Kelly: Trade Jonnu Smith and Dolphins might as well be tanking again

Miami Herald

6 hours ago

What message are the Miami Dolphins trying to send to its fan base and workforce about the 2025 season?
One particular move they make, or don't make with one particular player — Pro Bowl tight end Jonnu Smith — will clarify that consequential question.
Allow me to explain why by helping us recall the 2019 season.
That's the year the Dolphins were trading away a ton of the team's top players — quarterback Ryan Tannehill, left tackle Laremy Tunsil, receiver Kenny Stills, pass rusher Robert Quinn, tailback Kenyan Drake and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick — before and during the season.
It was the start of a scorched-earth cleanse, a rebuild spurred on by a tanking season, one that created a divide between former coach Brian Flores [who swears he wasn't tanking] and the organization, and subsequently got the franchise in trouble with the NFL.
It's difficult for Dolphins management to argue they weren't tanking that season considering the franchise claimed a handful of players off the waiver wire on Tuesday and starting them in games on Sunday.
We're not exactly there as an organization yet, but shopping and shipping off Smith in a trade to the Pittsburgh Steelers, which is a deal that's still being discussed since Miami gave agent Drew Rosenhaus permission to find Smith a new deal, and possibly a new home, would indicate we're getting close to purging the roster again.
It's one thing to divorce Jalen Ramsey, a seven-time Pro Bowl cornerback who is in the back nine of a Hall of Fame career.
Ramsey and coach Mike McDaniel seemingly had a falling out this spring.
McDaniel clearly wants nothing to do with the elite cornerback, and the Dolphins hope to trade away for whatever the organization can get before training camp starts.
He hasn't been moved yet because other teams likely want the Dolphins to contribute more than the $4 million they have already paid of his $24 million salary in 2025, which is guaranteed.
That trade will work itself out as soon as one of the interested suitors — more than likely a Los Angeles team — sweetens its offer, or decides to drop its request for financial subsidies.
But moving Ramsey and Smith, who just set every franchise record for that position with his team-leading 88 receptions, which he turned into 884 yards and eight touchdowns, for something that's equivalent to a fourth-round pick, would be like waiving the white flag on the 2025 season before kickoff.
That would mean the Dolphins are dumping two of the team's top five performers based on last season's contributions.
Smith has made it clear he wants to be here, wants to continue playing for the Dolphins.. However, he wants his contract — which pays just less than $4.1 million this season — adjusted considering he's not even one of the NFL's top 30-paid players at the tight end position.
If Miami refuses to adjust his salary, providing the soon-to-be 30-year-old with an extension that produces a substantial raise, it would send the locker room and fan base the wrong message about this season.
Does the organization's decision-makers want to give this team, and these executives and coaches a chance to succeed, an opportunity to save themselves in a season that owner Steve Ross has clearly stated 'the status quo' wont do?
I can make the argument that trading Smith for a draft pick would be the nail in everyone's coffin.
Even if Julian Hill and Tanner Conner stepped up, filling the void Smith being traded would create, neither has the skill set, or durability that Smith has showcased throughout his eight previous seasons, especially last year.
Miami could even acquire third-year tight end Darnell Washington, a forceful blocker, from the Steelers, or Michael Mayer, a talented seam threat who had fallen on hard times, from Las Vegas, but it would take those newcomers months to develop chemistry with Tua Tagovailoa, who openly admits that Smith's 'my guy.'
And that lack of chemistry, cohesion could set the offense back in this critical save-yourself season.
A happy medium would be to offer Smith the same three-year, $25.5 million deal the Bengals gave former Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki this offseason, keeping the offense status quo for one more year.
That's a respectable offer, and a deal that's in the best interest of both parties.
We don't know what offer Miami has on the table for Smith, so it's unfair to say the Dolphins are being unreasonable.
But the last thing this franchise needs is another contract holdout, hold-in, something that has the potential to stall, if not disrupt the team's chemistry come August and September.
If Smith's unwilling to accept a Gesicki-like deal then the Dolphins should force him to play on the last year of his existing contract, because they hold all the leverage in this situation. Trading him benefits nobody but the next general manager and head coach.
It's important to be reasonable, but irresponsible to become a pushover, which is exactly where Miami went wrong last season. It's also irresponsible to take hard-line stances with a star player that will harm the entire organization.