Evaluating (And Ranking) Five Proposed Dolphins Draft-Day Trades

Along with the plethora of mock drafts we get every year, there's an interesting annual exercise from ESPN's Bill Barnwell, who proposes a hypothetial trade at every spot of the first round.

And the Miami Dolphins are heavily featured in this year's edition, mentioned five times among the 32 first-round slots.

The hypothetical Dolphins trades, which are a lot more reasonable considering the source, involve mostly swapping picks, though there is one that features 2024 first-round selection Chop Robinson.

Let's run down the five hypothetical trades and then rank them in order of the five we'd most like to see materialize (from a Dolphins standpoint, of course).

THE FIVE DOLPHINS HYPOTHETICAL TRADES

Trade 1: Dolphins trade the 11th overall pick and their fourth third-round pick (94th overall) to the Detroit Lions for the 17th overall pick and a second-round pick (50th)

Analysis: The Dolphins need to identify a group of prospects they want to target at 11 and if they're all gone, then this trade would make all the sense in the world.

Trade 2: Dolphins trade edge Chop Robinson and the 30th overall pick to the Baltimore Ravens for the 14th overall pick.

Analysis: This is what Barnwell wrote about the idea of trading Robinson, "It was a wildly disappointing sophomore campaign for a player with such promise, and when Jon-Eric Sullivan detailed his pillars for the organization moving forward, the new Miami general manager didn't include Robinson. If the Dolphins don't see Robinson as a difference-maker in the long term, moving him for meaningful draft capital before that comes clear would be the logical choice. This trade would value Robinson as the 42nd pick in a typical draft by the Johnson chart, a pick in the upper half of the second round." The Dolphins obviously are more likely to get a high-end prospect at 14 than 30, but is the difference really going to be significant enough to give up on Robinson just two seasons after Miami made him a first-round pick and while they have him on a cheap contract for at least the next two years? That would be quite the indictment on Robinson and we get the feeling Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley are going to want to work with Robinson before giving up on him.

Trade 3: Dolphins trade the 11th overall pick and a sixth-round selection to the Pittsburgh Steelers for the 21st overall pick, a third-round pick (76th) and a 2027 second-round selection

Analysis: Yes please. The difference between the 11th and 21st picks shouldn't big enough for the Dolphins to turn down two Day 2 picks. This is the kind of volume the Dolphins need to replenish their talent pool.

Trade 4: The Dolphins trade the 11th overall selection, a fifth-round pick (151st), a seventh-round pick (227th) and a 2027 fifth-round selection to the Chicago Bears for the 25th overall selection, a second-round pick (57th) and a 2027 second-round selection

Analysis: This is the biggest one in terms of volume and it would bring the Dolphins down from 11 selections this year to 10, which is still a pretty good number. We'll take the two seconds to move down 14 spots in the first round.

Trade 5: The Dolphins trade the 30th overall selection and a 2027 sixth-round selection to the Las Vegas Raiders for the 36th overall selection in the second round and a 2027 third-round pick

Analysis: It's a nice return to move down only six spots, although this move removes the fifth-year option out of the equation for Miami. That makes the return probably not worth it in the final analysis.

RANKING THE FIVE ESPN DOLPHINS HYPOTHETICAL TRADES

1. Trade 3
2. Trade 4
3. Trade 1
4. Trade 5
5. Trade 2