Malik and De'Von Against the World

Let’s start with the good news for Miami Dolphins fans: the team has a new head coach, quarterback and general manager.

The coach is Jeff Hafley, the first Packers defensive coordinator to leave without getting fired in shame and disgrace since Fritz Shurmur. Hafley is not clearly out of his ever-loving gourd like Adam Gase, an inveterate quarterback hater like Brian Flores or a reincarnated 19th century poet like Mike McDaniel. He appears to be rather normal!

The quarterback is Malik Willis, the aborted Titans project turned successful Packers backup. Willis is strong-armed, well-built, highly mobile and very efficient as a dink-and-dunker. He replaces Tua Tagovailoa, who was only the last of those things, and only when healthy. 

The general manager is Jon-Eric Sullivan, who replaces Chris Grier, who arrived in Miami on the same boat as Ponce De Leon. Sullivan spent 21 years working his way up the Packers org chart from football operations assistant (the guy who vacuumed out Brett Favre’s car on Monday mornings) to Vice President of Player Personnel (the guy who told Aaron Rodgers that Brian Gutekunst couldn’t come to the phone right now but he would take a message). Sullivan served under general managers Mike Sherman, Ted Thompson and Gutekunst. He was in Green Bay for the Favre-to-Rodgers and Rodgers-to-Jordan Love transitions. He has seen some things.

The new arrivals make the Dolphins look a little like a Packers AAA affiliate. But at least they all arrived at the same time in one convenient bundle. 

The Dolphins, you see, are pioneers of the Unholy Trinity of Bad Franchise Management: a coach working for a general manager who did not hire him while relying on a quarterback neither of them selected. They have been mismatching decision makers since the days when Nick Saban squabbled with top brass over whether to sign Drew Brees and ended up with Daunte Culpepper instead. (Saban still blames the organization for the mistake, even though he wielded imperial power at the time, because of course he does.)

The Three Cheeseheads share a background, philosophy and timetable. There shouldn’t be any of the usual Dolphins friction: coach making power-grab against GM, quarterback playing a lame-duck year to amortize a bad contract, one segment of the leadership structure trying to rebuild while the other tries to win right away, and so forth. This version of the Dolphins will be powered by cohesion, a shared vision, and presumably lots of cheese.

And now for the bad news: the Dolphins have a new coach, quarterback, general manager and almost nothing else.

Tua is gone. Oh, well. Tyreek Hill is gone. He’s expensive, banged-up and at least one-third of the way toward outright Batman villainy, so perhaps that is for the best. But Minkah Fitzpatrick, Bradley Chubb, and many other offensive and defensive starters are also gone. So are many key backups. So are the longtime kicker, punter AND long snapper, though the kicker (Jason Sanders) missed all of 2025 with a hip injury, anyway.

Jaylen Waddle was the last to leave; the Broncos offered Sullivan a bouquet of draft picks that he couldn’t refuse. De’Von Achane, the last remaining Dolphins player with a name that the average fan recognizes, signed a contract extension after all of his former teammates were gone; the Dolphins might be paying him in uncashed game checks found while emptying Tyreek’s locker into a Dumpster.

The wholesale changes were necessary. The 2025 Dolphins suffered from morale of a level unseen since the Russian front in 1917. Some teams quit at the end of a season. The 2025 Dolphins quit at the end of the 2024 season.

Even before 2025 training camp started, Tyreek was signaling that he wanted out and that he probably wouldn’t slow down to apologize if he ran over Tua’s foot in the parking lot. McDaniel made remarks at training camp press conferences that would trigger a trip to the guidance counselor in most middle schools. The Dolphins began the season with a 33-8 loss to the Colts, then alternated between playing like they were demoralized and playing like they had transcended giving a crap for several weeks.

The Dolphins fired Grier on Halloween, after a 28-6 humiliation at the hands of the Ravens. When the boss gets fired, it wakes everyone up, especially when (as is typically the case) everyone assumed that the boss would be the one doing the firing. Predictably, the Dolphins embarked on a four-game winning streak, starting with an upset of the Bills in one of Buffalo's regularly-scheduled let-down games. McDaniel broke out his extra-special game plans, Achane went ham, the defense looked lively against an increasingly silly slate of quarterbacks (Josh Allen gave way to Marcus Mariota, Tyler Shough in his fourth start, and Brady Cook), and Tua enjoyed the ride. 

The professional-jeopardy adrenaline inevitably wore off. McDaniel benched Tua in favor of Quinn Ewers after a Week 15 loss where the Steelers held a 28-3 lead before the Dolphins scored some garbage-time touchdowns. The quarterback change was sad and desperate. The fact that Ewers was not appreciably worse than Tua made it even sadder and more desperate. 

Dolphins owner Stephen Ross let poor McDaniel twist in the wind for a few days after the season ended. McDaniel even addressed the media on Black Monday as if he were sticking around and Ewers would be competing for a starting job in 2026. Maybe Ross heard the Ewers thing and realized McDaniel was begging for the sweet release of (temporary) unemployment. No matter the reason for the delay, dangling McDaniel until he got his own private window in the news cycle was a cruel ending to a disappointing tenure. Sullivan planned to hire Hafley the moment the Packers were eliminated from the playoffs, so that was no reason to further embarrass McDaniel. Maybe that was Sullivan’s inexperience showing. Or perhaps it was just a reminder that Ross is a complete asshole.

The Dolphins released Tua just before the start of free agency in March. Sullivan tried to find a trade partner willing to tuck into a few morsels of his $99 million in remaining compensation. Oddly, no one was eager to trade for a quarterback with a weak arm, troubling injury history, dubious leadership reputation and outlandish contract. So the Dolphins must wolf down $55 million in dead Tua money in 2026, plus $28 million in dead Tyreek money and heaping helpings of leftover Minkah, Waddle, Jalen Ramsey and Bradley Chubb money. In total, the Dolphins are on the hook for $179 million in dead money in 2026. That’s more than they will be spending on active players.

So this is a take-your-medicine year, and it’s a horse suppository. At least it will give the Dolphins a much cleaner financial slate in 2027. Except for almost $44 million more Tua bucks, at least.

Sullivan isn’t rebuilding the Dolphins. They can’t rebuild while mired in such extreme cap debt. Sullivan is prebuilding: demolishing the roster and having it hauled away at considerable expense. Prebuilding is rather easy; it doesn’t take an analytics genius to trade veterans for draft picks or cut veterans and wait for the compensatory pick fairy to leave some mid-rounders under your pillow. It does take guts, however. It’s the kind of thing a GM can only do in his first weeks on the job, unless he’s a Brett Veach-type blowing up a dynasty. 

Sullivan must have been tempted to retain Waddle, if no one else, just to keep up appearances. The Dolphins needed young, cheap manpower, however, and they turned the draft picks they got for Waddle into cornerback Chris Johnson, wide receiver Chris Bell, and linebackers Trey Moore and Kyle Louis. All four could end up with significant roles immediately on a gutted roster which cannot afford to employ a veteran bench.

Sullivan may also have been tempted to go into full tank mode, though Ross would likely have vetoed any such a plan due to past allegations. In a league where the Cardinals will enter the season with Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew platooning at quarterback, a Ewers/Old Journeyman/Meh Rookie competition in Miami would have raised few eyebrows.

Willis, however, arrived at a price which was too good to pass up. There was some speculation that Willis would net over $100 million as the only viable franchise quarterback candidate in a buyer’s market. The Dolphins signed him for three years at just $45 million guaranteed. 

As I wrote in March, Willis’ reputation is based on a vanishingly small sample of passes over two seasons with the Packers. Willis dropped back to pass just 116 times in 2024 and 2025. Filter out sacks, scrambles, screens, and little flat/swing passes that Matt LaFleur custom-tailored for his backup quarterback, and we’re left with just 59 downfield passes over two years. Willis threw just seven third-down passes in 2025. He threw just 12 passes in late-and-close situations in 2024 and 2025 combined. Willis’ stats and film in these situations and others are very good, but you can see why NFL decision makers weren’t as eager to drop a nine-figure contract on a quarterback who is still a relative unknown. 

Sullivan and Hafley knew Willis in Green Bay, saw him in OTAs and practices and are confident with him as an employee and potential leader. That's a big deal; Willis seemed to lack the requisite workplace readiness when he left Liberty University for the Titans, and he never gained the trust of that coaching staff. The Dolphins offense is likely to boil down to Willis and Achane Against the World, so the young quarterback will need all the grit and gumption he can muster.

Let’s run through the rest of the Dolphins offense quickly, to give a sense of just how little is left: 

Aaron Brewer, Center: One of the NFL’s best!

Austin Jackson and Patrick Paul, Tackles: Not bad, at least when Jackson is healthy, which is rarely. Jackson missed most of 2024 and 2025 with injuries. He took a pay cut to stay in Miami.

Kadyn Proctor and Jonah Savaiinaea, Guards: Proctor is the Dolphins’ first-round pick out of Alabama. He’s an athletic super-specimen with messy technique who has never played guard before. Savaiinaea was one of the NFL’s worst starters at any position as a rookie in 2025. Free agent Jamaree Salyer, part of the Chargers offensive line fire brigade last year, could win his job.

Malik Washington, Wide Receiver: Temu Tyreek. Has averaged just 7.5 yards per reception over two years. Can be fun to watch though.

Jalen Tolbert, Wide Receiver: Longtime Cowboys WR3 who got pushed down the depth chart in favor of Ryan Flournoy last year.

Tutu Atwell, Wide Receiver: Longtime Rams WR3 who got pushed down the depth chart in favor of Xavier Smith and a bunch of tight ends last year, and also got hurt. Weighs 165 pounds after a Waffle House breakfast.

Chris Bell, Wide Receiver: Big, fast rookie out of Louisville. Tore his ACL late in the 2025 college season. Fine long-range prospect.

Greg Dulcich, Tight End: That dude with the Yanni moustache. Lost playing time in 2025 to reclamation project Darren Waller.

Coordinating this assemblage of career backups, injury cases and moustache models will be Bobby Slowik, the runt of the McVay litter.

Slowik was part of Mike Shanahan’s historic 2012-13 Washington staff, along with McVay, Kyle Shanahan, LaFleur and McDaniel. Slowik’s father was that team's linebackers coach, giving young Bobby the dubious distinction of being the second-most impressive nepo baby on the staff.

Slowik switched from offense to defense while working his way up the ranks in Kyle’s 49ers staff. Then he switched back to defense when he joined the Texans. Just kidding! Slowik was the Texans’ offensive coordinator for two years. It just often looked like a defensive coordinator was coaching the offense so they could punt as quickly as possible and get back to the fun stuff.

Slowik is a holdover from McDaniel’s staff. He spent last year coordinating the Dolphins passing game. It must have been hard installing an offense for a quarterback who needs a full windup to throw 25 yards downfield and becomes hypnotized by his first read. Fortunately, McDaniel’s motion-heavy running game remained viable enough in most weeks to create opportunities on play action and quick concepts, and the Dolphins faced a few silly defenses down the stretch.

Retaining Slowik was an odd choice. It smacks a bit of the old Dolphins philosophy of keeping someone around so there's someone to blame/fire. The fact that Slowik’s a LaFleur coaching cousin probably helped. Slowik can also claim some hand in C.J. Stroud’s rapid rookie development, though he also had a hand in Stroud’s subsequent lack thereof.

Slowik’s passing game coordinator will be Kevin Patullo, who is not allowed within 50 miles of Eagles headquarters under penalty of torture. Bill Walsh could not make the available manpower look good, so it might not matter much. But Hafley hasn’t exactly assembled an offensive coaching dream team.

Hafley’s defense will consist of All-Pro linebacker Jordyn Brooks, sturdy lineman Zack Sieler, first-round pick Chris Johnson and eight guys named Storm Duck. Recent draft picks like Kenneth Grant, Chop Robinson, Dante Trader and Jason Marshall are penciled into major roles that they never really earned. Not-quite busts from other teams like JuJu Brents, David Ojabo and Josh Uche were acquired on the cheap to create a little competition; Brents arrived last year.

Hafley earned a reputation as a creative schemer in Green Bay. Defensive playcallers are usually as exactly as smart as their personnel allows them to be, however, and the most creative thing he will be able to do with this depth chart is fold it into a paper airplane.

Hafley’s job on defense – on both sides of the ball, really – will be to determine who actually knows what they are doing, or is willing to learn, and who really wants to do what it takes to remain in the NFL. Whiteboard artistry, after all, is the one thing the Dolphins never lacked under McDaniel. 

The 2026 Dolphins won’t win many games. DraftKings gives them a +1100 moneyline to reach the playoffs, worse than the Jets at +600. Those odds are a little extreme – I’d be tempted to flip them – but the point still stands. 

The 2026 Dolphins do have the potential to be normal, work together and try as hard as they can. The franchise has rarely been able to do all three of those things together in recent decades.

As mentioned earlier, McDaniel wasn’t exactly “normal,” Gase was Young Frankenstein levels of abnormal, and the Jeff Ireland regime was not that long ago. The Dolphins are often embroiled in behind-the-scenes intrigue: Flores-vs.-Ross, Flores-vs.-Tua, Gase-vs.-everyone, Richie Incognito-vs.-human resources.

As for trying as hard as they can: last year’s Dolphins rarely did, Vic Fangio left because they wouldn’t, Ross and Flores clashed over whether it was worth it, Gase once signed Jay Cutler to sneer and shrug through a season and the BullyGate team didn’t exactly have its mind on football. The Dolphins are perpetual drama junkies, usually with a bloated payroll and an unrealistic sense of how close they are to contention. In most years, they're like the Cowboys on spring break or a South Beach nightclub in cleats and helmets.

This year’s Dolphins, however, are different. They’re broke. They’re boring. But they won’t be fighting against each other, expectations or ennui. Everyone will be paddling in the same direction for once. That’s a positive sign. Even though, let’s face it, there weren’t many other directions left for them to paddle in. 

Epilogue and Too Deep Housecleaning

So ...

I mis-read the initial FTN Almanac schedule when Aaron Schatz sent it out to chapter authors around the Super Bowl. I thought I was assigned to the AFC East. Soon after the Jaylen Waddle trade, I wrote the first 1,000 words or so of this essay, with an outline of the rest. But then — whoops – it turns out that I was assigned to the NFC East. So I re-worked what I wrote and finished the essay for use here at the Too Deep Zone. 

The FTN Almanac is available for pre-order now. The Dolphins chapter will probably be nothing like what you just read. It will probably contain useful statistics, for example. It will contain eight chapters by yours truly, covering the NFC East and NFC West. Expect Jerry Jones, Nick Sirianni, Santa Clara substation and Cardinals/Rams draft jokes!

There are also some Patriots notes in my document folder that will be reworked into something, perhaps in early July. I’m waiting for a Patriots conversation window that’s not, you know, dominated by off-field headlines and overheated speculation about clandestine relationships/agreements. Once the A.J. Brown trade is settled, however, I may write something.

Look for a Jaguars feature later this week. It’s all part of my effort to welcome new readers who will be joining us for the first time on our new platform, while also ironing out some of the behind-the-scenes wrinkles caused by the move to Ghost. 

Speaking of the Move to Ghost: A Special Offer!

Both Too Deep Zone and Matt Lombardo’s Between the Hashmarks left Substack recently, for similar reasons. Matt and I carefully coordinated the moves as only he and I can: we had lots of phone conversations about our plans, talked through all the options, agreed on the best way to handle things, then moved to two different platforms several days apart. It was as crisp and well-coordinated as Kyler Murray throwing to Marvin Harrison Jr.!

Anyway, Matt and I are offering an Unstacked Special: become a paid subscriber to either site, and you get a six-month free trial subscription to the other! We will also donate 20% of your subscription to The Trevor Project. This special will run until June, when we will switch to our annual Pride Month special. The Pride Month special is exactly the same as this special; we will just re-label it. So there is no reason to wait until June. 

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