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Chris Grier Finally Admits The Dolphins Are Doing A Reset

Originally posted on Dolphins Talk | By Ryan VanHoover | Last updated Aug 30, 2025 10:47 AM ET

Chris Grier Finally Admits The Dolphins Are Doing A Reset

Well, Miami Dolphins general manager Chris Grier told everyone at his press conference the other day something all of us fans knew, but the team denied all offseason. The Dolphins are resetting the roster. I don’t know what took Grier so long to admit this to everyone, or why nobody else acknowledged it before, because it was obvious.

The Dolphins were over the salary cap going into the offseason, and they weren’t as active in free agency. They also had 10 picks going into the NFL draft, and the Dolphins didn’t engage in extensive contract restructuring with players to create more cap space, but instead would push money into future years.

Grier started the full rebuild in 2019 and built this team through the draft from 2019 to 2021. Then, when Mike McDaniel became head coach in 2022, he made some more aggressive moves to try to get this team a championship. He traded premium picks to acquire Tyreek Hill, Bradley Chubb, and Jalen Ramsey, complementing some of their young core players. However, the Dolphins failed, and even though they made the playoffs in 2022 and 2023, they couldn’t win one playoff game.

Last year, the team fell apart due to injuries, had older players on their roster, and their cap situation was deteriorating, ultimately leading to the team’s collapse. Additionally, the Dolphins lost some of their core players who started the rebuild, including Christian Wilkins, Robert Hunt, and others, in free agency due to the top trades for Hill, Chubb, and Ramsey. The Dolphins gave them new contracts, and that left them little money to resign those players. Plus, the Dolphins gave quarterback Tua Tagovailoa a new big contract as well.

The Dolphins had their chance at being a contender. Their best shot was in 2023, when they were they had the AFC East all but won and were there for the number 1 seed in the AFC playoffs. However, the Dolphins choked it all away in the final month and let a 3-game lead slip away, losing it to the hated Buffalo Bills.

The Dolphins got embarrassed in the wild-card round to the eventual Super Bowl Champion, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the season ended in a bitterly disappointing way.

Now the Dolphins are back into a reset mode. It doesn’t necessarily mean the Dolphins are going to be bad, but there are fewer expectations for this team. Nobody is expecting much from this team. In fact, some people are predicting the Dolphins to finish last in the AFC East and might win only five games.

I don’t think the Dolphins will be that bad, but I also don’t want to see them average again. If they are going to be bad this year, then it will be a full-blown rebuild, and the team will go through another regime change.

The fact is, McDaniel and Grier are both considered to be on the hot seat, but it appears to me that McDaniel’s seat is hotter than Grier’s. Think about it for a GM on the hot seat, he’s not making moves like a guy whose job is on the line.

He knows this team needed a reset and is going that way rather than trying to go for it to save his job. It makes me think that he is safer than McDaniel. Ross must have a longer leash to allow him to potentially go through another rebuild after failing the first one.

Grier was right that every team goes through a reset mode because of the salary cap. Teams experience a talent drain every few years because it’s impossible to retain all their players. Grier’s decision to rebuild this team through the draft was the right move, and his aggressive moves and trading of premium picks in 2022 and 2023 helped replenish the talent lost due to a lack of picks.

This will likely make the Dolphins better in the future, albeit at the expense of going through some growing pains this year, as it’s primarily about developing the new core.

This article first appeared on Dolphins Talk and was syndicated with permission.

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