Let's say this up front: the Dolphins don't have to find their long-term answer at quarterback in 2026. They can push their quarterback search into the 2027 season if there aren't any good options this year. And so far there aren't any good options. I don't favor signing Green Bay's Malik Willis to a three- or four-year free-agent contract that gives him, say, $20 million or more a year (likely more). Willis only has six starts in four years. He's unproven.
The thinking is two-fold. You can't have too much talent at most of those positions, and you don't have nearly enough talent at any of those positions. The Dolphins had a decent, although not necessarily strong 2025 draft class despite the fact all seven draftees got playing time last season, and five made at least one start. None of those rookies seems on a path toward stardom or even a Pro Bowl.
The Dolphins are weak at three of the most crucial positions in football - quarterback, edge rusher and cornerback. Where do they start building? We don't have any idea. This is the fun of watching the Dolphins' new regime of general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley. This is the excitement of team construction. Usually the offseason frustrates me. It's basically an extended period of yapping. There's no football, so nothing gets settled for months.
The Dolphins, under the guidance of new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and new coach Jeff Hafley, have eight picks in the April 23-25 draft - one in the first round (No. 11), one in the second (43), three in the third (75, 87 and 90), one in the fourth (111), one in the fifth (149) and one in the seventh (227).
Washington, 41, has been the defensive line coach at Notre Dame the past four seasons and was switching this year to coach linebackers. He has also been the Fighting Irish's defensive run game coordinator. A defensive tackle in his playing days at Boston College, Washington was linebackers coach at Ohio State from 2019 through 2021 and at Michigan in 2018. He also has previous stops at Cincinnati, BC, Elon and Slippery Rock.
MOBILE, Ala. - Georgia Tech guard Keylan Rutledge can't be missed during Senior Bowl practices. He's the mauler, the beast, the one pounding his opponents into dust. And he's attracted the interest of the Dolphins, a team wanting to get better in the trenches. On Tuesday, Rutledge (6-foot-3, 316 pounds), projected as a mid-round pick, had a few impressive displays of physicality and aggression - including one against SMU's Jeffrey M'Ba, and one against Texas A&M's Scooby Williams. He drove them both to the ground.
"We're going to invest in that position every year if we can," Sullivan said during his introductory news conference. "Now depending on where we are as a football team, it'll be at different values, but we will draft quarterbacks every year, if not every other year because I think you have to. "If you hit on a guy, great. And if not - if you hit on two, you have trade value."
The Miami Dolphins don't yet have their defensive coordinator in place, but a position coach who was under new coach Jeff Hafley in Green Bay will now be joining the staff. The Dolphins are hiring Ryan Downard as defensive backs coach, according to a league source Monday night.
That process will be expedited, according to Hafley, as he made some outside interview rounds Friday. "I think we'll see in the next day or two who the coordinator is," Hafley said on the Rich Eisen Show on Friday. "We're just kind of piecing that together and then, hopefully by the weekend, we'll have all three coordinators in. I feel like we're close. I'll call the defense, but I'll still have a defensive coordinator."
If I was Miami Dolphins new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan or new coach Jeff Hafley, I wouldn't sign Green Bay Packers backup quarterback Malik Willis to a multi-year free agent contract to be Miami's starter. We'll find out in a matter of weeks what Sullivan, the former Green Bay vice president of player personnel, and Hafley, the former Packers defensive coordinator, think of the athletic, 26-year-old Willis, who is eligible to become a free agent.
Hafley must deal with this organization's mental game before the physical game. Hopefully that's what the new hires at general manager and head coach acknowledge. Hafley, the former Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator, is believed to be here because of his relationship with new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan. The two worked together in Green Bay for the past two seasons when Sullivan was vice president of player personnel.
Incidentally, Brady's Bills offense just faced Campanile's Jacksonville defense in a playoff game Sunday. Brady, an alumnus of Everglades High in Miramar, has held that role with the Bills full-time for the past two seasons, building off his success when he took over the job in the interim upon the firing of Ken Dorsey, former Miami Hurricanes national championship-winning quarterback, during the 2023 season.
