It won’t be cheap to keep Jevon Holland. Is it worth it to keep the 24-year-old defensive back in Miami?
There are several key contributors for the Miami Dolphins set to become free agents in March, but safety Jevón Holland is undoubtedly the highest profile player on the squad set to hit the market.
Holland, who turns 25 in March, was a second-round pick in the 2021 NFL draft and wasted no time emerging as a leader in the Dolphins’ secondary. But after steady improvement in his first three seasons, Holland had, by many metrics, a regression in his fourth year in the NFL.
The Dolphins safety finished without an interception for the first time in his career and had a career worst 63.0 grade from PFF. Then again, other analytics sites credited Holland with making life pretty difficult for opposing passers.
Keeping Holland in a Dolphins uniform won’t be cheap. But replacing him won’t be easy.
The case for re-signing Holland
Much has been made about the little statistic impact the Dolphins’ pair of starting safeties made in 2024. But ultimately, their job is to keep opposing offenses from making big plays and at that, they succeeded.
Only two teams allowed fewer 20-yard pass plays than the Dolphins this season. Simply put, Holland did his job keeping opposing pass attacks in check and he played a huge part in the team finishing No. 4 in yards allowed.
Would the Dolphins have liked a couple interceptions? Absolutely.
But the goal in free agency isn’t to pay a player for what they’ve done in the past, but to get them under contract for what they’ll do in the future. Holland has shown big play ability and he’s entering the prime of his career.
“He’s a special young man,” Dolphins left tackle Terron Armstead told Kay Adams last year when asked about Holland. “He’s wise beyond his years, he’s a leader… He wears a lot of responsibilities that people on the sideline have no idea that he’s in control of.”
With three safeties (Holland, Jordan Poyer, and Elijah Campbell) set to hit free agency, re-signing Holland would keep the heart of the Dolphins secondary in tact and set up Miami for more success under defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver.
The case for letting Holland walk
Miami is in rough salary cap shape and it has a lot of roster work to do.
There’s avenues to clear space, but the Dolphins will need to make even more sacrifices if they hope to keep Holland, because he’s certain to become one of the NFL’s highest paid safeties this offseason.
Ideally for the Dolphins, they’d solve their offensive line issues, backup quarterback problem, lackluster wide receiver depth, and safety deficiency by acing the 2025 NFL draft. But there’s no way around it: the Dolphins are going to have to dish out a lot of contracts in free agency to fill out the roster after loading up on one-year deals last year.
Is keeping Holland, a player who didn’t do much in 2024, worth creating even more holes on the roster and limiting the quality of player the Dolphins can bring in? There are discount free agent options at safety as well as draft prospects like Georgia’s Malaki Starks and Notre Dame’s Xavier Watts, who wouldn’t leave Miami in need of making more cuts to get under the salary cap.
Prediction
Holland has an argument as not only the best safety set to hit the market, but the best defensive player, altogether.
Last year, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers dished out a four-year, $84.1 million extension to their rising star at safety, Antoine Winfield Jr. That may be a little rich for Holland, but his contract won’t be far off. It’s possible it even eclipses that $21 million per year standard, especially if he hits the open market and there’s a bidding war for Holland’s services.
Given the Dolphins’ recent decisions to let players like Christian Wilkins, Robert Hunt, and Andrew Van Ginkel leave, it seems more likely than not that Holland is wearing a different uniform next year.
Prediction: Colts sign Holland to 5-year, $100 million deal with $42 million guaranteed
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