Top 5 Free Agent Signings in Miami Dolphins History

National Football League free agency is a circus of passers, receivers, and rushers donning new jerseys for expensive contracts. But not every team has gotten its best value in free agency from the league's collection of skill athletes.

As for the Miami Dolphins, they have scored with superstar free agents both in the trenches and in the defensive backfield. Only two offensive skill players make our list of the top-5 free agent signings in Miami Dolphins history, and it's fitting that both were known for hard-hitting blocks more than highlight-reel catches.

Defensive tackle Larry Chester is "the greatest there never was" in Miami's free agency past. Chester arrived from Carolina as a burly, disciplined, run-stopping force on the interior who raised the Dolphins' defense out of the doldrums. Miami went from No. 17 in the league in run defense to No. 5 in Chester's debut season with the team. He made 75 combined tackles in his first two seasons down by South Beach.

A catastrophic injury cut Chester's time with the Dolphins and the NFL way too short. The 325-pound Louisiana native blew out his knee and suffered a torn ligament on the same play against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 3 of the 2024-25 season. Chester never played another down of professional football, and the Dolphins' ranking in run defense slipped all the way back down to No. 31 out of 32 teams in his absence.

Many of the Miami Dolphins' top free agent signings only played with the Fins for two or three seasons, but their contributions in that span of time remain undeniable. Another such player was cornerback Brent Grimes, who shined so brightly on a one-year contract in 2013 that the Dolphins signed him to a four-year extension the next summer. Grimes only lasted two more seasons in Miami, but was an extraordinary ball hawk over his three total years, snagging 13 interceptions and scoring on a pair of pick-six returns. The 5-foot-10 playmaker was also an enthusiastic tackler of opposing tailbacks.

Grimes was selected to Pro Bowl for the AFC in all three seasons with the Dolphins, and also earned a second team All-Pro nod in 2014. 

Controversy got in the way of Grimes' time on the boundary in Miami. Grimes' wife, Miko Grimes, was responsible for a troubling incident in 2015, threatening a Miami Herald reporter and getting arrested outside Sun Life Stadium. She also tweeted that Miami's then-quarterback Ryan Tannehill "stunk," a remark that Grimes later apologized to Tannehill for making. Brent Grimes was released in the spring of 2016 with the official explanation that he refused to restructure his Dolphins contract. He played two years for Tampa Bay before retiring in 2019.

Tight end Keith Jackson may be the greatest of Miami's three-year-wonder free agent acquisitions. His productivity as a pass-catcher rose every year he played for the Dolphins. The 6-foot-2 native of Little Rock, Arkansas, came down with 48 passes for 594 yards and five touchdowns in 1992, his first season with the club. In his second year, he only caught 39 receptions, but his TD count went up to six, and his average of 15.7 yards per reception was a career high. In his last Miami campaign of 1994, Jackson caught a fantastic 59 passes and scored seven times.

Jackson went on to play for Green Bay in his last two seasons of 1995 and 1996, helping the Packers to a championship win over the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI.

The name Keith Byars is synonymous with tough football and effective running between the hash marks. Byars ran for 3,109 yards and 23 touchdowns in his NFL career, including six as a Dolphins fullback and the iconic "snow angel" TD in 1993. Byars also caught 31 touchdown passes in his career, 10 of which with Miami.

However, in Miami, Byars became known as a blocker and a receiver instead of a standout rusher in the red zone. The 245-pound bruiser's receiving stats took an immediate turn upward when Byars arrived from the Philadelphia Eagles as one of the NFL's first official unrestricted free agents (UFAs). In his second Miami season of 1994, Byars caught a career-best five touchdown passes.

Once moving on to the New England Patriots in the 1996 campaign, Byars starred with four receptions for 72 yards and a touchdown in Super Bowl XXXI, although the Patriots lost 35-21 to a Green Bay Packers team that included the Dolphins' former free-agent tight end Jackson. Byars played two more years for the Pats and the New York Jets before hanging it up following the Jets' playoff season of 1998. 

Many acquisitions from the Dallas Cowboys have proven to be overhyped, thanks to the Silver Star's great popularity and the awe that other franchises held Dallas in during the club's glory years of the 1970s and 1990s. Brock Marion defied that stereotype as a decorated Dallas Cowboy who signed with the Dolphins in 1998 and provided an instant spark to Miami's defense and its special teams effort. 

Marion came highly recommended by another Dallas transplant, Miami head coach Jimmy Johnson, and lived up to the billing by thrilling Miami's fans with interceptions and long kick returns across six seasons with the club. In 2001, Marion led the league with 1,524 kick return yards, while setting a high bar for interception return yardage with a phenomenal 227 return yards and two touchdowns on five picks. Marion repped Miami in the Pro Bowl after the 2000, 2002, and 2003 seasons before finishing his career with Detroit in 2004.