At 2-5 through seven games, the Miami Dolphins are in the midst of a lost season and have to start looking ahead to the future. Not only does the team have to hope for Tua Tagovailoa to stay healthy moving forward, Miami has to retool a bit, also.One of the players the Dolphins will have to make a decision on next year is safety Jevon Holland, who is in the final year of his $8.7 million rookie contract. Holland is on his way to a hefty payday with the former second-round pick having a career year in 2024, which will make it harder for Miami to keep him.
Holland currently sports personal bests in coverage. His 42.9% completion rate allowed is a career-best, and his 108.3 passer rating allowed is the second-best mark of his career. Adding to that, Holland has posted an impressive 77.1 run defense grade, per Pro Football Focus.
While the Dolphins are likely to prioritize keeping Holland, Bleacher Report’s Scouting Department believes the 24-year-old safety will leave for the Denver Broncos in free agency next year.
Whether it’s PJ Locke or Devon Key, the Broncos could probably look for an upgrade at the safety position opposite Brandon Jones. The latter carried the sixth-highest grade among safeties by PFF going into the week.
The pairing of Jones and Jevon Holland wasn’t bad when they were playing together with the Dolphins. The two have complementary skillsets and should already have established communication. That could help the Broncos as they continue to build their secondary around Patrick Surtain II.
As much as the Dolphins would love to keep Holland, that could prove to be very difficult. According to Over the Cap, Miami is projected to have just $4.2 million in cap space in 2025, which won’t be enough in and of itself to keep the Oregon product. Miami will have to open up some cap space to make it work.
Meanwhile, the Broncos will be flush with cap space, with their projection coming in at $71.9 million for 2025. There is simply no way the Dolphins can compete with the kinds of resources the Broncos will have.
Of course, it remains to be seen if the Broncos will even have interest in Holland. Even still, there will be multiple teams out there vying for his services and Miami will have a tough time trying to match anything he’s offered.
