ESPN analyst hits Miami Dolphins with a harsh but fair assessment, and it's something they'll have to address to avoid disaster in 2025

The Miami Dolphins came into the 2025 offseason with a number of gaping roster holes that they had to fill.  Two and a half months removed from the start of free agency, the Miami has done a solid job addressing...well, some of them. 

An enormous question mark remains: the secondary.  Miami has made some moves, but a quick look at the 2024 group to what Miami currently has to put on the field will make even the most cockeyed Dolphins optimist do a facepalm. 

In fact, according to ESPN NFL analyst Ben Solak, it might be the worst in the NFL.  Solak put out his 100 things to know list (with 100 days until the season), and he minced no words regarding Miami's situation in the secondary.  This is what Solak had to say: 

If the Dolphins trade Jalen Ramsey, their starting secondary will be Storm Duck and Cam Smith at outside corner, Kader Kohou in the nickel and Ashtyn Davis and Ifeatu Melifonwu at safety. I'm sorry to say that's an early candidate for "worst position group" in the league.

The Dolphins' cap situation was going to make Jevon Holland returning in 2025 a long shot, and that's what happened, as the New York Giants came in with a big offer and inked Miami's 2021 second round pick to a 3-year, $45.3 million deal. 

With Jordan Poyer also leaving, Miami was in position to have to find two starting safeties, and they at least found two players with decent experience in former New York Jet Ashtyn Davis and Detroit Lion Ifeatu Melifonwu.  But neither has been a regular starter (Davis in a reserve role - 22 starts in 69 games - and Melifonwu has been injured for much of his career), so asking them to come in and perform at a level comparable to Holland is very optimistic, at best. 

At corner, with the apparently disgruntled Jalen Ramsey likely on his way out of town after June 1, Miami is left with, indeed, likely Storm Duck and Cam Smith as their boundary corners.  That's......very much not going to cut it. Smith has been a major disappointment through two years since Miami took him in the second round in 2023, and Duck - while a pleasant surprise as an undrafted free agent - isn't on the same level of the combination of Kendall Fuller and Ramsey that Miami had last year. 

Now, the Dolphins have been apparently kicking the tires on some veterans, including Rasul Douglas and Asante Samuel, Jr., but nothing has been done yet, so that's impossible to count on. 

Bottom line: this group isn't good enough, and it's currently not unfair at all to consider them as one of the worst secondaries in the league, if not the worst.  That's something that general manager Chris Grier is going to have to figure out how to remedy in the remaining three months before the 53-man roster is finalized.