As is tradition, the Miami Dolphins<\/a> find themselves in a very familiar position in the 2026 NFL Draft: right smack dab in the lower middle with a bunch of picks. The team lived within the 10-18 range seemingly every year in the Chris Grier era, but perhaps the absence of the former longtime GM is the cause of cautious optimism for Fins fans heading into the NFL Draft. A new regime and a clean slate will most likely come with growing pains for the Dolphins, but a successful 2026 Draft can help point this team in the right direction and back into the playoff picture.<\/span><\/p>\n Last year\u2019s Miami Dolphins were a disaster from top to bottom. A gruesome season-ending injury to Tyreek Hill in week 3 was the start. Massive regression from quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and the team as a whole led to the worst-case scenario for the team coming into the season. The team fired GM Chris Grier midseason, and head coach Mike McDaniel was coaching for his job in the latter half of the season. Because of this, the team couldn\u2019t even lose properly, winning 5 of their last 8 to finish the season 7-10. This landed them back to where they always find themselves: as a team that won\u2019t make noise in the playoffs but is always just good enough not to have a premium draft pick.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The team cleared house after the season and will embark on its first true rebuild since the famous \u201cTank for Tua\u201d season in 2019. Tagovailoa himself was one of the primary pieces the Dolphins dealt away in the offseason, alongside the aforementioned Mike McDaniel and Chris Grier. In their place comes a trio of former Green Bay Packers<\/a>: former backup turned projected starting quarterback Malik Willis, head coach Jeff Hafley, and general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The team also cut defensive end Bradley Chubb, Tyreek Hill, as well as other locker room veterans, fullback Alec Ingold, and kicker Jason Sanders. Most recently, the Miami Dolphins traded away Jaylen Waddle to the Denver Broncos<\/a> for their first-round pick and a late-round pick swap, as well as dealing away Minkah Fitzpatrick to the New York Jets<\/a>. This is certainly going to be a massive adjustment for the team: what was once the envy of the league offensively is now a shell of itself, with only star running back De’Von Achane remaining, who Sullivan has already labeled as untouchable.<\/span><\/p>\n Overall, yes, this has been a successful first free agency for Sullivan and Hafley. On the surface, the team cut or traded most of its top players away in the span of one month, but the team that Chris Grier built had the worst possible problem: stagnation. The team was going nowhere with how it was constructed, and that showed this season and even last season as well. Blowing it up, especially with Hill and Tua\u2019s contracts, was necessary to build the team up. The depth was what the team struggled with the most, and building the team up with backups and fringe starters was clearly the idea from GM Jon-Eric Sullivan<\/span><\/p>\n Given the massive dead cap hit for the team, taking up 52% of available salary (the highest percentage of dead cap for a team ever), this free agency centered around Malik Willis<\/a>, who was a perfect pickup for this team at quarterback. There was obviously a Packer connection between coach, GM, and player, but Willis showed very solid flashes in Green Bay to warrant at least a starting shot for the team. Only the first 2 of 3 years are guaranteed, so if the team struggles mightily in 2026 or 2027, the team can opt to draft Willis\u2019 successor with few cap penalties. In his time in Green Bay, he showed promise and incredible progression from his days with the Tennessee Titans, so who knows? If Sam Darnold can revive his career the way that he has, maybe Willis ends up being the quarterback of the future for the Fins.<\/span><\/p>\n Due to cap restrictions for the Dolphins, free agency was fairly quiet for the team outside of Willis, with the team opting to plug holes within their barren bench unit<\/a>. Wide receivers Jalen Tolbert and serious threat Tutu Atwell (who actually grew up in Miami) won\u2019t set the world on fire, but both were solid depth receivers for their former teams. Speaking of hometown players, Josh Uche, who notably had 11.5 sacks for New England in 2022, and cornerback Marco Wilson both look to aid a dismal defensive unit. The overall theme for the offseason was getting depth pieces looking to fight for a starting spot<\/a>. It was very much a low-risk free agency with a chance at a solid reward if everything lines up. However, the team still lacks a true impact player outside of De’Von Achane, which is what the team needs to find in this draft.<\/span><\/p>\n While 11th is never the best place to pick for a team, the current state of the board and the Dolphins team actually lends itself to a pretty solid first pick for the team. Many of the best players on the board are at a position of need for the Dolphins (considering almost every position for the Fins is a need, perhaps that isn\u2019t too surprising). Obviously, Heisman-winning quarterback and hometown product Fernando Mendoza from Indiana (Boiler up) is off the table, as he is all but guaranteed to be a Raider, but the rest of the board is still relatively up in the air.<\/span><\/p>\n The Dolphins could opt to go receiver with Ohio State\u2019s Carnell Tate if he falls, USC product Makai Lemon, or even the boom-or-bust Arizona State prospect Jordan Tyson. Cornerbacks LSU\u2019s Manoor Delane and Tennessee\u2019s Jermod McCoy, or even do-it-all Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, could also be an option at 11 to add a potential playmaker in the secondary. And of course, you can never go wrong with the trenches offensively or defensively, with Utah\u2019s Spencer Fano and Miami\u2019s own Francis Mauigoa on the offensive side of the ball and pass rushers David Bailey, Rueben Bain Jr. (another hometown player), and Arvel Reese on the defensive side of the ball. The Dolphins can\u2019t really go wrong at pick 11 in this draft in terms of adding a potential difference-maker to start this rebuild off on a high note.<\/span><\/p>\n If Jon-Eric Sullivan and company have a specific player in mind that they think won\u2019t fall to 11, the Dolphins do have a solid amount of draft capital at their disposal to potentially trade up. Alternatively, the team can use the extra first-round pick afforded to them, as well as their 5 other top 100 picks, to bolster the team with quality players and maybe even find a diamond in the rough, which was one of the biggest issues the previous regime had when it came to roster construction. The draft does have a solid amount of depth at the cornerback and wide receiver positions, and given the state of the Dolphins’ roster, it wouldn\u2019t be too surprising for them to double-dip on these positions at some point in the draft.<\/span><\/p>\n While the outlook for this rebuild is optimistic, with the building blocks already being put in place, those pieces are still question marks. Jon-Eric Sullivan and Jeff Hafley have the daunting task of righting a ship that has been rudderless for far too long. The current moves already done are promising, but like any rebuild, the NFL Draft will play a pivotal role in whether this team will finally break through into the upper echelon of the AFC or remain stuck in mediocre purgatory.<\/span><\/p>\n Main Image: Hal Habib \/ The Palm Beach Post \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Miami Dolphins’ 2026 Draft Could Jumpstart a New Era for the Team As is tradition, the Miami Dolphins find themselves in a very familiar position in the 2026 NFL Draft: right smack dab in the lower middle with a bunch of picks. The team lived within the 10-18 range seemingly every year in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4847,"featured_media":273570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1647,4,6431],"tags":[33533,33894,32353,8559,7777],"class_list":["post-273358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","category-dolphins","category-nfl-teams","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-carnell-tate","tag-jeff-hafley","tag-malik-willis","tag-miami-dolphins-news"],"modified_by":"Mike Roberts","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4847"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273358"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273575,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273358\/revisions\/273575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A Rebuilding Offseason<\/b><\/h2>\n
Successful Free Agency Period?<\/b><\/h2>\n
Building up the Bench<\/b><\/h2>\n
Draft Day Decisions<\/strong><\/h2>\n
After Pick 11<\/h2>\n
How will it all shape out?<\/strong><\/h2>\n