The State of the Dolphins

The State of the Dolphins

The 2025 season is officially over, and now it is the calm before the storm of free agency and the draft. Both of which come up quicker than you expect, so I want to take a moment to breathe and think about where the Dolphins are and where they are headed.

Once again, we’re at the beginning of a new chapter. Mike McDaniel is gone, fired and headed out west to coach for the Chargers, the Tua Tagaovailoa era has likely come to an end as well. It’s disappointing that the previous configuration of the team didn’t work out, but with disappointment comes excitement for the future. 

The first order of business will be to address the quarterback position. Something that new General Manager Jon-Eric Sullivan admitted the team was already contemplating when asked about it at a fan event on Thursday night. 

“Of course, we’ll be looking at other quarterbacks in this draft, and every draft hereafter,” Sullivan said. “But, look, I’ve had — Tua was in my office the other day, if I’m being perfectly frank. We had a great conversation. Tua has been a very good player in this league. He’s done a lot of really good things for the Miami Dolphins. You guys should be proud to have him and having had him.” 

“But we’re getting close to a decision. And when we do, we’ll let Tua know whether he’s gonna be part of this or not, and we’ll move forward.” 

While his response was a tad political, leaving room for Tua to stay, I believe that his time with the team is coming to an end.

Whether the team can find a trade partner is another story. It is also likely that the team will court former Green Bay Packers backup Malik Willis, given that Miami has somewhat become Green Bay South this offseason. I expect there to be a quarterback competition between Quinn Ewers, a veteran like Willis, and a late-round flyer draft pick.

The next most important thing for the new regime to tackle is the cap situation. At the time of writing, the Dolphins are more than $23 million over the cap according to spotrack.com. Some of that can be alleviated if they do find a trade partner for Tua.

Tyreek Hill and Bradley Chubb also look to be players who could get moved this offseason. Hill is coming off a torn ACL and dislocated knee, which hampers his trade value, but he’s still someone that a team looking for a final piece to compete may go after. Chubb looked okay in his return from a torn ACL, recording 8.5 sacks, and could be a solid rotational pass-rushing piece. 

Perhaps most importantly the Dolphins will look to establish a new identity, during the McDaniel years they were a speedy team known for putting up lots of points. Until injuries took their toll and the league kind of figured out what the Dolphins liked to do.

Under new coach Jeff Hafley, I expect the team to transition to a hard-nosed defensive unit, the kind that can shut down the likes of Josh Allen and Drake Maye. As I said before, change can be exhausting especially when it comes so often to Miami, but there is an element of excitement to go along with it, and for now I’m going to try to focus on that excitement.

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