Examining the Inside Story of the Dolphins Draft-Day Trade

That trade that new Miami Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan pulled off with the Dallas Cowboys in the first round of the 2026 NFL draft, it turns out, might have been even more clever than previously thought.

At least that's the impression we got after watching the ESPN documentary on the 2026, "The Pick Is In," which gave viewers an inside look at the war rooms of the Cleveland Browns, Las Vegas Raiders and, of course, the Cowboys.

The Dolphins ultimately got two fifth-round selections, the number 177 and 180 overall from Dallas, to allow the Cowboys to move ahead of them from the 12th to the 11th overall position in Round 1.

That enabled a very pleased Jerry Jones to select Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, after which the Dolphins selected Alabama offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor.

After the first round of the draft, Sullivan told South Florida reporters that Proctor was going to be his choice all along, meaning he got two free first-round picks because Dallas was scared of losing out on Downs.

And, as Jones pointed out, it wasn't so much that he worried about the Dolphins taking Downs at 11 but rather that they would get a better offer from another team to move up to that spot and steal the player of his affection.

And this is where Sullivan waiting until the latter part of his eight-minute time allotment to make Miami's pick - it was 10 minutes per first-round pick before this year - paid off.

As shown on the documentary, Sullivan first turned down the Cowboys after Dallas exec Stephen Jones got on the phone with Dolphins assistant GM Kyle Smith and offered a "fifth and something."

The conversation never got to the point where that "something" could be defined, but ultimately the Dolphins turned those two picks - and Jones' fear of missing out on Downs - into wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr. and tight end Seydou Traore.

PROCTOR ALWAYS THE PICK

Whether the Dolphins got other offers is unclear at this point, but what it isn't is that Sullivan wanted Proctor.

Not that we would have expected him to say otherwise, but Sullivan said after that first round he would have picked Proctor at 11 had no trade offers come along.

"He was kind of our guy," Sullivan said. "So yeah, to come out with two extra picks and not really ... it's free money. I feel really good about it."

What made the trade with Dallas easy was not having to worry about the Cowboys stealing Downs from under them because it was pretty obvious that Dallas' focus needed to be on defense - and that was further evidenced by their second first-round pick, which was used on pass rusher Malachi Lawrence of UCF.

There has been no indication (that has surfaced) that the Dolphins really targeted anybody else for their first pick, unlike the Cleveland Browns. Per the documentary, GM Andrew Berry said after trading the sixth overall pick to Kansas City for the ninth pick and two other selections that he had three prospects in mind - and eventually got one of them at 9 in Utah tackle Spencer Fano.

THE CONVICTION IN CHRIS

What makes it easy to believe Sullivan's target was Proctor all along was the conviction he showed in moving up from 30 to 27 later in the first round to take cornerback Chris Johnson.

The move cost the Dolphins their middle of their three third-round picks, though they recouped a fourth-round pick in the process, the pick that was used on Pittsburgh linebacker Kyle Louis.

"We had a lot of conviction on him," Sullivan said. "We got a lot of picks. We felt like we had the flexibility to do that because of some of the draft capital that we had, and we stayed whole. We swapped; we didn't lose. We started the day with 11, we've got 13 now. It felt like it was the right thing to do."

Today's best reads

• Initial Impressions of the Dolphins' 2026 Draft
• Ranking the Dolphins Offseason Additions
• Imagining an Alternate 2026 Dolphins Draft
• Examining How the Miami Dolphins' First Three Rounds Are Being Viewed Nationally
• Dolphins Sunday Mailbag: Looking at Pro Bowl Potential for the Draft Picks

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This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 6:56 AM.