Dolphins’ 3 best options with No. 30 pick in 2026 NFL Draft after Jaylen Waddle trade

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Dolphins’ 3 best options with No. 30 pick in 2026 NFL Draft after Jaylen Waddle trade

Ben Strauss, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Tue, Mar 17, 2026 ·

4 min read

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The Miami Dolphins are going full rebuild mode during the 2026 offseason. Miami parted ways with head coach Mike McDaniel and started cleaning house after the start of the new league year. The Dolphins cut multiple veterans, including Tyreek Hill , and even ripped the bandaid off by cutting Tua Tagovailoa with a post-June 1st designation .

Now the Dolphins have made another huge move, trading wide receiver Jaylen Waddle to the Broncos in exchange for multiple draft picks. Miami now has a war chest of draft picks that they can use to accelerate their rebuild.

That is both a blessing and a curse. The Dolphins now have just over one month to ramp up their preparations for the 2026 NFL Draft. They may need to put in some extra work to determine the best possible players they can land at each position.

Miami will enter the first round with two selection: their original pick (11th overall) and now Denver 's pick (30th overall).

Three players stand out as the best options for Miami to use their new first-round pick on in April's draft.

EDGE Keldric Faulk, Auburn

Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Chop Robinson is suddenly Miami's top edge rusher after the team released Bradley Chubb on February 16th . They should take any help they can get at edge rusher.

Faulk is a physical specimen at 6-foot-6 and 276 pounds. He can use his immense power to bully offensive linemen as a pass rusher. Faulk also holds up quite well in run defense, which is something that new head coach Jeff Hafley should covet.

Faulk has been mocked all over the place over the past few months. Is it fair to imagine he will still be available at 30?

ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. certainly thinks so. Kiper released a new mock draft on Tuesday and ironically had the Broncos using the 30th overall pick on Faulk.

Perhaps one of the most attractive qualities about Faulk for a rebuilding team is his age. Faulk will turn 21 years old in September and clearly has a bright future ahead of himself. If he puts it all together, the Dolphins could land an excellent edge rusher for the next decade.

These are the kinds of shots that a rebuilding team can afford to make.

CB Colton Hood, Tennessee

The Dolphins also need a lot of help in their secondary.

Miami's depth chart currently lists JuJu Brents , Jason Marshall Jr. , and Lonnie Johnson Jr. as the team's starters at cornerback in a nickel defense. That is simply not good enough.

The Dolphins have a ton of dead money on the 2026 salary cap. That means the draft is their only realistic path to upgrading the position in 2026.

Fortunately for Miami, the supply of first-round cornerbacks seems to outweigh the demand at this point in the offseason. Most draft analysts have at least one cornerback falling to the bottom of the first round, or even into the second round.

Hood projects as a press-man cornerback who can bully receivers at the line of scrimmage. He also boasts enough speed to stay with most receivers after first contact. That could make him a menace against all but the league's most elite wide receivers.

Perhaps a specialist in zone coverage would be a more ideal fit in Hafley's defense. But the Dolphins should not pass up a talented defender like Hood, especially at such a valuable position.

S Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, Toledo

Yes, another defensive pick.

There's obviously several different directions the Dolphins could go at 30 depending on who is still on the board. At this point, defense makes the most sense to me if Hafley wants the identity of the Dolphins to become a defensive juggernaut.

If McNeil-Warren is still there at 30, Miami should run the card in.

The former Toledo safety rocketed up draft boards over the past few months, especially after impressing at the Combine.

McNeil-Warren projects as a physical strong safety who could play an enforcer role in the middle of Miami's defense. He is at his best when defending the run, though he plays well in coverage too. McNeil-Warren even dreams about tackling Derrick Henry !

The Dolphins do already have a young strong safety in Dante Trader Jr. However, he is not talented enough to stop Miami from drafting a player who should become a plus starter very quickly.

The biggest question is whether or not McNeil-Warren is still around at 30. Kiper has him going 19th overall to the Panthers , but Mike Renner of CBS Sports has him falling all the way to the Seahawks at 32 in his latest mock.

Dolphins fans can at least dream about this one.

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