Has any team had a more chaotic start to the 2026 NFL season than the Miami Dolphins? After a disastrous 2025 season, which saw him lose the starting job to seventh-round rookie Quinn Ewers, Tua Tagovailoa has been released, bringing a $99.2 million dead cap hit that will linger like a poltergeist for years to come. Tyreek Hill has also departed after an ACL injury ended his Miami tenure prematurely, while Jaylen Waddle’s departure for Denver at least brought with it plenty of compensation – first, third, and fourth round picks to be exact.
The clear-out was sorely needed after a dire couple of years on South Beach, but now the entire Super Bowl window—the one that was supposed to open after Tua’s spectacular league-leading campaign back in 2023—has well and truly been slammed shut overnight. And don’t just take our word for it; take that of the betting sites. The popular Bovada live betting platform currently lists the Dolphins as a +25000 outsider to lift the Lombardi at SoFi Stadium on Valentine’s Day next year. To put that into perspective, only the Arizona Cardinals are considered less likely.
New head coach Jeff Hafley has handed his former Packers backup, Malik Willis, the keys to the kingdom, but that kingdom now requires reinforcements, and it needs to find them despite its gaping $99.2 million hole. So, who could plug the gaps left by the mass exodus of superstars? Let’s take a look.
Wide Receiver
The WR room hasn’t thinned out. It’s been nuked. Hill’s gone. Waddle’s gone. What remains wouldn’t start on half the rosters in college football. Can Miami actually rebuild around Willis without a legitimate WR1? Because right now, he’s throwing to ghosts.
Jauan Jennings is the top-ranked remaining free agent at receiver. That sentence should make every Fins fan feel something close to grief. He’s a fine player—physical, contested-catch, and volume-friendly. But Jennings as your WR1 in a post-Hill, post-Waddle offense is like replacing a Michelin-star chef with your acceptable run-of-the-mill local diner chef. You survive. You don’t thrive.
31-year-old Stefon Diggs is still unsigned. The route-running is still elite despite his advancing years, and he has just led the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl alongside the sensational Drake Maye. Should he not whet the Dolphins’ front office’s appetite, then they will have to turn their attention to the draft.
At Pick 11, Carnell Tate from Ohio State is the hope play—6-foot-3, wins all three levels, a complete receiver prospect who earns that selection on talent alone. Should he have already been selected, then the consensus WR2 Jordyn Tyson should still be available. To put it bluntly, one of these two simply must arrive in Miami in Round 1.
Cornerback
The secondary has also been gutted. Jack Jones, Rasul Douglas, and Kader Kohou—the entire functional corner room walking, crawling, and stumbling out the door simultaneously. Miami’s current cornerbacks couldn’t cover a prom date in a gym, let alone Ja’Marr Chase running a deep crosser in November. GM Chris Grier is sweating the CB1 premium while Sean Payton laughs in Denver with his shiny new receiver.
Trevon Diggs is the boom-or-bust gamble of this entire offseason—11 interceptions in 2021, a man-coverage maestro at his best, and a concussion history that turns every contract negotiation into medical roulette. Spotrac projects $7.5M AAV. At that price, you take the risk. You have to. Marshon Lattimore’s injury ledger makes him radioactive as anything but a depth piece. The franchise simply can’t afford to enter September with this secondary intact.
Mansoor Delane out of LSU—2025 All-American, legitimate No. 1 corner prospect—changes the math entirely if he’s there at Pick 11. He won’t be available forever; the draft board fluidity around elite CB talent is notoriously treacherous in the top 15. But do you prioritize him over receivers Tate and Tyson? That’s something the front office will have to figure out.
Edge Rusher
Bradley Chubb left for Buffalo—three years, $43.5 million—and every third-and-long play in 2026 will remind Fins fans of exactly that. Jaelan Phillips traded. Matt Judon gone. Brace yourselves for league-worst pressure rates unless Grier solves this mess quickly.
Joey Bosa is ESPN’s fourth-ranked available edge rusher—and calling him injury roulette is accurate but incomplete. When he’s healthy, he’s an elite pass rusher. That qualifier, “when he’s healthy,” is doing enormous work in that sentence. Jadeveon Clowney and Cam Jordan as bridge options? Perhaps.
Arvell Reese from Ohio State—240 pounds, rare play strength, legitimate bend—is the long-term answer, but without trading up to number two on the board, drafting him will be impossible. Luckily, Miami has more chips to play with following that Waddle deal.
Offensive Line
Tua’s $99.2 million corpse caps Miami’s trench spending. Full stop. Every dollar allocated to offensive linemen is silently audited against that dead-money disaster, which means Miami can’t buy its way out of this problem.
Taylor Decker is the second-ranked available tackle, and he becomes the Willis life insurance policy. Experienced, capable, not flashy. Jawaan Taylor circles back, like a bad sequel nobody asked for but everyone needs. In the draft, Kadyn Proctor—Alabama’s 6-foot-7, 366-pound tackle—screams priority when you watch Willis’s film and imagine what happens behind a turnstile blindside in a dome in December. Spencer Fano at Pick 43 provides the interior versatility depth this offense desperately lacks.