Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith for Minkah Fitzpatrick?!? We graded the Steelers-Dolphins blockbuster
The bulk of the offseason might be over, but NFL teams still can mold their rosters between now and Week 1. The best way to do that this time of year? Trades. There are still weaknesses to shore up, players that teams want to move on from and looming contracts to be settled.
And we got a big move here at the end of June. The Dolphins are trading cornerback Jalen Ramsey and tight end Jonnu Smith to the Steelers for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and a late-round pick swap. We're weighing in on the trade with report cards. (We also graded the 49ers' trade for Eagles edge rusher Bryce Huff from early June.)
As always, I'll be grading trades here from each team's perspective. I'll be looking at the deals from all angles -- including quality, age and contracts of the players dealt, salary cap implications, draft compensation and the short- and long-term outlooks of the teams involved. I'll also consider the effect of each deal and how certain we can be that the move was positive or negative. Let's dive in.
Steelers get: CB Jalen Ramsey, TE Jonnu Smith, 2027 seventh-round pick Dolphins get: S Minkah Fitzpatrick, 2027 fifth-round pick
Steelers' grade: C Dolphins' grade: A
This was truly a stunner.
While it had been made abundantly clear that Ramsey was not going to be on the Dolphins in 2025, the fact that it was the Steelers trading for him -- there had long been rumors Ramsey might be headed back to the Rams -- was a surprise. It was a complete shock that Fitzpatrick was the compensation in return. And Smith lumped in, too? Folks, this was a June blockbuster.
Let's break this down from the more complex Steelers side first. By signing quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the team signaled it is taking a long-shot swing at another run while in the tail end of the T.J. Watt/Cameron Heyward era. It had money to spend -- Pittsburgh has the third-most cap space in 2026. But adding Ramsey and Smith in exchange for Fitzpatrick is still jarring.
Ramsey, 30, is generally considered to be on the decline, though nearest defender numbers would somewhat dispute that. Last season, Ramsey allowed 0.9 yards per coverage snap, per NFL Next Gen Stats, better than the outside cornerback average of 1.1. He did that while mostly playing an outside corner role (he aligned as a wide CB 78% of the time). He also rushed the passer 36 times with Miami last year, the most of any season in his career.
It will be interesting to see what Ramsey's role is with Pittsburgh. With Joey Porter Jr. and Darius Slay Jr. (presumably?) installed as the outside corners, the team can employ Ramsey as a nickel and/or safety -- with the latter part seemingly particularly feasible given Fitzpatrick's inclusion in the trade. Ramsey played significant snaps as a slot corner when he was with the Rams and very occasionally aligned as a safety with the Jaguars early in his career, per NFL Next Gen Stats.
If Ramsey played some sort of hybrid nickel/safety role, that would not be a like-for-like replacement of what the Steelers had Fitzpatrick do last season. Fitzpatrick played deep safety 80% of the time, and a lot of that was in center field since the Steelers played two-high at the fourth-lowest rate in the league. At safety, the Steelers now have DeShon Elliott and Juan Thornhill. Elliott played more of a box safety/slot role last season but has played more deep safety (coincidentally enough, with Miami) in the past. And Thornhill played a deep safety role in 11 starts with Cleveland last season.
The financial compensation matters here. The Steelers are picking up nearly the entirety of Ramsey's tab -- the bulk of his $26.6 million in 2025 after giving him a light raise. That's a pretty hefty amount of money for him at this stage in his career -- and especially if he isn't playing outside cornerback. Prior to this trade getting done, I wasn't even sure Miami was going to find a team willing to pick up the entirety of Ramsey's pre-raise contract. Yes, the Steelers have the cap room, but that they could take on the contract ought to have helped them in the trade negotiation; I don't know if I see where it really did. Ramsey is under non-guaranteed team control for $21-24 million in cash in each of 2026, 2027 and 2028, per OverTheCap.com.
Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, has two years left on his deal and will cost Miami $15.5 million in 2025 and $17.6 million in 2026. Those terms probably offer the Dolphins good value for Fitzpatrick, who made the Pro Bowl again last season.
Smith seems to be an acquisition made with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith in mind. The pair worked together in Tennessee (where Jonnu Smith had 137 YAC over expectation in 2019, per NFL Next Gen Stats) and Atlanta. The addition likely means the Steelers will frequently play multiple tight ends at once, with Smith alongside Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington.
But I can't help but think the Steelers are dealing for Smith at his absolute peak. Smith is coming off a career year in which he recorded 88 receptions for 884 yards with the Dolphins, but that doesn't mean we ought to forget about the seven years of relative mediocrity that came before it. Smith was underpaid on his old contract, yes, but Pittsburgh is giving him a one-year extension for $12 million, which could wipe out that value (though we don't know the structure yet).
Altogether, I have a hard time getting on board with this move for the Steelers. It's logical for them to improve the team to maximize their upside. And there is upside, particularly because the defense has the potential to be great. But I don't know that this move really improved Pittsburgh in 2025 or beyond, and it came at a cost. The optimistic view is that Ramsey has been a star in the past and can be a star again, and we might well look back on this trade as being part of the realization of that upside case for Pittsburgh's defense.
Let's flip over to Miami's side here, which is both more straightforward and, from my perspective, a pretty clear win.
The Dolphins had been looking for a taker on Ramsey. I assumed this would involve the Dolphins eating a portion of Ramsey's guaranteed salary, but they ended up finding a trade partner that took on just about the full freight. Losing Smith isn't ideal, but the Dolphins' offense is intended to funnel through Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, who each took a step back last season. If all goes as planned for Miami, far more targets should go to the two wideouts again in 2025. And the same analysis on Smith holds here, too: The Dolphins -- who are in a far tighter cap situation -- didn't want to overpay the tight end after a career year, and that makes sense.
After losing Jevon Holland in free agency, the Dolphins backfilled the safety position with two new acquisitions: Ashtyn Davis (from the Jets) and Ifeatu Melifonwu (from the Lions), both on cheap deals. In Fitzpatrick, they now have an established high-end safety to replace Holland and get him at essentially the same numbers the Giants paid Holland (and with no guarantees).
To top it all off, Miami gets a late-round draft pick swap in its favor in this deal. Miami wasn't in an ideal position, having one veteran it needed to trade and another desiring a new contract the team didn't want to give. But by making this deal with the Steelers, the Dolphins got the most out of the hand they had.
49ers get: Edge Bryce Huff Eagles get: 2026 midround draft pick
49ers' grade: B+ Eagles' grade: B+
The 49ers are betting that Huff's 2024 season was an outlier -- not a sign of what's to come.
A year ago, Huff was a high-end free agent who signed a three-year, $51.1 million deal with the Eagles after showing serious pass-rushing chops with the Jets. Despite questions about his run defense, it seemed well worth it at the time. From 2020 to 2022, Huff recorded a 26% pass rush win rate at edge -- a top-10 number at the position had he qualified -- in a situational pass-rushing role. The sacks followed when Huff got more playing time in 2023, with 10 that season before hitting free agency.
But Huff's numbers immediately dropped in Philadelphia. His win rate fell to a career-low 19% (which is still higher than average), but the sacks weren't there (2.5) and his playing time dipped before he missed time in the second half of the season to have wrist surgery. He was healthy for the postseason but inactive for the Super Bowl -- a clear sign of what Philadelphia thought about his play.
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The 49ers have been looking for a quality edge rusher opposite Nick Bosa. Their biggest investment in that area is first-round pick Mykel Williams, but Huff is another swing.
This is a pretty reasonable play for San Francisco. As poorly as Huff played last season, there's still plenty to like in his history, and his pass rush win rate remained solid despite his struggles. His pass rush get-off (time to cross the line of scrimmage) has bounced around, from 0.8 seconds in 2021 to an absurd 0.67 in 2022 to 0.75 in 2023 and 0.79 in 2024.
Though that shows Huff slowing down, it's still a better-than-average get-off for an edge rusher. The 49ers could put Huff back into a situational pass-rushing role -- with Williams handling run downs -- which would probably suit his skill set better. And if there is anyone who can get more out of Huff, perhaps it is 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who coached Huff with the Jets from 2021 to 2023.
Critically, the 49ers are not paying full price. As Field Yates laid out, the 49ers will pay Huff just under $8 million this year after he restructured his deal ahead of this trade. That, plus a Day 3 draft pick, seems like a worthwhile risk for a team with Super Bowl aspirations and a pass-rush need.
On the other hand, the Eagles clearly do not feel the same about Huff. They have a bevy of alternatives to play opposite Nolan Smith Jr., from veterans who have flashed in the past (Azeez Ojulari and Joshua Uche) to a young player with promise (Jalyx Hunt). Philadelphia isn't walking away with a huge haul, but if Huff was not a lock to be active on Sundays, then saving a few million and getting a draft pick is a pretty good outcome.
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