Can Sully Find His First Runway – Musings From The Combine
The first day of the NFL’s Scouting Combine didn’t provide any concrete answers to the fate of the Miami Dolphins moving forward, but there were plenty of breadcrumbs in the interviews and media availability conducted by new GM Jon-Eric Sullivan and new HC Jeff Hafley.
The pair were quizzed on an array of topics, from what they look for in players to the state of the quarterback room, and from their podium appearances to their 20 minutes on the Rich Eisen Show. There were four main takeaways for me.
1) As much as Sullivan was at pains to repeat to Eisen that all options – including being on the roster in 2026 – were on the table, it was clear that the end of days is nigh for Tua Tagovailoa. The Dolphins GM all but took the pre-June 1st cut off the docket for ninety-nine million reasons. Yet despite the report by CBS insider Jonathan Jones that whilst Miami would love for someone to give them draft compensation and take part of Tagovailoa’s contract, that is an “extremely unlikely scenario,” Sullivan added this: “I think whenever you’re talking about a quarterback who’s accomplished some good things in the National Football League who’s played at a high level, there’s always going to be interest. But there is interest.”
However, Jones added that releasing Tua with a post-June 1 designation is “the option nearly everyone in the league anticipates”. And he’s probably not wrong. Why trade away a pick for a guy who you know a team is going to cut, given the internecine issue of cost?
But what I thought was fascinating was that at the end of the conversation about Miami’s incumbent passer with Eisen, Sullivan said this: “I know Tua thinks he can still play at a high level and I hope that he has the opportunity to do that, one way or another.”
To all intents and purposes, that signals, if further signals were needed, that the 5th overall pick in 2020 will not be a Miami Dolphin next season.
2) The second thing was the fairly honest admission from Sullivan that they were looking at Malik Willis. I mean, they obviously are. But it’s not often a GM comes out and is that honest. “Any team in a quarterback-needy situation that tells you they’re not talking about Malik Willis, that would be a lie,” he said from the podium. And why wouldn’t they? Willis has the upside to develop into a top ten quarterback based on his performances for the Packers, especially last season, where nothing was off the table in terms of how he ran the offense, and the only plays that were different from the scheme Jordan Love ran were the addition of RPO’s that allowed the former Liberty passer to hunt explosives with his legs.
However, I did get the sense from Sullivan’s tone that Miami might be on the outside looking in when free agency starts. Arizona, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and even Minnesota will be in a stronger financial position, and all will know that they can poison-pill the Dolphins simply by bidding slightly higher and pushing the QB out of their range. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the team that won so many free agency Super Bowls missed out when they needed it most because they didn’t have the cap space? Of course, there’s a long way to go, and interest in Willis remains high inside the meeting rooms at the Baptist Health Training Complex. But you could imagine a scenario where, having been priced out of the market, Sullivan puts himself in a position to be as competitive as is humanly possible in 2026, whilst understanding that the long game points to 2027 and the March for Arch.
Points 3) and 4) are pretty much the same thing, but they relate to what was said by the new Dolphins leadership in the middle of that interview. When asked by Eisen about the offensive identity of a Jeff Hafley team, the head coach said this: “I think it all starts with running the football. We’ve got to be able to run the football.”
A minute or so later, he then said: “We’ve gotta build this team inside out.”
That to me sort of confirms what I said above about being as competitive as possible, but knowing that the bucket has way too many leaks to fill this year. Sullivan had already talked about laying the foundations for the future with Hafley, citing how he saw Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch working together in the very early days in San Francisco and how they went 0-9 before turning it all around.
Thus, to the point about running the ball and building the team inside out, don’t be at all surprised if the Dolphins opt for arguably the best overall offensive lineman in the draft in Penn State LG Vega Ioane, a plug and play starter from day one who’s consistent in pass pro and a monster in the run game, with more than enough zone looks for him to be a fit. Whilst Miami is desperate to fill needs at edge rusher, I just don’t see Reuben Bain, Arvell Reese, or David Bailey being on the board at 11, and you’d have a hard time believing the latter fits Hafley’s need to be able to switch between odd and even fronts using the same personnel groupings.
Plenty will happen on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium over the next five days, but a lot will also happen in its corridors as it pertains to how the Dolphins will look in 2026, as conversations with other teams and representatives of upcoming free agents take place.
