Report: Months before leaving Dolphins, Calais Campbell said he really liked it in Miami

Defensive lineman Calais Campbell’s stint with the Miami Dolphins has come to a close after just one season, as he has agreed to join the Arizona Cardinals on a one-year deal.

Campbell spent the first nine seasons of his NFL career with the Cardinals after they drafted him in the second round of the 2008 NFL Draft. He will now return there.

An interesting wrinkle in Campbell’s decision to leave the Dolphins and rejoin the Cardinals is that he reportedly said he really liked it in Miami a few months ago. As such, one has to wonder if he wasn’t satisfied by what the Dolphins were offering.

Campbell suited up in all 17 of Miami’s contests in the 2024 campaign and accumulated 52 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 12 quarterback hits and five sacks. He also finished with five passes defended and one forced fumble.

The Dolphins seemingly valued what Campbell brought to the table highly during his short time with the team, and they wanted him back this offseason.

In the 2024 season, with the Dolphins struggling, Campbell was allegedly almost dealt to the Baltimore Ravens before the trade deadline until head coach Mike McDaniel nixed the trade and told Campbell that he couldn’t part ways with him because he was “too valuable” to the team.

Miami reportedly nearly had a deal done with Baltimore to ship Campbell to the Ravens in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick.

Campbell will now try to help the Cardinals make their first playoff appearance in a few years in the 2025 campaign. Arizona finished the 2024 season with a mediocre 8-9 record and hasn’t secured a playoff berth since the 2021 campaign.

If Arizona’s defensive effectiveness last season is any indication, the addition of Campbell should provide the Cardinals with an important shot in the arm on that side of the ball. The Cardinals gave up 22.3 points per game, ranking near the middle of the pack in the NFL in that metric.

Dolphins fans should wish Campbell all the best in his second stint with the Cardinals and hope that he can add a Super Bowl victory to his resume before he retires from the NFL. It seems like only a matter of time before he calls it quits on his NFL career considering his age and experience.