{"id":331507,"date":"2025-08-31T19:02:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T19:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/331507\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T19:02:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T19:02:15","slug":"dolphins-gm-chris-grier-discusses-offseason-approach-tyreek-hill-jalen-ramsey-trade-secondary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/331507\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins GM Chris Grier Discusses Offseason Approach, Tyreek Hill, Jalen Ramsey Trade, Secondary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dolphins were not especially active in free agency<\/a> this offseason, as guard James Daniels<\/a> (three years, $24MM) was the only FA addition to land a contract worth over $6MM. After Miami made significant expenditures in recent seasons to extend internal talent or acquire expensive, high-profile players from other clubs, this year\u2019s more conservative approach reflected a concerted effort to get right with the salary cap.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it was just good business,\u201d Dolphins GM Chris Grier told reporters, including Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald<\/a>, at his annual late-August press conference on Wednesday. \u201cWe had to get younger \u2026 At some point, if you don\u2019t reset fast enough, it\u2019s not good cap wise. We got to a point where we felt this was the right time to do it but to the point we [also] have a good roster to win games. We\u2019ve been very happy so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grier made sure to point out owner Stephen Ross did not influence his roster construction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve has never given us a directive on how to do it,\u201d Grier noted. \u201cAt some point, you have to reset. When you make aggressive moves like we had made for a few years, you have to reset and start it over. It\u2019s not sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, two years after trading for CB Jalen Ramsey<\/a> and one year after extending him, the \u2018Fins dealt him<\/a> and TE Jonnu Smith<\/a> to the Steelers<\/a> at the end of June. They took on Minkah Fitzpatrick<\/a>\u2019s notable contract in the process, but with Pittsburgh assuming the bulk of Ramsey\u2019s pay, it ended up as a financial win for Miami, particularly since it was able to avoid signing Smith to an extension at the peak of his value.<\/p>\n

As Jackson notes, there may have been other factors at play in the Ramsey\/Smith trade. When asked about parting ways with Ramsey and others this offseason, Grier said, \u201cwe were winning, but we weren\u2019t winning the right way. They were held accountable but at times it didn\u2019t matter to them. Moving on from those people \u2026 At some point, you say enough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be clear, Grier said Ramsey and Smith are \u201cgood people\u201d and that he \u201cdidn\u2019t have any issues with them.\u201d Still, the accountability comments add an interesting wrinkle to conversations about the Dolphins\u2019 offseason strategies.<\/p>\n

When discussing his current roster, Grier praised the group\u2019s accountability and self-policing. He spoke particularly highly of wide receiver Tyreek Hill<\/a>, who was also a rumored trade candidate<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cTyreek has been unbelievable the whole offseason,\u201d Grier said. \u201cHe has been around every day, worked tirelessly with this team. He\u2019s closer with a lot of his teammates than he has ever been. He is 100 percent invested. [Quarterback] Tua <\/a>[Tagovailoa<\/a>] and Tyreek are closer than I\u2019ve ever seen them before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the byproducts of Grier\u2019s cap-driven roster decisions was a perceived weakness in the secondary, underscored by the inevitable Ramsey departure and the February release<\/a> of CB Kendall Fuller<\/a>. In Week 1, 2024 UDFA Storm Duck<\/a> and recent signee Rasul Douglas<\/a> are penciled in as the starting boundary corners, while fifth-round rookie Jason Marshall<\/a> will man the slot. It is a group that is not inspiring a great deal of confidence at the moment, though Grier naturally expressed optimism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel good about the room, adding [Douglas] to the group,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking to him throughout the summer. He\u2019s a consummate professional, keeps himself in great shape. He\u2019s very smart. Happy to add him to the group. Veteran players go through their process of when they\u2019re ready. Timing worked to get it done last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grier went on to discuss the benefit of adding Fitzpatrick to the defensive backfield. As Jackson details in a separate piece, defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver plans to deploy Fitzpatrick in multiple roles<\/a>. That includes rushing the passer and lining up on the box.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a little bit more challenging, a little bit more pressure,\u201d Fitzpatrick said. \u201cThey\u2019re asking me to do more than just one job. I think his defense in the secondary is based off of versatility, and that\u2019s kind of the reason they brought me here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dolphins were not especially active in free agency this offseason, as guard James Daniels (three years, $24MM)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[4835,217,7,1815,7470,216,251,2087,7583,6,41692,1089],"class_list":{"0":"post-331507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-chris-grier","9":"tag-dolphins","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-jalen-ramsey","12":"tag-jonnu-smith","13":"tag-miami","14":"tag-miami-dolphins","15":"tag-miamidolphins","16":"tag-minkah-fitzpatrick","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-stephen-ross","19":"tag-tyreek-hill"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115124931398097145","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}