MADRID — Miami Dolphins interim general manager Champ Kelly watches over the team’s practice Friday from a suite at Estadio Metropolitano before the team faces the Washington Commanders on Sunday in the NFL’s first game in Spain.
Friday marked two weeks of him leading the franchise from a roster management standpoint after ex-GM Chris Grier was fired Oct. 31.
“This stuff is easy,” he signals with his hand over the ongoing drills to a small group of South Florida reporters who traveled to Madrid after completing a 20-minute interview session, “because I’ve dealt with tough.”
Kelly’s father was a drug dealer and mother a drug addict. He was primarily raised by his grandmother, Mary Sorey, in the small northern Florida town of Campbellton, which has a population of fewer than 500 people.
Through all of that, Kelly made it to a college football career at Kentucky, got into NFL front offices and is now in his second different stint as an interim GM.
Kelly could be auditioning to shed the interim label by season’s end, but his mindset is not on earning the permanent role as he navigates the Dolphins’ final stretch to the season.
“The community I’m from, Campbellton, all the people I know around there, all they do is work,” he said. “I’m not going to sit here and try to sell you on me getting this job. I will work every day, attack it with focus and the right intensity and let whatever may come come.
“But for these eight weeks, you’re getting all of Champ,” he said, now banging on a table. “Whether that lasts for eight weeks, eight months, eight years or 18 years down the road, you’re getting all of me. God will never bless who you pretend to be.”
And Kelly never accepted the initial job he took from the Dolphins in March with the idea of replacing Grier if the team did part ways with him.
“I did not step into my role as senior personnel executive with the mindset of succeeding Chris Grier or being in this interim situation,” Kelly said. “I just came in every single day to work and to make impact and to be the best evaluator that I could be during that time.”
As Grier was then let go, ownership made the decision to put him into that opportunity.
“When tasked with — or blessed with — this particular pressure, there’s promise inside of it,” Kelly said. “I just want to attack with the focus and the fight that I’ve done my entire life.”
What could be a whirlwind for most handling the Dolphins’ trade deadline and more days after being given his new elevated title, Kelly views differently.
“I probably look at it more as opportunity,” he said. “Excited to get a chance to work with Mike and this football team, with the objective to just win games. That’s been the intent since it happened.”
Kelly detailed owner Steve Ross’ only directives to him.
“We’re going to do everything we can to win for our fans and for our football team — this year and moving forward,” Kelly said. “Every decision that we made during that time and leading up to that time, it was ultimately just to make sure we set the Dolphins up for success.”
He revealed the groundwork of how that developed.
“We set what we would value for each and every one of our players,” Kelly said. “We knew what we would accept and what we wouldn’t.”
Kelly called guys whose names would be in the media over trade rumors, he took offers and evaluated them.
“We looked at every one as if they were in a vacuum and made the decision according to the organization and franchise to have success,” he said.
Kelly was asked about the Buffalo Bills’ reported offer of a 2027 first-round pick and 2026 third-rounder for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle that he did not pull the trigger on.
“There’s a lot of things that are reported during those times, and not all of those things are factual,” he said. “I won’t go into what value we set for each one of our players, but if a team met that value, then that player was traded.”
But does a division rival knocking at the door alter a price tag?
“It can play into the equation in certain instances,” Kelly said. “I’m not a fan of watching a player that we’ve drafted and grown compete against us in a division. That’s a personal thing with me, but that doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t make a trade in the division. We have to look at every scenario.”
Both times Kelly earned an interim GM role, it happened on Halloween. In 2023, that was after the trade deadline, so his deal sending outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips to the Philadelphia Eagles was his first trade orchestrated from the top of an organization.
He described the deadline and two weeks since he became interim GM as, “A lot of tasks getting thrown at your desk at a swift pace, but it wasn’t like an uncommon-type scenario.”
Asked directly about quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and how the end to his season can play into how he views the passer’s contract, Kelly said he tells all players they’re in the same boat as him, constantly being evaluated through the final weeks of the 2025 season.
Kelly also touched on his overall philosophy in leading a roster.
“With the constraints of the salary cap, the best way to build a sustainable winner is through the draft,” he said, “and then you supplement that by smart decisions in free agency.”
This story will be updated.
