There are two obvious ways to rebuild any sports team.
The first way is to do it is gradually, over a number of seasons — ostensibly, this allows you to stay competitive while pruning parts of the roster that need help while ridding yourself of overpaid and underperforming players.
The second way is to blow the whole damned thing up from the studs in one season, make it clear that you will not be competitive for a while, and just take your medicine all at once.
We all know which path the 2026 Miami
Dolphins have chosen.
With a dead cap bounce of nearly $180 million for this league year, and the contractual jettisoning of Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill, Jalen Ramsey, Jaylen Waddle, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Bradley Chubb, and Terron Armstead among others, the Dolphins are making it abundantly clear that the mistakes of past administrations are obvious to all, and it’s time to start from scratch.
While this leaves the current team with quite possibly the least impressive roster in the NFL, it does give the new regime, led by general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley, some leeway when it comes to short-term success. The only major addition the Dolphins made this offseason was the three-year, $67.5 million contract with $45 million guaranteed given to quarterback Malik Willis. Willis should be fine in Bobby Sowik’s offense, because as a Kyle Shanahan acolyte, Slowik relies more on the offensive line than the quarterback when it comes to calling protections.
The new Dolphins also had what looks like a really good draft, with eight picks who could all be significant contributors in their rookie seasons. That’s partially due to talent and scheme fit, and partially because *waves hands everywhere* opportunity rises up everywhere in nuclear rebuilds like this.
So, which hidden gems need to step up in all this deconstruction to re-construct? We have three names who could exceed expectations, because there ain’t nowhere to go but up.
Underrated veteran: OT Patrick Paul
One interesting thing about the new Dolphins is that there is no longer a left-handed starting quarterback on the roster as Tagovailoa was, which flips to a point the responsibilities for left and right tackles. Third-year left tackle Patrick Paul will be protecting Willis’ blind side as opposed to Tua’s front side, which Paul did pretty well for a guy playing on that side of the line on a full-time basis for the first time since 2023, his final season with the Houston Cougars before Miami took him with the 55th overall pick in the second round of the 2024 draft.
Paul had just 248 left tackle snaps in his rookie year as opposed to 975 last season, and he acquitted himself quite well for the most part, which proved to be a continuation of his attributes as a draft prospect.
In 2025, Paul allowed four sacks, two quarterback hits, and 19 quarterback hurries in 578 pass-blocking reps, and he also proved to be an asset as a run-blocker. Like a lot of young tackles, Paul will get beaten from time to time when he’s late in his pass sets and he can’t catch up laterally to either side of his body (inside counters have been a specific problem), but the jumps in technique last season were impressive enough, and continued improvement combined with his athletic potential could have Paul on a Pro Bowl track sooner than later.
Combine that with the fact that Miami has the also-underrated Aaron Brewer at center, and first-round pick Kadyn Proctor kicking inside to left guard (Note: All 2,408 of Proctor’s Alabama snaps had him playing left tackle, but he has a pretty good guard profile, and he’s insanely athletic for his size), and it could well be that the left side of the Dolphins’ offensive line could be the prime agent around which you can rebuild the rest of the thing.
Underrated free agent: WR Jalen Tolbert
After sending Tyreek Hill away at the start of the league year, and trading Jaylen Waddle to the Denver Broncos on March 18, the Dolphins’ receiver corps is now led by…
Led by…
Led by…
Well, “led” is doing a lot of work when your primary guys are Malik Washington, Tutu Atwell, Terrace Marshall Jr., Caleb Douglas, Chris Bell, Kevin Coleman Jr., Jalen Reagor, and Theo Wease Jr.
With all due respect, woof.
The one receiver who could elevate himself above the fray is Jalen Tolbert, the fifth-year receiver out of South Alabama whom the Dallas Cowboys selected in the third round of the 2022 draft. The Dolphins signed Tolbert to a one-year, veteran minimum deal at $1.402,500 with $1.262,500 guaranteed. The money tells you that the Dolphins aren’t expecting too much out of Tolbert, but if they can get what the Cowboys got out of him in 2024, when he caught 49 passes on 79 targets for 610 yards and seven touchdowns, that would be ideal. 2024 marked the third straight season in which Tolbert saw statistical upticks, so the thought was that he would keep ascending.
That breakout 2025 did not happen. The Cowboys traded for Pittsburgh Steelers receiver George Pickens in May, and Pickens was going to take most of the targets CeeDee Lamb didn’t. Tolbert’s output decreased correspondingly — 18 catches on 34 targets for 203 yards and a touchdown — and it was time to find another home.
Tolbert may have been a No. 2 or No. 3 receiver on other rosters, but who’s to say he can’t elevate beyond that in a place where, to be honest, the bar is VERY low?
“Obviously, all we ever can ask for is opportunity, and so I knew that I had a greater chance at cracking that here,” Tolbert said after his signing. “I know what I’m capable of, I know what I can do. Obviously I just came from a squad [where] we were pretty stacked on the offensive side of the ball, so it was hard trying to get all the touches that you work for and you want. Just the opportunity to get back to that, and get back to the guy that I was coming out of South Alabama, that was one of my main priorities as I was looking into free agency.
“I felt like this was the best opportunity, and I’m excited about it.”
Underrated draft pick: LB/DB Kyle Louis
Especially on defense, the Dolphins’ roster as is gives starting opportunities to just about any draft pick, and the new shot-callers got some good prospects on that side of the ball. I’m a big fan of Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez (got to watch tape with him in April), and San Diego State cornerback Chris Johnson was my CB2 in this class behind only LSU’s Mansoor Delane,
But I’m especially interested in how Jeff Hafley, as the de facto defensive mastermind, utilizes the unique talents of Pitt’s Kyle Louis, who the Dolphins took in the 138th overall pick in the fourth round. Every team is now looking for its own do-it-all “safetybacker” if they don’t already have that guy, and the Dolphins actually took two swings at this in the fourth round — they also selected Texas’ Trey Moore 130th overall — but Louis’ tape just had me in its thrall from Day 1.
Last season, the 6’0, 220-pound Louis had three sacks, 18 total pressures, 60 solo tackles, 30 stops, seven tackles for loss, one forced fumble, and in coverage, he allowed 47 catches on 60 targets for 429 yards, 391 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, two interceptions, three pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 99.2. As the metrics would indicate, Louis probably isn’t a guy you want dropping into the deep third to take away seam routes, but he can do everything you want from the box to the slot to the line of scrimmage.
Hafley, who used Javon Bullard as a box/slot enforcer last season when he was the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator, would have an easy transition with Louis’ help. One thing’s for sure — as Hafley remarked at the end of the draft, his defensive players had better get used to showing their versatility.
“It excites me,” Hafley said. “I think anytime you can draft a player who can do multiple things, it’s our job as coaches to have a vision for him and figure out where to play him or play him in multiple spots. What’s the down-and-distance? What’s he going to do on early downs? Is he going to be a stacked ‘backer on early downs? Is he going to be a sub rusher on second-and-7-plus, third down? Is he a guy that can line up as a spinner and pick guards and rush?
“The great part about our conversations is if you find a really good football player, and I mean smart guy, tough guy, a productive player that jumps out on tape, I think it’s our job as coaches to have a vision for him. Then, I think it’s our job schematically to figure out how to make it work for him.” That’s fun for me and these are really good players that mixed in with the players that we have, now it’s our job to go to work and go through the OTAs and go through training camp and by preseason, we’ll see what we can do with them.”
Well, Hafley now has a serious Swiss Army knife to add to that philosophy.
