With the start of the 2025 NFL Draft just over one month away at this point in time, the Miami Dolphins aren’t loaded with depth at the safety spot.

After spending his first four seasons in the league with the Dolphins, safety Jevon Holland agreed to join the New York Giants on a three-year deal worth more than $45 million earlier in the month.

Holland had an underwhelming final season in Miami but was among the better players at his position in the NFL in his first few seasons with the team. The Dolphins drafted him in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft after he put together a noteworthy stint playing college football at the University of Oregon.

However, a recent NFL mock draft from Daniel Jeremiah has the Dolphins drafting a Holland replacement with the No. 13 overall pick. Specifically, he has Miami selecting University of Georgia safety Malaki Starks, who is on the heels of a highly productive junior campaign at the collegiate level.

“The further we get into the evaluation process, the more teams I find that are in love with Starks’ game,” Jeremiah wrote. “He would be a plug-and-play replacement for Jevon Holland, with the versatility to play as a high safety or nickelback.”

He suited up in 14 games with the Bulldogs in the 2024 season and totaled 52 solo tackles, 25 assisted tackles, 77 combined tackles, four tackles for loss and one interception.

Starks was a defensive menace for a Georgia team that was one of the best in all of college football last season. The Bulldogs won all but three of their 14 games during the campaign and were ranked at the No. 6 spot in the final AP poll of the season. Georgia also took on the University of Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl but lost by a final score of 23-10.

If the Dolphins draft a player of Starks’ caliber they certainly would hope that he can help the team’s defensive unit build on what was an impressive 2024 campaign on that side of the ball in the 2025 season.

Under defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, only nine teams in the NFL allowed fewer points per contest than the Dolphins a season ago.

Maybe it would be a smart move for the Dolphins to heed Jeremiah’s mock draft and take a chance on Starks with a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft in the hope that his skill set can help fill the hole left by Holland’s departure.