.
Holland has a reasonable chance of coming in higher than the franchise tag for safeties for 2025, a figure that comes in at $18.6 million.
The Dolphins could have hung on to Holland for at least one year with that franchise tag, but instead decided — in head coach Mike McDaniel's words — that Holland had earned the right to test the market.
This, as we've written before, is deja vu all over again for the Dolphins, with Holland following the same route as Christian Wilkins and Robert Hunt, who became too expensive for Miami's taste and wound up signing big free agent contracts elsewhere.
Who will sign Holland should become pretty clear early next week after the legal negotiating period starts Monday, but there should be no shortage of suitors, whether it be the Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers, Tennessee Titans or New York Jets.
While we don't know where Holland will play next season, we can pretty safely assume it's going to be a nice chunk of change.
THE RECENT DOLPHINS SECOND-ROUND PICK HISTORY
If Holland does leave via free agency, he would become the fifth consecutive Dolphins second-round pick to leave before signing a second contract with the team, and Liam Eichenberg likely will join him to make it six this offseason.
The first four were LB Raekwon McMillan, TE Mike Gesicki, G Robert Hunt and DT Raekwon Davis.
The last Dolphins second-round pick to get a second contract — excluding Gesicki playing on the franchise tag in 2022 — was 2016 draft choice Xavien Howard.
Holland is one of three Dolphins safeties scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent March 12, along with Jordan Poyer and Elijah Campbell.
The only safety under contract for 2025 is 2024 sixth-round pick Patrick McMorris and 2024 practice squad member Jordan Colbert.
