The Dolphins Follow in the Footsteps of Champions

The Dolphins Follow in the Footsteps of Champions

The New England Patriots making the Super Bowl again is an unmitigated disaster from the perspective of a Miami Dolphins fan. While we’ve waited 25 years to see a single playoff win, the Patriots built a dynasty, then a second one.

Then, after seeing their Hall of Fame Quarterback, Tom Brady, leave, and their Hall of Fame Head Coach flame out, they hit rock bottom. A rock bottom that the Dolphins have routinely flirted with over the past two decades, however, unlike Miami, they’ve been able to overcome mediocrity and rebuild themselves into a Super Bowl contender. 

The Seattle Seahawks making the Super Bowl is less of a bother to fans; there’s no real beef between the two franchises. There aren’t years of watching them succeed in the same division in which our team failed.

However, there is a commonality between the two champions of their respective conferences and the Miami Dolphins. 

That shared trait is the experience of their various general managers.

We are all well aware that the Dolphins hired Jon-Eric Sullivan from the Green Bay Packers front office. He worked with the team in various roles from 2004 to 2025, starting out as a Football operations assistant and working his way up to Vice President of player personnel before the Dolphins poached him. 

The Patriots’ general manager, Eliot Wolf, also began his career with the Packers in 2004 as a Pro personnel assistant. He then rose through the ranks, finishing his run with the Packers as the Director of Football Operations from 2016 to 2017.

Wolf then moved on to the Cleveland Browns, where he was the Assistant General Manager. Following that run, he moved on to the Patriots as a consultant before being named the Executive Vice President of Player Personnel and de facto general manager. 

The Seattle’s general manager John Schneider started his career all the way back in 1993 as a scout for the Packers before moving onto other teams and returning to the Packers as the Top personnel aide to general manager from 2002-2007, he then moved up to be the Director of football operations from 2008-2009 before becoming the Seahawks’ General manager and executive vice president from 2010-2023 and finally the General manger and president of football operations beginning in 2024. 

Despite the success of his former coworkers, there’s no guarantee that Jon-Eric Sullivan will succeed. What is guaranteed is that the Dolphins clearly felt it was wise to follow in the footsteps of teams like the Patriots and Seahawks. Given that both teams are facing off for a chance at football immortality, I’m inclined to agree that it was at the very least a calculated risk. It provides us fans with the hope that maybe one day we too could be watching our team make a Super Bowl run, or at the very least win a playoff game.

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