As per usghe with the Dolphins fanbase, there is never a 100% approval rating for any move this franchise makes. I know Rock just hates this move, and I bristled at it as well. I’m not going to kill Sully and Haf before they even get started, but let’s all be honest about something here. These 2 guys came here preaching “competition” at every position, including QB. THERE WILL BE NO QB COMPETITION. Malik Willis will be the 24th Miami Dolphins QB since Dan Marino retired back in 1999. Sully and Haf just handed Malik Willis the reins to the team and it won’t matter if Quinn Ewers throws a TD on every pass in practice and Preseason games, Malik Willis is the starting QB . I genuinely have a problem with that. Competition is healthy, and the fact that so many times in our history we provided no competition at the QB position, it’s a reason we failed. With Tua, we took it to the insane extreme of not only not having competition, but handing him a franchise QB contract before he deserved it, we didn’t even let him compete for himself by playing him on his 5th year contract.
Well, now that Malik Willis is the QB, we just signed a couple of weapons for him. WR Tutu Atwell comes over from the Rams and we re-signed one of our TE’s from last season, TE Greg Dulcich. We’ve also re-signed RT Austin Jackson, and apparently, the ugly VOID YEARS of contracts continue. It’s like getting a new credit card to pay off current credit card debt. Fantastic, I wonder if Chris Grier left behind his “Handbook to Create Cap Hell in the NFL”. In just one week so many things happened. Tua signed with Atlanta so now he’s their problem. We signed Malik Willis and now he’s our problem, or hero, we’ll see which one. We re-signed LB Willie Gay, K Riley Patterson, and oddly enough, also signed K Zane Gonzales. Apparently, K is one place where we truly need competition. We signed a pass rusher OLB Joshua Uche (Ooh-shay) from the Eagles. We re-signed DT Matthew Butler. We signed a three CB’s that puts us at 43 for now, just kidding, I think it’s 13. We’ll be cutting CB’s in groups once training camp starts.
I know it sounds like I’m hating, I’m not, but I just wonder if Ross wanted a new toy at QB and pushed Sully and Haf to bring in Willis. As all of you here know, I wanted to go forward cheaply at QB, draft a QB in this draft and actually have a QB competition, between Ewers and the draftee, and an inexpensive veteran QB. Being cheap at the QB position got blown out of the water and so did the competition as well. Shame. Hopefully Malik is ready to be a starter, but $45M guaranteed for the next 3 years is far from cheap. Take into account that our roster was not going to be chock full of top talent due to the cap issues we face, we’re not exactly sliding Malik Willis into a favorable situation. We probably need 2 OL (Again!) because Grier got us a defective one in James (3 snaps) Daniels and drafted a defective one in Jonah (2 picks) Savaiinaea. We cut Daniels, so the age old question of how many snaps does it take to get rid of your huge free agent acquisition for the O-line is, a one, a two a *crunch*, a three!. Three! Malik Willis might be running alright, running for his life if we can’t find 2 competent OG’s and RT Austin Jackson can’t stay healthy.
Sully and Haf just absolutely better be stellar in this upcoming 2026 NFL Draft. We know we need 2 OG’s, we need CB’s, despite the fact that we have an army of them already. We need a safety now that MFFF made his 2nd departure, this time to the rival NY Jets, who BTW gave him a 3 YR/$40M deal. NY showing the Joisey native some love! Chubb signed with the Bills so we most definitely need pass rushers. That’s a lot of needs in one draft, and I don’t expect to adequately address all of them. This cap mess we’re in will linger for a while, so excellent drafting is in order. Sully gives us our best chance in the last 20 some odd years to be successful at drafting now that Chris Grier has left the building. Talk about pressure, we just spent $67M that we don’t have on a QB while still having 2 gaping holes on the O-line. Sully and Haf have their work cut out for them, I hope they’re up to the task!
GO DOLPHINS!!!
Finsmob Unleashed 
Foist
Good article Mike!
I don’t think I would pout too much over this one.
11. David Bailey EDGE Texas Tech
43. Chris Bell WR Louisville
75. Gennings Dunker OG Iowa
87. Malik Muhammad CB Texas
90. Jake Slaughter OC Florida
115. Bud Clark S TCU
151. Sam Roush TE Stanford
154. Michael Taaffe S Texas
227. Cole Payton QB North Dakota State
238. George Gumbs Jr.EDGE Florida
Yeah, me either. I haven’t taken Slaughter in a mock yet, but he is a stud and could also play OG.
Tradey Pants got carried away here!!! But I think I would still take it!
40. Emmanuel McNeil-Warren S Toledo
56. Sam Hecht OC Kansas State
57. Gennings Dunker OG Iowa
75. Oscar Delp TE Georgia
87. Drew Shelton OT Penn State
111. Kage Casey OG Boise State
129. LT Overton EDGE Alabama
2027 ATL 2nd
2027 CHI 2nd
2027 KC 2nd
2027 ATL 3rd
2027 CHI 3rd
2027 LAC 3rd
2027 JAX 4th
2027 LAC 5th
The more I look at this the more I like it. LOL
Still took 7 players at positions of need, but also DOUBLED the draft next year with 6 additional picks in the top 100
I didn’t see anyone mention the tutu atwell signing
I think it’s a pretty good signing
I think our WR room is going to be a little chaotic. Lot of guys trying to prove themselves. Throw him in the mix
I like the signing. He hasn’t had a stellar career but he’s an NFL WR who can make big plays. He’s played both on the outside and in the slot, and he will beat defenses with his speed.
It was mentioned yesterday evening and I even posted his video last night
Thanks MikeE!
Actually, I think the Austin Jackson resigning was a good move. He was already on the books for 9.5m in 2027 dead cap from void years Grier made.
JES reduced his cap hit by 9m this year and only increased his 2027 dead cap by about 3m to 12.8m. He did this by getting him to take a 4.5m pay cut then converted another 1.5m into a per game roster bonus where he has to be healthy and available to get that money. The other 3m was pushed to dead cap in 2027.
IMO, that is nothing close to a Grier deal. He actually saved 4.5m and possibly more if Jackson gets injured and misses some games.
I don’t want to hear VOID years in any further contracts. I hate dead cap money more than anything. Let’s stop the nonsense. Right now we’re grouped with perennial NFL failures Jets, Saints and Browns with most dead cap in ’26. In ’27 we’re still top 10, which is better than #3. I want to be on the other half of that equation by 2028. What’s worse is so much of our dead cap hits are on players that aren’t even on the team.
Dolphins sign OG Jamaree Salyer formerly of the LA Chargers. He’s had 40 NFL starts
Nice
Also signed S Zayne Anderson formerly of the Green Bay Packers
Yeah, posted him yesterday. He was a top ST ace for GB.
I don’t want to hear VOID years in any further contracts.
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I hear you. I don’t think anyone has bitched more about future dead money than you, Rock and myself.
Especially because of the way it is handled when the player leaves!! These numbsculls “spread money out” that isn’t really spread. It all accelerates into the current year when the player leaves.
EVERY SINGLE ONE HAS DONE SO
Yep
Nobody like my restocking of 2027’s draft? LOL
I liked it. lol
I kind of did the same last night but with only 3 future picks. My 3rd trade down I went from #23 to #28 for just 2 future picks and no 2026 picks. lol
Rock – If our GM doesn’t trade up in this draft I’ll feel like we got 3 extra picks in the 2027 NFL Draft. lol
For some reason, I feel a trade down from #11 then trading back up from #43 for one of the RT’s in Blake Miller or Iheanachor.
Just to get a rough idea of what it will take to trade up in the range to get RT Miller or Iheanachor.
I traded down from 11 for 17, 50 and 157 and took Safety Thieneman.
I then traded 43 and 75 to move up for pick 30 and a 2027 5th and took RT Blake Miller.
I tried pick 43 and 87 for pick 30 and it was declined.