Why the Reagor Move Made Perfect Sense (But Still a Long Shot)

The Miami Dolphins' decision to sign former first-round pick Jalen Reagor, as it turns out, came after the team worked out several different players Tuesday.

In the end, it was Reagor the team chose to add to fill the roster spot that opened up when safety/inside linebacker Jordan Colbert was waived with a failed physical designation.

And Hafley's explanation a day later as to why the Dolphins wanted to take a shot with Reagor made absolutely perfect sense, even if history tells us we should keep low expectations.

"We had a workout (Tuesday) with a bunch of guys and he kind of jumped out," Hafley said before the second minicamp practice Wednesday morning. "Obviously talented player, there's a reason he was a first-round pick. It's just good to get more fresh legs in here, but I think kicking the tires on players who have had success, I think that's awesome that Sully (Jon-Eric Sullivan) is doing that. We'll give him a shot and see what he can do."

And there's the logic behind the move, it's not a big deal to use up one of 91 roster spots - remember the roster exemption for IPP rookie Seydou Traore - and there's probably not even any sort of cap implication because the best guess is Reagor's cap number will fall below the top 51 and therefore not count against the limit.

So this is the true definition of low risk, and the worst-case scenario is the Dolphins decide that Reagor can't help, they move on, no worries. The best-case scenario, of course, is Reagor flashes the form that made him a 2020 first-round pick in the first place and the Dolphins have themselves an unlikely contributor at wide receiver or for the return game.

THE DOLPHINS HISTORY WITH DISCARDED FIRST-ROUND PICKS

If Reagor is able to come through and resurrect his career in Miami, two years after he last was on a 53-man roster, he would succeed where other former first-round picks have failed after signing with the Dolphins.

Over the past nine years, we have come up with seven previous former first-round picks who signed with Miami after having been released and let's just say the returns weren't exactly great.

That list of players consists of cornerback Damon Arnette, guard Cole Strange, running back Sony Michel, edge defender Taco Charlton, defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche, and tackles Germain Ifedi and Cedric Ogbuehi.

Of those players, only Strange, Charlton and Nkemdiche played a regular season game for Miami, and Strange is the only who had any measure of success. Strange actually wound up starting at right guard for the Dolphins last year, and though his play was very uneven he still managed to parlay it into a nice free agent contract with the L.A. Chargers this offseason.

The Dolphins didn't have better success when they traded for former first-round picks who had struggled with their original team, the two glaring examples being quarterback Josh Rosen and tackle Isaiah Wilson, the latter not even lasting a week with the team in the offseason before he was waived.

If a former first-round pick arrived as an unrestricted free agent, now, that's a different story because while there have been some misses for sure, the Dolphins have hit on some of those players as well, the most glaring and recent example being linebacker Jordyn Brooks.

With Reagor, the expectations should be low, but this was a case of no risk, so any kind of reward would be a bonus.

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This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 12:45 PM.