The Miami Dolphins and All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey aren’t expected to renew their vows for the 2025 season. Both the team and the player have agreed that a mutual parting of ways is the best option for both sides moving forward.
The trade rumors have gone on for some time and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network is reporting that Ramsey will not attend mandatory minicamp practices this offseason. Dolphins’ minicamp starts June 10th.
Of course, his absence will cost him money. Ramsey probably lost his $100,000 workout bonus by missing OTAs and he’ll lose another $105,000 for skipping minicamp. It sounds like chump change to many, but $205,000 is a lot of money.
The Ramsey saga has gone on so long that even Dolphins’ head coach Mike McDaniel stopped following the minutiae of the NFL trade winds.
“I don’t really check in on a day-to-day [basis],” McDaniel said. “Zero has changed from my end. I let [General Manager] Chris [Grier] work, and I’m diligently coaching.”
How much of this is on Chris Grier?
Brother of Mike Grier, general manager of the San Jose Sharks, Chris Grier has had his struggles building a competitive team during his tenure with the Dolphins. He was named the G.M. of the team back in 2016, so patience seems to be running thin with the Miami fan base.
Grier sent a third-round pick to the Los Angeles Rams for Ramsey in the middle of March 2023. That would seem like a good trade, but Grier then signed him to a three-year, $72.3 million extension before the 2024 season. Again, that would be fine except things haven’t worked out and now he’s struggling to find a trade partner for the former All-Pro.
In 2024, Ramsey recorded 60 total tackles, had 11 passes defensed and picked off a pair of passes in 17 games, so he can still play.
Patrick Daugherty of NBC Sports gave Grier a rather generous ranking of NFL general managers recently at No. 18 in the entire league.
“Chris Grier has been on the job nine seasons,” Daugherty wrote. “His rosters have two more victories than losses. That’s if you don’t include the playoffs, where Grier’s squads have gone 0-3. It hasn’t always been easy to glean where a dysfunctional Dolphins power structure ends and Grier begins, but this has been Grier’s show for most of the 2020s, ownership notwithstanding. Stephen Ross has always favored big splashes, and Grier has tended to oblige him. It’s an approach that has frequently left the Dolphins low on draft capital and unable to hand out second contracts to homegrown talent.”
Ramsey’s salary is most likely holding up any trade
According to ESPN’s Dolphins reporter Marcel Louis-Jacques, the problem teams might have in trading for the 30-year old Ramsey could his enormous salary (you know, the one Grier just gave him in September).
“The larger issue is how much of Ramsey’s $20.2 million in guaranteed salary will be covered by his new team,” Louis-Jacques writes. “The Dolphins have already paid his $4 million roster bonus for 2025.”
Once a team can agree what to pay him, then trade compensation needs to be worked out. It’s not tough for one to see how the pool of potential trade partners could shrink rather quickly. While rumors have been flying for a while, experts think it’s coming down to the Rams, Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Chargers.
Many observers will be watching closely, even if McDaniel won’t.
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