Phillips has had an unlucky couple of years. The 2021 first-round pick tore his Achilles in 2023 and returned only to suffer an ACL tear in 2024 after four games.

Now Phillips is set to play next season on the fully guaranteed $13.25 million fifth-year option on his rookie contract. While a long-term deal for a player with a sudden string of rough injury luck would typically be a huge risk, it feels like a reasonable one for Phillips.

The 25-year-old pass rusher has shown a freakish ability to recover from his recent setbacks. He was back on the field in Week 1 of the 2024 season, less than 10 months after his Achilles tear. Recent video indicates he’s unsurprisingly crushing his knee rehab too.

A contract extension would not only have Phillips set to pair up with Chop Robinson for the foreseeable future in the Dolphins defense, it could also significantly lower the pass rusher’s 2025 salary cap hit (by as much as $9.66 million, per OverTheCap).

The Dolphins dished out a three-year extension to Sieler just before the start of the 2023 season and he rewarded their faith with back-to-back 10-sack seasons. While he still has two more years left on that deal, another pay bump for the defensive tackle could be a win-win for both player and team.

Sieler is due to count $12,447,000 against the Dolphins’ salary cap in 2025 — more than the last two seasons combined. Miami could trim that number by as much as $5.9 million by inking the lineman to his third extension.

Phillips stands out as an obvious candidate for an extension. Chubb’s situation is a little trickier.

Like Phillips, Chubb suffered a serious, season-ending injury in 2023. Unlike his teammate, Chubb didn’t make a timely return in 2024. The former Pro Bowl pass rusher nearly saw the field in the final weeks of the year, but the Dolphins decided his time to make a comeback ran out.

Now Chubb is set to count $28.66 million against Miami’s salary cap in 2025, second most on the team behind only Tua Tagovailoa.

Cutting Chubb with a post-June 1 designation, or trading him after the start of June would yield $19.55 million in savings. But if the Dolphins want to keep the 28-year-old pass rusher, an extension could lower his cap hit by as much as $14.6 million. At the very least, a restructure could earn Miami as much as $13.7 million in savings.

An extension for a player who seems so close to retirement may feel like an odd idea, but it could be the perfect solution for both parties.

Armstead has a couple years left on the five-year, $75 million deal he signed with the Dolphins as a free agent in 2022. With $22.8 million and $22.1 million salary cap hits in the next two seasons, respectively, Miami will probably want to do something to drop those numbers.

Cutting Armstead with a post-June 1 designation or trading him after the start of June would mean $15 million in savings for the Dolphins. A restructure could also drop the cap hits a bit.

But an extension could dish out guarantees to the aging veteran and not force the Dolphins to rely on inexperienced 2024 second-round pick Patrick Paul as a starter. It could also net Miami as much as $10.2 million in cap savings for next year.

The Dolphins just signed Brooks to a three-year, $26.25 million contract last year, so another deal for the linebacker seems like a wild idea. But it’s not entirely without precedent. In 2023, Miami worked out a new deal with cornerback Jalen Ramsey shortly after acquiring him from the Los Angeles Rams before promptly ripping it up and dishing out an extension in 2024.

Brooks counted just $2.8 million against the Dolphins’ salary cap in his first season with the team and outplayed that number as a reliable run defender and effective blitzer in the middle of Anthony Weaver’s defense.

With the cap hits for Brooks climbing to $11.1 and $10.1 million in the next two years, respectively, the Dolphins could chip away at those numbers by as much as $6.2 and $5.3 million by adding a year or two to the end of the deal.