Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan completes first full reno of Dolphins Roster

If you will allow me some leeway here, I want to try and change your perspective. Not only was this GM Jon Eric-Sullivan’s first NFL Draft experience, but it’s very important to remember that he was drafting to try and replace nearly half the roster. Chris Grier, our former GM left this team in an awful state. The most obvious issue to anyone from the outside was the cap situation, we came into the season over the cap. Before undertaking his, or really their, because Sully and Haf are really the synergistic duo who are in charge of the team. Together, they just purged the roster of a bunch of high price salaried players that let’s face it, didn’t have what it takes to get it done here. QB Tua Tagovailoa, WR Jaylen Waddle, EDGE Bradley Chubb, WR Tyreek Hill, OL Liam Eichenberg, OL James Daniels, WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, FB Alec Ingold, and K Jason Sanders. If you loved any of these players, forgive me, but they were part of the problem here. They’re part of the reason this team has been considered “soft”, and why this team could never really contend during the Grier/McDaniel. All the shiny stars in the world weren’t going to win here in Miami with the weak type of mindset of Grier/McDaniel, routinely rewarding players with salary bumps and contract extensions during a period where we made the playoffs twice and were out and out embarrassed looking like we didn’t belong on the field with the other team. Those days are OVER!!!!

We all need to realize the tremendous undertaking it was for Sully and Haf, knowing this team in tremendously disadvantageous cap situation. There will be no big spending to help fill the roster and better the roster once Free Agency begins and teams start cutting veteran players. I’m not saying we won’t make any moves, but we simply don’t have any space to make big purchase. Sullivan realized he had to fill the roster through the draft and UDFA’s, and we made 13 selections in the 2026 NFL Draft. Some of you hated at least half of them, and maybe national talking heads did too, but none of that matters. I explained yesterday that Sully and Haf may have changed the entire culture here in just one draft. The guys selected are “their guys”, and it was quite clear to me that Sully and Haf wanted physical players that want to get at it. These guys will run through a wall for HC Jeff Hafley and for their teammates. Do you not see the contrast to what we had here before? “Me” guys, not team players. There will be no “You get to pick the music for today’s practice Jaylen because you had a very good practice today!” I could vomit just thinking of that. Good practices will now be expected from every player and will be rewarded by playing better in the games and remaining on the roster.

Despite taking players that weren’t high on many boards, throughout the draft we Sully took physical players, because he wants this team to be a bigger, more physically imposing team. Our new OL Kadyn Proctor sure enough is big at 6’7 352. CB Chris Johnson isn’t really big, but he’s a “dog” and big enough at 6’0 193. LB Jacob Rodriguez who’s selection was blessed by none other than former Texas Tech LB and Hall of Fame LB Zach Thomas tells you all you need to know. This guy forced the most fumbles in the history of college football with 12, and had 7 FF’s last season. The WR’s we picked are also “dogs”, physical guys that are either difficult to bring down after the catch and aggressive making contested catches.The TE we drafted Will Kacmarek is hands down the best blocking TE in the draft. One guy who probably can’t wait to see these guys is RB De’Von Achane because Proctor and Kacmarek mean more yards for him! We drafted LB Kyle Louis who will be a chess piece. Undersized as a LB, Louis has very good cover skills and excellent athleticism and will be used like a LB/S hybrid.

We took our first EDGE rusher in RD 4 taking yet another player from Texas, Trey Moore. Not sure how much he can help this season, but the draft is never only about one season. That’s even more clear with the selection of WR Chris Bell in RD 3, who is coming off a late 2025 ACL tear. He will probably start the season on IR, and who knows, may finish on it too, but when healthy, Bell was a potential 1st RD pick.Bell is a big, thick WR at 6’2 222. He’s a tough receiver thats willing to fight for the ball and extra yards as well after the catch. IN RD 5 the Dolphins took, whaddaya know, another Texas player in S Michael Taffe. An undersized S with solid ball skills with 7 INT’s in his 5 year career and apparently he is QB Quinn Ewers best friend. We took a TE, a receiving TE in RD 5 Seydou Traore who is an international player, but a developing player at the TE position. We finally took another OL in RD 6, OG DJ Campbell from none other than Texas. We finished off the draft with another EDGE rusher Max Llewellyn. Here’s our entire draft haul . . .

RD 1 #12 OT Kadyn Proctor 6’7 352 – Alabama

RD 1 #27 CB Chris Johnson 6’0 193 – San Diego State

RD 2 #43 LB Jacob Rodriguez 6’1 238 – Texas Tech

RD 3 #75 WR Caleb Douglas 6’3 206 – Texas Tech

RD 3 #87 TE Will Kacmarek 6’5 261 – Ohio State

RD 3 #94 WR Chris Bell 6’2 222 – Louisville

RD 4 #130 EDGE Trey Moore 6’2 243 – Texas

RD 4 #138 LB Kyle Louis 6’0 220 – Pittsburgh

RD 5 #158 S Michael Taaffe 6’0 190 – Texas

RD 5 #177 WR Kevin Coleman 5’10 179 – Missouri

RD 5 #180 TE Seydou Traore 6’3 233 – Mississippi State

RD 6 #200 DJ Campbell 6’3 313 – Texas

RD 7 #238 EDGE Max Llewellyn 6’6 258 – Iowa

So, 13 players in all, quite a haul. Once again my friends, culture change, and lord knows we need that so badly here. I think it’s the thing I hated most about this team was their inability to ever step up in a crunch moment. There are always exceptions on a big 53 man roster, and believe you me, ILB Jordyn Brooks, who is a “DOG”, will love playing next to Jacob Rodriguez, also a “dog” and fellow Red Raider. How many times did we hear from former Dolphins player how soft our team was? How many times did we witness how soft this team was, and that was partially HC Mike McDaniel, and certainly the players like Tua who never met a big moment he didn’t melt in, Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle. None of those guys showed up big in big moments when it was needed.

I’m so looking forward to “seeing” the culture change, not hearing about. I can’t wait to see these guys in action. I’m not expecting to compete for a divisional crown this year but I expect this team to win at least half a dozen games or more this season. To me, that would be impressive after the extensive purge we went through. I want to observe a more physical team, we’ll know it when see it, and I think we’;re going to see it a lot. We’re going to see what big collection of “dogs” can do and how infectious it is to the entire team. Can’t wait to see it!

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510 Responses to Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan completes first full reno of Dolphins Roster

  1. Randy's avatar Randy says:

    MikeE,

    Settle down now. I was just curious what BBM’s thoughts were. A rumble didn’t start outta nowhere, and nobody killed anybody with a trident! Anybody get the reference? Another movie I enjoy.

  2. Rockphin's avatar Rockphin says:

    I keep reading all these articles and fan posts about how our cap is going to be much better after June 1st. Every single one references Bradley Chubb but do not mention Tua.
    Wasn’t Tua a post June 1 cut also? We could not afford to suck up the 99M all at once right?

    Are we not going to achieve any caps savings for Tua this year?

    Never mind. I just looked it up. We get back about 10-11M for Tua and about 20M for Chubb.

    • steveccnv's avatar steveccnv says:

      I’m now dumber, if possible🤣, for having read part of that article, stopped at some national consensus big board

  3. Rockphin's avatar Rockphin says:

    I must admit that having 680 lbs left of center is going to open some pretty big lanes for our running backs. Now bring that nasty 260lb TE in motion from the right side to blow up whoever thinks they are going to stop the 680 lb road graders and I see a lot of runs to the left this season

  4. Tim Knight's avatar Tim Knight says:

    We’ll see what the plan is at RT if Jackson goes down. They may go with Heck and keep Proctor at LG. It depends on what they think is the best 5.

    • The Flying Pig's avatar The Flying Pig says:

      we also have a 6th round pick in addition to Jonah and Salyer

    • The Flying Pig's avatar The Flying Pig says:

      I would probably move Proctor out to RT and let when of the other OGs man the LG spot

    • steveccnv's avatar steveccnv says:

      Crabbs talked about this scenario today, he said, short term Salyer and long term Jackson injury Proctor was his guess

      I agree, don’t mess up the continuity for a couple of games, but long term you need to move the more talented at a premium position

  5. Brian in NY's avatar Brian in NY says:

    Has anyone been following the Vrabel/Russini story? Apparently she named her first son Mike and now people are speculating it may be his. Wild shit

  6. sb7mvp's avatar sb7mvp says:

    Obviously as fans we don’t have the insight that coaches and staff have when it comes to these players, but most of the time the tape doesn’t lie. You can see nasty and sheer will on tape. You can see work ethic and hustle. You can see who has talent that wastes it and you can see guys who are weak minded. Can people change? Yes, but it’s less likely than if they are already that guy and just need to hone their skill set as they become a professional.

    My biggest problem with the Proctor pick, other than what I’ve mentioned before is drafting a 20 year old that we have to coach up again with our first overall pick this year. There were several ready to go options at this point. Downs, Bain, Ioane, and several others.

    When I look at Caleb Douglas I don’t see a tough player. He goes down pretty much with the first contact. His YAC is in the middle of the pack and only if he’s able to beat someone down field. He’s got speed and size for sure. I know he’s a long strider, but there are times he looks like he’s running in quicksand. It’s also a pick where Gennings Dunker and Pregnon were on the board.

    There’s a lot of concerns for these two picks compared to the other guys we grabbed. I don’t sweat guys taken in round four and after. Those are when you’re trying to grab guys with upside. I feel like your first three rounds should be finding greatness or solid career starters. We definitely could have done more to address the o-line and have it set for the next 5 years IMO.

    I hope both of these players do well. That should go without saying. They are worrisome picks though. There’s no need to pretend otherwise.

    • steveccnv's avatar steveccnv says:

      there’s certain some concern with both

      I looked at Proctor highlights and analysis and decided it would be best to pass, less risky picks was where I thought we were going and agreed

      Douglas other than size and speed and some bad qualities I don’t get it

      Proctor has lots of qualities/intangibles they must’ve thought were too great to pass on, we did get Keven Colemen and the second TE who some are very high on, that needs to be accounted for as well

  7. mf13ss's avatar mf13ss says:

    I’m truly confounded as to why we’d start Proctor on the left-side of the O-Line, when his future seems to be on the right-side of the O-Line.

    At least that answers my question regarding who will man the LG spot with our multitude of right-side experience.

    I presume we’re going to move Big Jonah back to the right-side… was that explicitly stated, though? I dunno… anybody?

  8. mf13ss's avatar mf13ss says:

    @dallascowboys

    WR George Pickens signed the franchise tender.

  9. steveccnv's avatar steveccnv says:

    the Waddle trade rewards, if duplicated every year would give us potentially the most talent in the league forever, that’s how I know it was a good trade

    Just think, instead of signing Tua to that ridiculous contract we had traded him for similar Waddle comp, and did the same with Tyreek the same year, and with Chubb, the cupboards would be full now with plenty of cap space

  10. Rockphin's avatar Rockphin says:

    Steve it’s a nice dream, but reality of the bad contracts and restructures they gave tied their hands in most of those cases with our cap, Fuck we broke the record this season with what 190M in dead cap? Earlier in those careers we would have had to eat more.

    • steveccnv's avatar steveccnv says:

      its not a dream, Cheats did it for years, instead of giving each of them more money you trade them

      you know you’re not re-signing Wilkins, trade him after 4 years, the new team gets his 5th yr and friendly cap the first year of a new contract

      • Rockphin's avatar Rockphin says:

        Yes, that’s the key you pointed out. BEFORE giving them more money while they still have 3 years on their current contract they would let that salary problem be some other teams.

  11. Rockphin's avatar Rockphin says:

    we ave 14 corners on the roster right now. Some of these guys are gone before the next OTA. to get to 90

    • mf13ss's avatar mf13ss says:

      Absolutely, and it’s a good problem to have with 14 CBs. Let the cream rise to the top and take it from there.

  12. mf13ss's avatar mf13ss says:

    Anybody else find it somewhat interesting that it was Green Bay who took DDS?

  13. mf13ss's avatar mf13ss says:

    https://ras.football/ras-information/?PlayerID=29916&ovl=Combine

    At 6’3″ and 206 pounds, shouldn’t there have been a flag raised with a mere 31.5″ VJ? I mean… that’s HORRIFICALLY BAD for a WR.

    Think about it… at 352 pounds, Kadyn Proctor had VJ of 32.5″.

    Again, I’m NOT crapping on Caleb Douglas as a player or person, and I’m rooting for him… but really? Not sure what Sully was thinking here.

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