How the Dolphins went from flashy to no-frills in just three months
In a short span, Miami transformed from a team of stars to a roster and staff emphasizing the basics. Here's how.
NFLMiami DolphinsMalik Willis
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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- For four years, under then-coach Mike McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier, the Miami Dolphins were a reflection of the city's reputation -- flashy, star-driven, expensive.
Their players were household names, even their coach wore designer clothes and jewelry.
There were highs: scoring 70 points against the Broncos in 2023, erasing a three-touchdown deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Ravens in 2022, making the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in more than 20 years.
Like the city they represent, the Dolphins teemed with star talent -- but with those stars came star-sized egos, which led to accountability issues within the locker room, consecutive losing seasons, and ultimately led to this offseason's complete teardown.
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Over the past three months, Miami, under new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley, has undergone an extensive identity change. Gone now are nearly all players who defined the previous four seasons of Dolphins football. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, wide receiver Tyreek Hill and linebacker Bradley Chubb were all released, while safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and wide receiver Jaylen Waddle were traded. In their place lies an incomplete roster and an unprecedented $179 million of dead salary cap money.
Outside expectations for the Dolphins in 2026 are low. DraftKings set their win total to 4.5 and Miami is one of five teams that weren't scheduled a primetime game this season. The Dolphins own the longest playoff win drought in major American professional sports at 26 years. That streak is unlikely to end this season, but that's not what this offseason is about.
Right now, this team is a construction zone -- one still waiting for its foundation.
"You start from ground zero and you've got to build things up," tight end Greg Dulcich said, before citing the youth and hunger of the players currently on the roster.
"I think everyone's kind of checked their ego at the door... this offseason is a time to grow together and just learn as much as you can and really just kind of be a sponge for football and for technique."
The Dolphins added 13 players in April's draft, the first layer of the new foundation Sullivan referenced. Thanks to a series of one-year agreements in free agency, Miami now employs a plethora of players who Sullivan says have a chip on their shoulders.
But chips don't always lead to Super Bowls. Team owner Stephen Ross was patient with his previous front office; a front office source told ESPN that there was interest in the Dolphins' general manager job in part because of former GM Chris Grier's 10-year tenure with the team despite never winning a playoff game. But Ross has made it clear his ultimate goal is to bring a championship to a city that hasn't celebrated one since winning back-to-back titles in 1972 and 1973, and has shown a willingness to make changes if he doesn't see steps toward that goal.
Since Ross bought the team in 2008, no head coach has lasted more than four seasons in the role.
If Miami's new groundwork doesn't breed results, players may not want to spend their prime on a team stuck at the bottom. Speaking Wednesday on former Dolphins teammate Terron Armstead's podcast, "The Set," running back De'Von Achane said Miami's goals remain the same as they've always been.
"Everybody keeps talking about this rebuild year -- I ain't got time for that," Achane, who signed a four-year, $64 million extension earlier this month, said. "I'm not trying to hear no 'we rebuilding for two years,' I'm not trying to do that.
"Most definitely I want to win the division, we've got to win a playoff game. I'm not saying we've got to win a championship but we're trying to get those things first. We haven't done either of those things since I've been here."
Rebuilding the Dolphins will be methodical, but Sullivan has stuck to his plan so far, starting with getting the team younger and cheaper before fortifying the physical run game and replenishing its young core.
All while echoing Achane's sentiments, fighting the notion that this is a rebuild to begin with.
"So understand all the R words -- retool, rebuild, refocus -- I don't like that," Sullivan said. "I think that gives the connotation of, 'hey, look, we're mailing it in this year.' That's 100% not what's going on. We're here to compete and play our ass off and try to win football games as we build this thing out.
"That's the culture we want to be. We want people that embrace that underdog mentality."
The Dolphins have undergone a ton of change in a short amount of time. AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell SULLIVAN SAYS HE'S not trying to build "Green Bay south" in Miami. But after spending 21 years with the Packers, there are some characteristics he'd like to emulate.
"I think in terms of player acquisition principles and philosophy... what [Green Bay has] always done is build through the draft and again, it's about culture," he said. "[The Dolphins are] going to build through the draft. We're going to retain our own players, if at all possible, because of the culture piece of it."
The Dolphins underwent a rapid rebuild when McDaniel arrived in 2022, trading for and extending stars such as Hill, Chubb and Jalen Ramsey. They also supplemented their roster in free agency with players such as Armstead, a former Pro Bowl tackle, linebacker Jordyn Brooks and center Aaron Brewer.
Once the job began, Sullivan started shedding the team's bigger contracts -- starting with Hill, Tagovailoa and Chubb.
Those moves were expected; trading Waddle was more of a surprise.
Sullivan said at the NFL league meetings in March that the Denver Broncos approached him around the start of the new league year. He said trading Waddle for a first-round pick made sense for the Dolphins' timeline to compete.
"Waddle is 27 years old. We're in an era where the market for receivers is through the roof," he said in March. "And eventually, the chickens are going to come to roost with that. And so when we hit our stride, I'm not sure that all meshed the way that we needed to mesh -- we're in a position with our roster where we need to get younger and cheaper."
Miami also started working toward reestablishing the "draft, develop, re-sign" model Sullivan said he wants to maintain, signing Achane to a lucrative extension. The former third-round pick made his first Pro Bowl in 2025, rushing for a career-high 1,350 yards and eight touchdowns while leading the league in yards per carry (5.7). He also caught 67 passes (sixth among running backs) for 488 yards and four touchdowns.
Sullivan said in March the team will also attempt to work out extensions with Brewer and Brooks, who both made All-Pro teams last season, and hopes the Achane deal reverberates through the Dolphins' locker room.
"I think it sends a good message when you have a player who is here on his first contract and has produced and had success, to reward that player with a second contract," Hafley said. "I know that's important to [Sullivan] and I."
Jon-Eric Sullivan has had a busy offseason as the new Dolphins GM. Al Diaz/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images ON MAY 19, shortly after their second OTA practice, the Dolphins' new starting quarterback squeezed between a crowd of reporters and an ivy-covered fence just outside the team's practice field.
As he settled behind a white high-top table that doubled as his lectern for his second news conference since signing a three-year contract in March, Malik Willis was asked how spring practice in Miami compared to Green Bay.
He smiled.
"I think it's a weather issue, I think it's a little different," he said, referencing Miami's late-spring heat. "I think the football is similar."
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Entering this offseason, the former Packers quarterback seemed like a potential fit considering the crossover with Sullivan and Hafley, but the Dolphins' roster was thin. Ideally, Sullivan said he wanted to build the team's support system first before spending valuable cap space, or a high draft pick, on a quarterback. He also said they wouldn't be big spenders in free agency this year, mostly because they couldn't afford to be.
But Miami was able to trade Fitzpatrick before the start of the league's legal tampering period, clearing enough space to sign Willis to a back-loaded, three-year, $67.5 million deal.
"There's a lot of great reasons to be here," Willis said. "[Hafley and Sullivan] are the biggest ones, in my opinion, as far as what I see this organization and this team becoming. I can't see the future, but all I know is they're going to put in the work each and every day just as well as I will try to do the same.
"Whatever role, whatever leadership, whatever it is, they brought me in as a piece of the puzzle that they want to put here, and I'm grateful and honored to be a part of that."
Dolphins staff members, including Sullivan and Hafley, have said the team plans to build around Willis and signed him to a three-year contract for that very reason. The former third-round pick's numbers popped in limited action with the Packers, completing 78.7% of his passes for 972 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions in 11 games (three starts). He also added 261 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.
Beyond Willis' deal, Sullivan stayed true to his word; no other player signed longer than a one-year contract with the Dolphins this offseason.
Miami's free agent signees included veteran journeymen and once-starters, like Josh Uche, Jalen Tolbert and Jamaree Salyer. Hafley admitted that there isn't a clear veteran leader among every position group; in those situations, he's looking to his staff and even second-year players like safety Dante Trader Jr. to lean into leadership roles.
Ultimately, he believes the lack of an obvious leader doesn't mean one doesn't exist.
"I've been in too many places where a coach comes in and says, 'We don't have any leaders around here,'" he said. "I think that's a bunch of B.S., right? You can develop leaders, you can teach leadership."
Hafley said acts of leadership can include hosting teammates for dinner and even pulling them aside privately to offer constructive advice. Whichever leaders emerge will have to help inspire this team to play greater than the sum of their parts; there are no All-Pros saving the day on either side of the ball.
But that doesn't mean there won't be, eventually.
"Really, it's about what people in the building think," defensive line coach Austin Clark said. "And I think ultimately as a coach, you got to develop guys and that's what I'm trying to do and I know that's what Jeff [Hafley] wants to do. We need to develop these players we have and I think ultimately that one day they'll turn into those guys that somebody deems stars."
With two former Packers in charge, Malik Willis always seemed like a perfect fit in Miami. Peter Joneleit/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images IN HIS INTRODUCTORY news conference, Sullivan said the Dolphins plan to draft, develop and re-sign their homegrown talent; the first step in doing so came in April's NFL draft.
The morning of Sullivan's first draft as the Miami Dolphins' general manager was serene; he didn't expect that.
He made his way to the Dolphins' facility well ahead of the 8 p.m. start time, met with team staff and found time for a workout -- which he said helped clear his head.
Then, he said, there was an "eerie calm" in the facility, which is a far cry from how he felt the week before the draft.
