The Trade That Keeps Giving
It looks like the Miami Dolphins are not done getting benefits from their trade of Laremy Tunsil in September 2019.
General Manager Chris Grier continues to parlay the big haul he got in the trade with the Houston Texans into more premium picks, all of them helping get the Dolphins closer to becoming perennial playoff contenders.
The latest offshoot of the Tunsil trade involved the Dolphins sending the third overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft to the San Francisco 49ers for the 12th overall selection, a 2022 third-round pick, and first-round picks in 2022 and 2023.
The Dolphins then moved that 12th overall selection, along with a fourth-round pick this year and their own 2022 first-round pick, to Philadelphia for the sixth overall pick and a pick in the fifth round.
It's actually hard to keep up, but the original Tunsil trade involved three other players and some later-round picks. None of the three players (Kenny Stills going to Houston, and Julien Davenport and Johnson Bademosi are still with the team that acquired them).
Most significant, the Tunsil trade gave the Dolphins a first-round pick last year and first- and second-round picks this year.
The 2020 first-round became the 26th of the first round after the Texans made the playoffs and defeated the Buffalo Bills in the first round, and the Dolphins acquired a fourth-round selection from Green Bay to move back to 30th before selecting CB Noah Igbinoghene.
The Dolphins then used that extra fourth-round selection to move up in that round and take guard Solomon Kindley, who became a starter as a rookie.
Now, as a result of the trades Friday, the Tunsil trade essentially has given Miami the sixth overall pick this year, a third-round pick in 2022 and a first-round pick in 2023.
So, boiling it down, you could say that — excluding the other players and later-round picks — the Dolphins essentially traded Tunsil for a 2020 first-round pick, the sixth overall pick in 2021, a second-round pick in 2021, a third-round pick in 2022, and a first-round pick in 2023.
And technically the Dolphins at one point had four first-round picks coming directly or indirectly from the Tunsil trade until the swung the deal with the Eagles.
Even at three first-round picks, this truly is the trade that keeps on giving.
And if it's not the greatest trade in franchise history, it certainly belongs in the conversation.
