The Miami Dolphins are on the hunt for cornerback help after trading All-Pro Jalen Ramsey to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

According to Miami Herald columnist Omar Kelly, the Dolphins are shopping for cornerback help after shipping off their star to the AFC North in exchange for DB Minkah Fitzpatrick. That makes sense, given that their cornerback depth chart features a lot of unproven talent.

Naturally, the Kansas City Chiefs are a team that will come up in hypothetical situations involving the cornerback position. Why? Because they’ve found themselves with a surplus at the position (12 corners on the 90-man offseason roster) and multiple expiring contracts following the 2025 NFL season. That said, it doesn’t necessarily mean the timing is right for Kansas City to make a trade.

The Chiefs have to work through some problems of their own at the cornerback position before they can confidently make a trade

Chiefs have a cornerback surplus that the Dolphins could target in a trade, but the timing of a deal will be key for Kansas City

The Chiefs currently have five players at the cornerback position who have started a meaningful NFL game: Trent McDuffie, Jaylen Watson, Kristian Fulton, Joshua Williams, and Nazeeh Johnson.

Of that group, McDuffie and Fulton are the least likely to be traded, given that they’re both under contract through 2026. Watson, Williams, and Johson, each in contract years, could make a lot of sense for Miami to target in a trade. Watson would likely be the toughest to pry from Kansas City of that group, but he also might be the toughest for the Chiefs to re-sign during the 2026 offseason. Moving on and getting some good return value in a trade might be a prescient move by Brett Veach.

The team also has a rookie in Nohl Williams, whom they’re very high on. They’ve got second-year players in Chris Roland-Wallace, Eric Scott Jr., and Darius Rush, who could each take a step forward in the system this year. They’ve also got a trio of undrafted rookies in Kevin Knowles, Jacobe Covington, and Melvin Smith. If one of those players were to impress in the next two months leading up to roster cuts, it could make it easier to move on from another player on an expiring contract.

The Chiefs need a new influx of young and cheap cornerback talent, given the departures they’ll face in 2026. Ideally, one of these players emerges as a defense and special teams contributor in 2025 and helps them address that problem, as they’re all still young with multiple years of contract control (mostly ERFA and RFA).

Currently, I don’t get the sense that the Chiefs are particularly confident in their cornerback room, which could pose challenges when it comes to making a trade on June 30th. Specifically, they haven’t found that solution at the outside corner position that gives them the confidence to move Trent McDuffie back into the slot frequently. That’s the entire reason they explored adding CB Jaire Alexander before he signed with the Baltimore Ravens.

By the time roster cuts roll around in September, they’re likely to have found a solution or strategy to approach that dilemma, but will the Dolphins be willing to wait around? Brett Veach has often engaged in trades around the 53-man roster cut deadline, but he’d be taking a risk to ship a player to Miami ahead of training camp. If the team feels confident after OTAs and mandatory minicamp that a player will emerge, it’s a worthy gamble. At this juncture, it’s simply too hard to tell where the coaching staff and front office stand.