Shortly after hiring agent Drew Rosenhaus, Minkah Fitzpatrick has secured a reworked deal from the Dolphins. As ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports, Miami has added a $16.245MM signing bonus to Fitzpatrick’s thru-2026 contract, which previously contained no more guaranteed money (Schefter’s ESPN colleague, Marcel Louis-Jacques, offered a minor correction on the bonus amount, which is reportedly $16.435MM).
No years were added to the pact, so Fitzpatrick remains eligible for free agency after the 2026 season. He was previously due to earn $15.5MM in base salary in 2025, and while he was not in jeopardy of missing out on that money given that he was just acquired in the blockbuster trade that sent Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith to the Steelers, the extra security and expedited cash flow is surely a welcome development.
Rosenhaus said he and Fitzpatrick are comfortable with the restructure and will continue to work towards an extension. It is nonetheless fair to wonder how anxious the ‘Fins will be to put an extension in place since they do not yet know how their former first-round pick will fit in new defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver’s scheme. Plus, despite earning Pro Bowl accolades in each of the last two seasons, Fitzpatrick was not as effective from either an advanced metrics or ball production perspective over the 2023-24 campaigns as he was earlier in his career.
The revised pact will result in a $2MM bump in 2025 pay for Fitzpatrick, per Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network. That money was moved from what Fitzpatrick was due to earn in 2026, so the 28-year-old will thus be in line for $17.5MM in 2026 and $15.6MM in 2026, and the salary-to-signing bonus mechanism (as confirmed by ESPN’s Field Yates) will result in $11MM in cap savings on this year’s ledger. That represented a key need for the Dolphins, who had just over $1MM in cap space and who now have increased flexibility to conduct in-season business.
Re-acquiring Fitzpatrick was part of Miami’s major offseason overhaul in the secondary, which will see four new starters in 2025. The club recently signed Jack Jones and Mike Hilton in an effort to address its dire cornerback situation, which was exacerbated by the Ramsey departure.