Miami Dolphins Offseason Preview

This is the latest in an ongoing series of offseason previews

2025 Season in a Nutshell

Weeks 1-7: (Yawn, stretch) Is it autumn yet? Should we, I dunno, practice or something? Maybe we should ask Coach. Oh, he’s sharing his intrusive thoughts with the media. Let’s not bother him.

Weeks 8-14: Oh shit the GM just got fired. Everyone look busy!

Mid-December: Stephen Ross announces that Mike McDaniel’s job is probably safe, then sails off into the Caribbean on his private aircraft carrier. McDaniel tosses Tua Tagovailoa into the Everglades and promotes a barista to starting quarterback.

Weeks 15-18: Zzzzzzzzzzz

Early January: McDaniel fired. Surprise!

Coaching Situation

General manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley arrive from Green Bay to provide the Dolphins with a new sense of professionalism and normalcy.

Let’s scroll through Dolphins history and look for parallels … ah, here we go. Joe Philbin arrived from Green Bay to provide the Dolphins with a new sense of professionalism and normalcy in 2011. That ended with an all-offensive lineman off-Broadway production of Lord of the Flies.

Then again, Jeff Ireland was the GM back then, and he liked to ask prospects at the combine if their mothers were prostitutes. Sullivan worked in Wisconsin for decades. He’s gotta be polite, if nothing else.

Hafley promoted Bobby Slowik to offensive coordinator and hired passing-game coordinator … Kevin Patullo????

Seriously? The guy who broke Jalen Hurts AND the guy who started breaking C.J. Stroud? Just bench or trade Tua, Coach! There’s no reason to send him tumbling into madness! HE HAS SUFFERED ENOUGH.

Quarterback Situation

Tua Tagovailoa has a cap figure of $56 million and the trade-in value of a 1974 Ford Pinto. Any trade suitor would be forced to eat Tua’s $39 million base salary. Tua wants out almost as much as the new regime wants him out, so he could be coaxed by some other team into renegotiating.

Quinn Ewers was McDaniel’s end-of-year fidget spinner. If you can imagine “weaker tea Tua,” Ewers is it. The 2026 opening-day starting quarterback is not currently on the roster.

State of the Roster

The Dolphins released Tyreek Hill, who has an obliterated left knee, not to mention a relatively fresh set of domestic violence allegations. Oh, and he’s a pain-in-the-ass who turns 32 in March.

Jaylen Waddle, De’Von Achane and center Aaron Brewer are the Dolphins’ best players; Brewer was flanked by two of the NFL’s worst guards in 2025 (Cole Strange and Jonah Savaiinaea), so his impact was limited.

The defense is overburdened with middling veterans who were just effective enough to battle the Saints, Jets and Marcus Mariota-led Commanders to a stalemate in 2025. Minkah Fitzpatrick is the best of the bunch, followed by the likes of Bradley Chubb (who is about to be released, per reports) and Jordyn Brooks. Rasul Douglas was one of the best players on this defense. ‘Nuff said.

Cap and Draft Stuff

On paper, the Dolphins are $16 million over the cap. Cutting Tyreek will clear away between $23 million and $35 million of that debt, depending on how they do it. Trading (NOT cutting) Tua can free up additional space. There’s fat to be trimmed elsewhere, like ever-injured right tackle Austin Jackson. The Dolphins should be able to do some shopping in free agency, but they have an awful lot to shop for.

The Dolphins pick 11th, 43rd, 75th, 87th and 91st in the first three rounds of the 2026 draft. They acquired one extra third-round pick in a draft day trade with the Texans and a second from the Eagles in exchange for Jaelan Philips.

One Thing the Dolphins Should Do

Purge.

Tyreek has already been released. Chubb appears to be gone too. Cut bait on Jackson, who misses a dozen games per year. Trade Tua for a conditional seventh-rounder if that’s the best offer. The Dolphins need a physical and spiritual overhaul. No sense in doing it by half-measures.

In Summary

Any change is good change for a franchise that spent the last year-and-a-half goofing off on the clock. Sullivan and Hafley appear to be reasonable down-the-middle hires, even if their choices of offensive coaches are suspect.

The 2026 season will be an exercise in demolition and salvage. The on-paper roster is about to get much worse, not better. If the Dolphins look like a blank slate with a bundle of extra picks come draft weekend, that’s progress.

Poor Dolphins fans, unlike Jets fans, don’t even have a March of free-spending madness and extra first-round picks to look forward to. At least Dolphins fans have fond memories of the peak McDaniel-Tua-Tyreek era. You will always have September of 2023, folks!