The Jacksonville Jaguars’ big trade on Monday sent a ripple through the league, and it had a Dolphins angle baked right into it.
Jacksonville landed defensive tackle Jordan Davis and also picked up a 2027 first-round pick and a 2029 second-round selection. That kind of haul naturally invites the what-if game, because Miami could have been sitting in that exact spot if a few draft decisions had gone differently.
The chain starts with the Dolphins’ 2021 first-round maneuvering. Miami moved from No. 3 to No. 12 in a deal with the San Francisco 49ers, then climbed from No. 12 to No. 6 in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles.
That sequence brought the Dolphins two extra first-round picks, a move that has to rank among the best value deals in franchise history. It also stands in contrast to 2013, when Miami went from No. 12 to No. 3 and only had to part with a second-round pick to do it.
The fact that the Dolphins used that third overall pick on Dion Jordan is a different story.
Instead of staying at No. 12 and holding onto the extra first-rounders in 2022 and 2023, along with a third-round pick in 2022, Miami sent one of those 2022 first-rounders to move up and take Jaylen Waddle at No. 6. The other first-rounder the Dolphins got from San Francisco eventually went to the Kansas City Chiefs in the trade for Tyreek Hill, which left Miami without a first-round pick in that draft.
Philadelphia, meanwhile, used the No. 15 pick it got from Miami in 2022 to move up to No. 13 and select Davis. Now the Eagles have turned that into two premium picks.
That’s why the alternate history is so striking. If the Dolphins had stayed put at No. 12 in 2021, they could have kept their 2022 first-round pick and, in effect, ended up with Davis while getting three productive seasons out of him before cashing in on the draft investment and then some.
There’s another layer to the draft what-if, too: the No. 12 pick in 2021 was Micah Parsons, and the next pick was left tackle Rashawn Slater. Either of those players would have been as strong a choice as Waddle, if not better.
Jacksonville’s move also says something about the defensive tackle market. The Jaguars not only traded for Davis, but also for Davon Godchaux from the New Orleans Saints. Godchaux was a 2017 Dolphins fifth-round pick, and his arrival suggests Jacksonville is likely done shopping at defensive tackle.
That matters for Miami because Zach Sieler had been mentioned in connection with the Jaguars at one point. But as the trade deadline approached, the expectation around the league was that the Dolphins would not be making many, if any, moves before Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET.
According to SI national writer Albert Breer, the Dolphins told teams they were not interested in moving Sieler or center Aaron Brewer. The New York Giants also were looking for defensive tackle help, but the Dolphins were still expected to keep Sieler.
And while Godchaux is part of this latest Jacksonville business, he also deserves a nod for being the one bright spot in what is in the running for the worst draft class in Dolphins history. That group included Charles Harris, Raekwon McMillan and Cordrea Tankersley as Miami’s top three picks.
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