The Miami Dolphins have finished what they started this offseason. Linebacker Jordyn Brooks agreed to a three-year, $51.3 million contract extension with the Dolphins, including $35 million in guaranteed money, agent Erik Burkhardt told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Tuesday.
Brooks becomes the third Dolphins player to sign a multiyear extension this offseason, following the blueprint first-year general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan laid out when he took over: lock down running back De’Von Achane, center Aaron Brewer, and Brooks, in that order.
Miami kept its word. Achane signed a four-year, $64 million extension in May, Brewer followed with a three-year, $52.5 million deal in June, and now Brooks closes the loop.
A Career Year Earned the Payday
Brooks was walking into a contract year, set to hit free agency in March 2027, before Miami stepped in. There was no mystery about why the Dolphins moved. He just put together the best season of his six-year career.
He led the NFL with 183 combined tackles, including 99 solo stops, and added 13 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, three passes defensed, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. That production earned him his first career All-Pro nod, according to RotoWire. He was also a team captain and the Dolphins’ Don Shula Leadership Award winner in 2025.
Since arriving in Miami as a free agent in 2024, Brooks hasn’t missed a start. He’s played all 34 games for the Dolphins, and his 326 tackles over that stretch are more than any other player in the league produced over the same window.
| Season | Tackles | Tackles for Loss | Sacks | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 143 | 11 | 3.0 | 17 |
| 2025 | 183 | 13 | 3.5 | 17 |
What the Deal Means for Miami’s Cap Sheet
The extension makes Brooks the fifth-highest-paid inside linebacker in the league by average annual value, according to Bleacher Report, slotting him between Philadelphia’s Zack Baun and Houston’s Azeez Al-Shaair on the position’s pay scale. That’s a significant jump from the three-year, $26.5 million deal that brought him to Miami in 2024.
It’s also a vote of confidence from a coaching staff that inherited a defense in need of an identity. Miami ranked 24th in points allowed per game last season, and coach Jeff Hafley has leaned on Brooks as a stabilizing voice while the roster around him gets rebuilt. “Great leader, loves football, works really, really hard,” Hafley said of Brooks earlier this offseason, according to the Dolphins’ team website. “He’s made the right way. I’ve really enjoyed him.”
Locking in Brooks through 2029 gives Miami cost certainty at a position that was about to get expensive on the open market, and it keeps a proven run defender in the middle of a linebacker room that now also includes veteran Tyrel Dodson and second-round rookie Jacob Rodriguez.
The Bigger Picture
Brooks drew trade interest from other teams earlier this offseason, but Miami never entertained moving him, according to NFL insider Jordan Schultz, who also reported the extension’s terms. That reluctance to part with him lines up with how the new front office has talked about the roster all along: keep the pillars, then build out from there.
With Achane, Brewer and Brooks all under contract through at least 2028, the Dolphins have their defensive and offensive anchors locked in heading into a season where plenty else on the roster remains unsettled. Whether that’s enough to turn Miami’s fortunes around won’t be clear until the games start. But the front office has at least secured the players it considers essential to finding out.
