Offseason camps and preseason preparation are underway across the NFL, and like many teams, the Miami Dolphins are working as much as they can for the upcoming season. With Miami being in a rebuilding state, training camp is even more essential for the team to find cohesion and develop going into their 2026 season. So, what are some of the most intriguing stories to watch for during the Miami Dolphins’ training camp?
Miami Dolphins Training Camp Storylines to Watch
Can Malik Willis Continue his Upward Trajectory?
This will be Willis’s first time in his career where he is expected to start for a team, but he has shown great strides in recent years in his smaller sample size. In three starts during his two years in Green Bay, Willis produced 972 passing yards, a 78.7 completion percentage, 261 rushing yards, and nine total touchdowns. His most recent start in a loss versus the Baltimore Ravens showed the elite dual-threat potential that teams were excited over when he first came into the league in 2023. The Miami Dolphins are banking on Willis fulfilling that potential.
Even after signing a three-year deal with Miami, Willis still has to play well early into his contract, since, considering the Dolphins’ current expectations entering training camp, Miami will most likely be selecting early in the 2027 NFL draft, which seems to be full of really good quarterback prospects. Willis will have to continue his evolution into a full-time starter quarterback so the Dolphins can trust building around him for this new regime.
How Long Does Jaylen Wright Remain a Dolphin?
With De’von Achane re-signing with Miami and now second-year running back Ollie Gordon still having three more years under contract, that leaves third-year running back Jaylen Wright in a strange position. Whenever he’s played, he has shown flashes of being a starting-caliber running back. He just happens to be in a running back room with a top-10 running back in the NFL and a solid power running complement to that running back. With teams like the Green Bay Packers needing a running back in the wake of the Josh Jacobs domestic violence case, Wright could net the Dolphins decent draft capital that they would certainly appreciate.
Granted, a trade isn’t as much of a formality as it could’ve been. Miami opted not to select a running back in the NFL draft but did sign Texas A&M’s Le’Veon Moss to an undrafted rookie deal. Moss was a relatively decent running back prospect who fell out of the draft due to injury concerns. Having Moss on the roster would have heavily suggested a Wright trade. Instead, Moss retired from football due to his nagging leg injuries, so there is still space for Wright to remain with the Miami Dolphins. With that happening and De’von Achane tending to sustain minor injuries, Wright’s future is still up in the air for the 2026 season.
Who Breaks out of the Wide Receiver Pack?
The Miami Dolphins currently have 12 receivers on the roster: eight are new to the team, and of the returning four, Malik Washington is the only one to have appeared in more than six games last season. Theo Wease and Tahj Washington got some snaps late in the 2025 season when injuries depleted Miami’s receiver room. A.J. Henning was a practice squad holdover, thereby making Washington effectively the sole returning face in this receiving room. He has just as many question marks as the rest of the receiving room. At the moment, the Miami Dolphins can make a case for having the weakest position group in the entire NFL. Still, there is some cause for optimism.
Free agent signing Jalen Tolbert was a decent contributor for the Dallas Cowboys in recent years and can project as an outside receiver. At the same time, there are also free agent signings that fit into situational spots. Former Los Angeles Ram Tutu Atwell is an undersized deep threat who constantly got lost in the shuffle in a loaded receiver room. Miami also brought in two former top-50 draft picks in Terrace Marshall Jr. and Jalen Reagor. Both have since become cast-offs and training camp bodies, but maybe some time in the South Beach sun can help them revitalize some of the talent that had them touted highly coming into the NFL.
However, there is a more important group of newcomers to the Miami Dolphins receiver room. The team used a lot of draft capital to add to the receiver room with third-round picks Chris Bell and Caleb Douglas, and fifth-round pick Kevin Coleman Jr. In fact, each rookie projects to different receiver roles: Bell as a physical X receiver, Douglas as a height- and speed-oriented Z receiver, and Coleman Jr. as a reliable slot receiver. If all goes well, this group could develop, but as it stands, training camp will be the test to see who sets themselves apart, and that’s not even mentioning the primary concern with Bell.
When Will Chris Bell be 100%?
The most obvious candidate to cement himself as the future ace of the Miami Dolphins’ receiver room is the third-round pick, Bell. Despite being the 17th receiver taken and the second taken by the Dolphins, the talent of the former Louisville Cardinal could have put him in first-round discussions if everything had gone his way in 2025. Unfortunately, Bell tore his ACL late in the season against SMU, had to skip the workout portions of the NFL draft process, and will most likely miss a decent amount of training camp.
With the Dolphins not expecting to compete, there’s no pressure for Bell to return right away this season, which would give him ample time to recover and even sit out this year as a pseudo-medical redshirt. Still, if Bell were to get healthy and show flashes of a future physical X receiver this season, it would go a long way towards fixing Miami’s receiver woes. We’ll see just how much time he gets during training camp and at what threshold.
Optimistic Offensive Line
After years of the Miami Dolphins struggling to give former quarterback Tua Tagovailoa an adequate offensive line, both the old and new regimes have invested heavily in their offensive front five. The most important development in the short term is star center Aaron Brewer re-signing with the team on June 10. Brewer won second-team All-Pro honors last season and looks to continue to anchor the offensive line. He will be flanked to his left by one of the largest guard-tackle combos in the league in third-year blindside blocker Patrick Paul and first-round rookie Kadyn Proctor. While both have questions regarding sustaining good play, both should provide a decently stout left side.
Then there’s the right side of the line. Second-year guard Jonah Savaiinaea was one of the least productive linemen in the NFL last season, thanks to being thrown into the fire while he was unprepared for the NFL level. Hopefully, a season under his belt and moving him back to his native right side will help Savaiinaea’s development.
The last member of the lineup is Austin Jackson, who has shown to be perfectly fine as an NFL tackle. His main concern is that he has struggled to stay healthy, which is most likely a big reason why he doesn’t have a contract going into 2027. If he’s healthy, he should hold down the fort at right tackle for the season.
Overall, the offensive line group seems to still need some time in the oven and potentially one or two pieces to truly become a stout unit, but the skeleton of a good offensive line is starting to take shape. If Paul, Proctor, and Savaiinaea have good 2026 seasons, all of whom are under 25, the Miami Dolphins could have four of the five starting offensive line positions secured for the near future.
Chop Robinson as EDGE1
There are plenty of holes on the Miami Dolphins roster right now, and defensive end is certainly one of the biggest. With Jaelen Phillips being traded midway through the 2025 season and Bradley Chubb being cut earlier this offseason, that leaves third-year edge rusher Chop Robinson as the projected number-one EDGE for the 2026-2027 season. The former Penn State Nittany Lion came on strong towards the end of his rookie year but had a massive sophomore slump last year, finishing the year with 18 total tackles, four sacks, and, most notably, just 14 QB hurries on 241 pass-rushing snaps: a far cry from the 42 he had in his rookie campaign.
With Phillips and Chubb gone, Robinson is now expected to take on a massive increase in workload as the Miami Dolphins’ primary pass rusher. This means that Robinson needs to take a giant leap in his development if he wants to remain in the future plans for Miami. Miami will have the option in one year to accept or decline his fifth-year option, and with a potential extension slowly creeping up for both parties, it’s time for Robinson to show that he can be a consistently productive pass rusher in South Beach.
The rest of the edge rusher room is both a blessing and a curse for Robinson. On one hand, the group is not ranked highly across the league, as it consists of Robinson, free agent signing Josh Uche as the projected number-two edge rusher, and David Ojabo, Trey Moore, and Max Llewellyn as edge-rushing depth, the latter two being rookies taken outside the top 100 of the draft. This means that Robinson won’t have much help in terms of taking some of the attention off of him.
On the other hand, this also means that it’s fairly unlikely that Robinson won’t be the number-one edge rusher come the season’s start, so he’ll have plenty of leeway while settling into the role. With Miami in rebuild mode, Robinson developing into a starting-caliber edge for the Miami Dolphins would be a big boon for a defense in need of more difference-makers.
Crowded Linebacker Room
The linebacker room is by far the best position group on the Miami Dolphins defense, and right up there with the running back group as the best on the team. This group will be the heart and soul of the Miami defense going forward, so training camp will be extra important to see how the new additions to the core complement the already established veterans.
Jordyn Brooks Contract Talks
Last year’s first-team All-Pro linebacker, Jordyn Brooks, is the last main impending 2027 free agent after the De’Von Achane and Aaron Brewer signings. Similar to Brewer, Brooks is about to enter his 30s after a breakout 2026, so the question is whether Miami will ship Brooks off for future draft capital or build the defense around him and keep him on the team into his 30s.
Both sides are compelling, especially since Miami spent two draft selections on touted linebackers who fell in the draft, so if they think highly of both Jacob Rodriguez and Kyle Louis, Brooks becomes more expendable, and with teams in need of great linebackers, the Fins could net some good capital for the vet. Still, it’s not like Brooks being on the field prevents either Rodriguez or Louis from playing alongside him. Head coach Jeff Hafley played a bunch of 4-3 defenses when he was the defensive coordinator in Green Bay, so Miami could very easily play all three linebackers during games, which would make this position group extremely interesting when ranked among others in the NFL.
Where Will Kyle Louis Play?
One of the primary pieces of this solid linebacker room is rookie fourth-round pick Kyle Louis. Louis was incredibly productive across the board for the Pitt Panthers in 2024 and 2025 and is very athletically gifted to tack on to that. However, at a listed 6’0″ and 220 lbs, Louis finds himself at a tweener size between linebacker and safety. He could certainly play both, and you should expect him to play both during the season, particularly during Miami Dolphins training camp, to see where he sticks better.
Placing him as the weakside linebacker alongside Jordyn Brooks and Jacob Rodriguez could create a top-five linebacker unit for the foreseeable future (if Miami can re-sign Brooks), but putting him at safety would also plug a massive defensive hole on the team. With Tyrel Dodson and Willie Gay Jr. both right behind him in the linebacker room, I wouldn’t be surprised to see multiple four-linebacker packages with Louis back in coverage.
Secondary Woes
The secondary for Miami last season was rough. Losing Jalen Ramsey and a whole assortment of injuries to other cornerbacks really destroyed the overall team, and the coverage concerns really took away from a defensive unit that was actually starting to turn a corner towards the end of 2025 as a physical, run-stuffing unit. Like the receivers, the cornerback and safety room is in the running as one of the worst in the NFL, and even if the cards fall their way, there is still work to do for the Miami Dolphins to field a decent secondary.
It seems like rookie first-round pick Chris Johnson will be the top cornerback of the Dolphins entering training camp. Johnson certainly has the potential to be a shutdown zone cornerback, but there will be a learning curve in his jump from the Mountain West to the NFL. Considering the reports of his success in minicamp, Johnson seems to be adapting to the high play level well. Given the lack of proven talent at the corner position, Johnson will probably play on the boundary, but he’ll probably also get reps in the slot.
After Johnson, Juju Brents is most likely the best returning cornerback on the team when healthy. The issue has been said to be health-related. He’s only played 18 games in his three-year career and just nine in the last two seasons, but when he is healthy, he’s a solid cornerback with some much-needed size at the position. The rest of the cornerback room for the Miami Dolphins consists of Storm Duck and free-agent signings Darrell Baker Jr., Marco Wilson, and Alex Austin. None of these players is particularly exciting from the outset, so training camp will be a good place to see just who sets themselves apart and earns regular-season snaps.
The safety room is just as concerning. Losing Minkah Fitzpatrick, Ashtyn Davis, and Ifeatu Melifonwu means that this group needed to be built from the ground up by general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley. Second-year safety Dante Trader Jr. is the lone holdover, and that will mean a big bump in his responsibilities. He showed flashes last season, but consistency issues relegated him to a rotational safety. Beyond him, there’s fifth-round rookie Michael Taaffe and free agent signings Lonnie Johnson Jr. and Zayne Anderson, all of whom are mostly unproven in the NFL. This summer will be the proving ground for the entire secondary to earn in-game reps.
Zane or Riley?
Obviously, a kicker battle isn’t the most important thing in the world, but special teams can often be the difference between a euphoric victory and an agonizing defeat. The Miami Dolphins were familiar with both of these feelings last season, with the incumbent starting kicker, Riley Patterson, making a walk-off field goal to beat the Washington Commanders in Madrid. A few weeks before that, the shoe was on the other foot, as Miami lost on a walk-off field goal by the Los Angeles Chargers’ Cameron Dicker. So while this position battle is low on the priority list, either Patterson or free agent signing Zane Gonzalez will be put in high-leverage positions that will define games.
How Will the New Miami Dolphins Regime Build the Team Up?
Finally, we reach the overarching story. Miami has a first-time GM and head coach going into a season with a team that has loads of questions that need to be answered for them to succeed in a rebuild. Not all of them need to be answered right away, but the goal for this team when they blew up the old core and regime was to escape the mediocrity that the Miami Dolphins have been perpetually stuck in for basically the past 25 years.
This year will have growing pains, but in order for this team to succeed, Jon-Eric Sullivan and Jeff Hafley need to show that they’re able to steer this rebuild in the right direction, and year one of camp will go a long way to determine the initial start of the climb back.
