Newly minted Miami Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan has found his No. 2.
The Dolphins will hire Atlanta Falcons assistant GM Kyle Smith for the same role. First reported by the NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Smith has a reputation as a “respected evaluator.”
This comes a little more than 24 hours after the Dolphins introduced Sullivan and Jeff Hafley as their new GM-coach tandem.
Smith arrives in South Florida following five seasons with the Falcons. Initially hired as the vice president of player personnel in 2021, Smith was named the assistant GM prior to the start of the 2023 season.
The son of former Chargers general manager A.J. Smith, Kyle started his career with the team now known as the Washington Commanders. Smith began as an intern before eventually becoming an area scout, a role that he held for six years. He subsequently was promoted to director of college scouting before being named the team’s vice president of player personnel in 2020.
With Sullivan and Smith in the front office and Hafley’s staff beginning to come together, it’s officially a new day in Miami Gardens.
“The pillars will be a draft and develop philosophy,” Sullivan said of his team-building strategy. “I’ve already spoken on that in previous interviews, but we will draft, develop and retain our own. There are things that come with that; No. 1 is culture. When you raise your own, people are vested, they’re bought in. There’s a financial component to it with rookie contracts, it keeps you in a healthy cap situation. But the most important thing is the culture piece of it.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2026 at 6:27 PM.
C. Isaiah Smalls II
Miami Herald
C. Isaiah Smalls II is a sports and culture writer who covers the Miami Dolphins. In his previous capacity at the Miami Herald, he was the race and culture reporter who created The 44 Percent, a newsletter dedicated to the Black men who voted to incorporate the city of Miami. A graduate of both Morehouse College and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Smalls previously worked for ESPN’s Andscape.
