The almighty dollar offers big clues to which backups on Dolphins’ rebuilt offensive line have the inside track to cracking the 2025 roster

The Dolphins' projected starting five up front feels pretty safe to lock in based on investment. Those five would be:

Left Tackle: Patrick Paul
Left Guard: Jonah Savaiinaea
Center: Aaron Brewer
Right Guard: James Daniels
Right Tackle: Austin Jackson

This collection is comprised of two second-round draft choices in the last two years (Paul & Savaiinaea), a three-year, $21 million free agent signing in Brewer (2024), a three-year, $24 million free agent signing in Daniels (2025), and a former first-round pick in Austin Jackson who is playing on the second year of a three-year, $36 million extension.

Health willing, this is what Miami's front will look like for Week 1. It's what is behind this group that makes for compelling training camp battles and roster management decisions. Veteran Liam Eichenberg is back on a one-year deal, he and free agent signee Larry Borom both got fully guaranteed contracts valued at $2.25 million and $2.5 million, respectfully.

The other primary contenders for a roster spot on Miami's offensive line include veteran Daniel Brunskill, Kion Smith, and Andrew Meyer. The Dolphins have no guaranteed money on any of those three respective contracts.

This sets the stage for a tiered pecking order for the Dolphins as it pertains to who makes the roster and who doesn't. Sure, the Dolphins could, in theory, cut Liam Eichenberg or Larry Borom to keep one of the other names in their offensive line room over them. But doing so at the expense of paying out a fully guaranteed salary figure that exceeds $2 million for either one is a tough pill to swallow, you're writing a check for a player to go away in that scenario. Miami has hit the eject button on a free agent signing before the end of training camp in the same year before — although that came in 2023 when the Dolphins signed OL Dan Feeney to a one-year, $3.25 million contract in the spring and traded him to Chicago at the end of August for a 6th-round draft choice.

Miami choosing one of the non-guaranteed salary players over Borom or Eichenberg would likely require a similar scenario to play itself out.

Assuming a trade market doesn't manifest for the Dolphins, it gives Borom and Eichenberg an inside track and leaves Smith, Meyer, and Brunskill left to fight over however many spots are left. It could be as few as one or as many as all three — in which case everyone can go home happy at the end of cutdown day next month. But the amount of tackle-eligible options is pretty lean, giving Kion Smith a potential leg up on the competition for that eighth-roster spot.

Andrew Meyer is a center who this team was willing to carry on the active roster all season last year to ensure he stayed in their ranks. The added dynamic of multiple years of cost control as an undrafted free agent only sweeten the pot for Meyer's case to stay.

And that leaves the question of how much better Daniel Brunskill will need to play than what Liam Eichenberg is capable of to prompt the Dolphins to eat Eichenberg's fully-guaranteed $2.25 million salary? Eichenberg is on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list to start camp and Brunskill has been getting acclimated in Miami. I believe Brunskill is a better player from a talent perspective. But Brunskill has zero money guaranteed on his deal, making a parting of the ways elementary.

A head-to-head win over Eichenberg isn't Brunskill's only path, of course. The team could gather a lot of confidence in Borom throughout August, making the idea of parting ways with Kion Smith more digestible, too. Or the Dolphins could simply keep 10 offensive lineman. But given that Miami is quite likely to carry three quarterbacks on the active roster plus a fullback, the numbers are short and 10 is a hefty number.

When in doubt, follow the money. And the guarantees give you plenty of hints for how the entirety of this room is going to shake out for September.