When the Miami Dolphins’ offseason started and safeties Ashtyn Davis and Ifeatu Melifonwu were free agents, it looked as if Dante Trader could be in line for a major role in his second season.
When former All-Pro safety Minkah Fitzpatrick was traded after that, it looked even more like Trader could be elevated as a starter.
And after the first wave of free agency in March and the draft more than a week ago, nothing yet has happened to diminish those possibilities for Trader.
The 2025 fifth-round pick could be in the spotlight for the Dolphins’ secondary after playing in all 17 games with three starts as a rookie.
Miami’s current safety group around Trader consists of Zayne Anderson, primarily a special teams contributor in Green Bay but who saw sporadic action in new Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley’s defense there, 30-year-old journeyman Lonnie Johnson Jr. and fifth-round draft pick Michael Taaffe, who rose from once being a walk-on at Texas.
In his rookie season, Trader made 48 tackles and had a pass breakup on defense. On special teams, he added seven tackles with a forced fumble and fumble recovery.
Hafley and new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan like versatility among their defenders, and they have position flexibility with Trader. He played both free and strong safety and, late in the season, also filled in at the nickel role Fitzpatrick had taken on.
“I feel like it’s always great to have the opportunity to play a different position, especially a position that Minkah was able to play, which is the nickel position — which is a very versatile chess piece in our defense,” Trader said late last season, while the defense was still under previous coordinator Anthony Weaver on ex-coach Mike McDaniel’s staff.
“Having the ability and the respect from the coaches to be able to go out there and do it, that’s the joy itself. There’s all the difficulties in it, because we’ve got a lot of different presentations that we give and playing safety and nickel, but it was a challenge throughout the week. But I feel like I handled it.”
Trader showed flashes of coverage skills, was an instinctual player who could quickly diagnose plays and know where he needed to be, and although many remember his key missed tackle late against Chargers wide receiver Ladd McConkey last October, he was plenty secure in his tackling and run support at 5 feet 11 and 202 pounds.
Trader also may have a next gear to reach now that he’s had time focusing entirely on football.
In college at Maryland, he doubled as a lacrosse player — a third-team All-American, at that.
Toward the end of the past season, Trader explained the benefits he found from juggling both sports at a high level in his transition to going professional in football.
“I gained resiliency from playing two sports, just having to battle that for basically a whole full year playing a sport with no break,” he said. “So navigating this rookie year of 20-plus weeks and coming straight from college, I kind of was geared to be able to handle it mentally and physically.
“I would say, in terms of how humbling the league is, being able to balance the two sports gave me the resiliency to be able to go through some hard times and things that I’ve went through this year and be able to bounce back. Because you can easily go down different paths, different routes when you get punched in the mouth like I did some games or some plays. I would just say just being able to be sharpened by my experience in playing two sports.”
Being accustomed to year-round activity from football falls and lacrosse springs may have helped him push through the NFL’s infamous rookie wall.
“I mean, you definitely hit it, for sure,” Trader said. “There’s days, there’s moments, but if you love ball, by the time you get out of the meeting room and step on that field, you’re blessed. There’s a lot of people coming for your job, and everybody wants to be where you are. So, rookie wall, don’t put credit to that in your mind. That’s just going to infest it, so you’d rather be ready to run through that thing.”
Trader, like rising second-year defensive tackle Kenneth Grant and others from Miami’s 2025 draft class, now have a full offseason working out at Dolphins headquarters instead of training for the combine and draft.
Roster moves
The Dolphins were bound to have a surplus of players after their undrafted rookie free agent agreements, so they cut players Monday.
The Dolphins released long snapper Taybor Pepper and waived cornerback Isaiah Johnson, tight end Zack Kuntz, cornerback Jason Maitre, edge defender Derrick McLendon, linebacker K.C. Ossai and punter Seth Vernon. Johnson and Maitre were let go with failed physicals.
The cuts settle punter and long snapper competitions, for now. Barring the signing of a new player at either position, Bradley Pinion is Miami’s lone punter on the roster and Tucker Addington is now the lone long snapper.
With the Dolphins’ 13-player draft class, they were at 86 players, having 91 spots available in the offseason, one more than usual because tight end Seydou Traore, who was drafted in the fifth round, is an international player from London.
They then reached agreements to sign 10 known undrafted rookies, which meant at least five cuts had to be made by the time those signings were made official. Parting ways with seven players clears room for two other players to be brought on board.