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A Dolphins wide receiver shared his reaction to the Jaylen Waddle trade<\/p>\n
Prior to free agency, the Miami Dolphins<\/a> cut ties with most of their high-priced players. However, the expectation remained that the Dolphins would build around their young nucleus of players like De\u2019Von Achane, Patrick Paul, Jaylen Waddle, Jordyn Brooks and Aaron Brewer. Despite Achane and Waddle both being listed as trade candidates<\/a>, the chances of them leaving this offseason seemed slim.<\/p>\n And then, the Denver Broncos<\/a> made an offer for Waddle that the Dolphins felt they could not pass up. Despite the trade value being significant, as Miami gained a first-, and third-round picks, Miami created a weakness at the wide receiver position as the team had also previously released receivers Tyreek Hill and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine.<\/p>\n Some questioned the move as they believed it would hurt new quarterback Malik Willis\u2019 chances of succeeding in Miami. Now, one Dolphins wide receiver has spoken about his initial feelings once the trade went down.<\/p>\n Miami Dolphins\u2019 Malik Willis Shares Reaction to Jaylen Waddle Trade<\/p>\n Miami Dolphins wide receiver Malik Washington did an interview with Marisa Marino for DolphinsTalk<\/a>, in which he was asked to share his reaction to Jaylen Waddle getting traded. Washington said,<\/a> \u201cI didn\u2019t want to believe it was true. Obviously there\u2019s a bunch of AI, I just refused to believe that it was actually true until the big time [reporters] started posting. I was like, \u2018damn, he\u2019s really not here anymore\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Washington joined the Dolphins during the 2024 NFL<\/a> Draft as Miami selected him with their seventh-round pick. He carved a role for himself as Miami\u2019s third receiver on the depth chart, surpassing Odell Beckham Jr, during his rookie season. Last season, Washington handled returned duties for Miami while also totaling 317 receiving yards, 110 rushing yards and 5 total touchdowns.<\/p>\n Washington is currently the Dolphins\u2019 wide receiver who had the most receiving yards last season, as free agent additions Tutu Atwell and Jalen Tolbert both failed to surpass 300 yards during the 2025 season.<\/p>\n Dolphins Additions At Wide Receiver<\/p>\n Fortunately for the Dolphins and new quarterback Malik Willis, it does not appear that the wide receiver room will remain the same heading into the 2026 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s (Malik Willis) going to throw the ball to some good players,\u201d Hafley told Kay Adams on \u201cUp & Adams<\/a>.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019ve got, we\u2019ve got a bunch of good guys coming back, a bunch of guys that we signed, and we\u2019ve got a lot of draft picks, a lot of them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got seven in the first 100 picks. We\u2019ll have receivers for Malik to throw to. The next time you talk after the draft and as we get the players here, I think you\u2019re going to see we\u2019ll get some good ones for him to throw to.\u201c<\/p>\n ESPN\u2019s Matt Miller\u2019s latest mock draft has the Dolphins selecting USC wide receiver Makai Lemon with the No. 11 pick. Miller wrote:<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe Dolphins implemented a hard reset at wide receiver this offseason, releasing Tyreek Hill and trading Jaylen Waddle. That opens the door for my top-ranked wide receiver. Lemon had 79 receptions for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns last season. He is an elite middle-of-the-field receiver who will immediately help new quarterback Malik Willis in his first stint as a full-time NFL starter. Lemon\u2019s yards-after-catch ability is elite and second only to his hands \u2014 he dropped only one pass in each of the past three seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJose Esquer<\/a> Jose Esquer is a Mexican-American sportswriter and communications student based in San Diego, CA. His work spans football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. He has written for platforms like RotoWire and DolphinsTalk. You can find him on Twitter\/X @JEsquer8, usually talking Dolphins, world football, or both. More about Jose Esquer<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Dolphins\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty A Dolphins wide receiver shared his reaction to the Jaylen Waddle trade Prior to free agency, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2049],"tags":[217,7,216,251,2087,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-845367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-dolphins","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-dolphins","12":"tag-miamidolphins","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116325138612860017","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845367","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=845367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}