Examining the Parsons Trade from a Dolphins Angle

One of the biggest trades of recent years went down Thursday when All-Pro linebacker Micah Parsons was moved, and while it didn't involve the Miami Dolphins, there are some connections there.

First and foremost, let's get out of the way that the trade doesn't impact the 2025 Dolphins schedule because they were scheduled to play Parsons' old team, the Dallas Cowboys, or his new team, the Green Bay Packers.

It is worth noting that Parsons, who was traded in exchange for two first-round picks and veteran defensive lineman Kenny Clark, was drafted by the Cowboys in 2021 with the 12th overall selection, a pick that briefly belonged to the Dolphins.

One, of course, can only wonder whether the Dolphins would have been wise to stay at 12 in 2021 and taken Parsons, who certainly would have filled a major need at the time.

The Dolphins got to that 12th spot after making a huge trade — and a great one — with the San Francisco 49ers where they dropped from the third overall position in the draft and landed two extra first-round picks in the process.

But the Dolphins quickly turned around and traded the 12th pick to move back up, to the sixth overall spot, giving the Philadelphia Eagles one of the extra first-round picks they had gotten from San Francisco.

So the Dolphins ended up getting an extra No. 1 pick to move down from 3 to 6, though we'd argue that getting two extra No. 1 picks to move down from 3 to 12 would have been a better choice.

In any event, the Dolphins then took wide receiver Jaylen Waddle with that sixth overall pick, and there again we'd argue the better choice — with all due respect to Waddle, who has been a very good NFL wide receiver — would have been tackle Penei Sewell, who went seventh to Detroit and has become a top three offensive lineman in the NFL.

Parsons also has had a bigger impact in the NFL than Waddle, but maybe the draft would have played differently had the Dolphins stayed put at 12. As it was, Dallas made a trade with the Eagles and moved down from 10, with the Eagles taking fellow Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith at that spot.

DOLPHINS ONCE TRADED FOR TWO 1's

Giving up two first-round picks for a player is rare in the NFL because No. 1 choices are such a precious commodity, and the Dolphins have done it once.

It happened in 2002 when the Dolphins acquired running back Ricky Williams, who had a checkered career in Miami but made a gigantic immediate impact by leading the NFL in rushing his first year in South Florida with a franchise-record 1,853 yards.

Williams' rushing total the following year still stands as the second-highest mark in team history, but what followed were a series of stops and starts and suspensions.

The Dolphins also came close to giving two No. 1s in trade for LB Hugh Green in 1985 (a first and a second) and for WR Tyreek Hill (a first, a second, two fourths and a sixth) in 2022.

While the move didn't pan out with Green, it's hard to complain (though a lot of fans do) with what the Dolphins have gotten from Hill, who was team MVP his first two years with the team.

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