When you look at the Miami Dolphins' roster, there are several holes at various positions the team will need to address before becoming a competitor. However, with Super Bowl 60 just days away and free agency over a month still to go, Miami is mostly in wait-and-see mode, like the majority of teams...mostly.
Nevertheless, the Dolphins' brass did make a move on Wednesday, albeit a small one, to help bolster their wide receiver room. On Wednesday morning, Elite Loyalty Sports announced that its client, Terrace Marshall Jr., had signed a deal with Miami for the upcoming season.
Terms of the contract were not released, but one would imagine that it's a minimum, non-guaranteed deal for the 2026 season. And although Marshall's signing will distract no one away from the upcoming NBA trade deadline, his addition does help bolster a depleting unit in Miami.
Miami Dolphins sign Terrace Marshall Jr. a month before free agency begins
There were a lot of expectations of Marshall coming out of LSU in 2021 when the Carolina Panthers drafted him in the second round (No. 59 overall). Marshall was part of the Tigers team that won a national championship the previous year, alongside fellow WR Ja'Marr Chase and quarterback Joe Burrow, who went No. 1 overall in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Unfortunately, unlike Chase and those who succeeded the duo at LSU, like Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., Marshall hasn't lived up to his high draft capital. Marshall's highest career numbers in a season thus far are just 490 receiving yards and 28 receptions, both stemming from his 2022 sophomore season. He also has just one career touchdown to his résumé.
Last season, Marshall signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, where he spent time on and off the team's practice squad. He did not appear in a game, however. And quite frankly, there's no guarantee he'll appear in one for the Dolphins in 2026 either.
But because he spent last year on Philadelphia's practice squad without ever being called up to the active roster, Marshall immediately became a free agent once the Eagles' season ended. Therefore, the Dolphins did not have to wait until the official start of free agency to sign Marshall, and there are no tampering issues fans should be concerned with.
This is a low-risk signing for the Dolphins, as they bring in someone with veteran experience at a position they'll need a lot of help at. As the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson points out, Marshall immediately becomes the second-highest draft pick in the Dolphins' WR room, behind only Jaylen Waddle, who was taken No. 6 overall in 2021. And with all signs pointing to Miami eventually parting ways with former All-Pro Tyreek Hill, this is trending to be a weak unit in 2026.
Marshall is the first of many cheap WR options the Dolphins could make this offseason. Outside of Waddle and Malik Washington, there are no true guarantees in Miami's wide receiver room. There's also the possibility that the front office looks to move Waddle this offseason to help create cap space, so even he isn't a guarantee in the true sense of the word to stick around.
At the end of the day, Marshall's signing this early on is a good one for Miami. It gives him added time to learn the playbook and to get to know the personnel around him. Whether he can help to build himself into a valuable piece on the depth chart after an otherwise modest career remains to be seen, but the move makes sense for new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan in his first player signing with the Dolphins.