Miami Dolphins 2026 Season Preview

A Clean Slate for Hafley

Jeff Hafley did not build this roster and he does not own its recent slide, which is the fairest way to view a first-year hire inheriting a rating stuck near the bottom of the league. Miami's trajectory has been sinking, not steady, and a 7-10 finish followed a decline from 50% to 44%. That drop is on the previous regime's ledger, not his. Hafley does get real pieces: Jordyn Brooks led the league in tackles with 180, and De'Von Achane ran for 1,350 yards, fifth in the league. Turnover margin sat at a rough -5, which by the numbers is more likely to bounce forward than back, giving a new staff an actual tailwind heading into year one.

Achane's Yards, Somebody Else's Points

De'Von Achane ran for 1,350 yards, fifth in the league, and it barely moved the scoreboard. Miami still finished 25th in points per game and needed 14.7 yards for every point it scored, worse than league median, proof the ground game never translated into finishes. Jordyn Brooks led the league in tackles, but volume tackling didn't stop a defense that allowed 5.80 yards per play, 26th in the league. Malik Willis arrives from Green Bay to run this offense, and his 422 yards on 0 interceptions came in spot duty, not as a full-time answer. Nothing here says the conversion problem fixes itself just because a new quarterback is under center.

Tua Tagovailoa's 2,660 yards walk out the door, and Jeff Hafley inherits a quarterback room with no proven answer behind center. Malik Willis, who threw for 422 yards and 3 touchdowns without an interception in four games for the Packers, is the front-runner for the job after arriving in free agency. That is not a lock. Quinn Ewers managed just 622 yards and 3 touchdowns against 3 interceptions in his own four games, and Mark Gronowski and Cam Miller round out a group with no real separation yet. Miami's passing attack ranked 25th in the league a year ago, and whoever wins camp inherits an offense that still has to prove it can move the ball through the air.

De'Von Achane is the engine here, coming off 1,350 yards and 8 touchdowns that put him 5th in the league in rushing. That workload came in 16 games, and Miami paying him $10 million says the club sees no reason to lighten his role. Behind him the picture thins out fast. Ollie Gordon II managed 199 yards and Jaylen Wright added 288 in 9 games, but neither forced a real change of pace, and Donovan Edwards, DJ Herman and Carlos Washington Jr. carry no numbers to lean on for a snap count claim. Six backs left this offseason, including Alec Ingold's pass-catching work out of the backfield, which puts real pressure on Jeff Hafley to find a complementary piece behind Achane rather than another Achane clone.

Jaylen Waddle's 910 yards and Tyreek Hill's speed are both gone, and Miami replaced them by volume rather than star power. Jalen Tolbert arrives from Dallas after an 18-catch season, Tutu Atwell brings 192 yards on just six catches from the Rams, and Malik Washington returns as the closest thing to a proven target after his 46-catch year. That is a steep drop from a passing attack that already ranked 25th in the league in passing yards per game. Jeff Hafley did not bring in one answer, he brought in five: Tolbert, Atwell, Terrace Marshall Jr., Jalen Reagor and rookie Caleb Douglas all now compete for snaps behind Washington. Volume without a true number one is a real risk, and this room looks built to grind out yards more than to threaten deep.

Darren Waller's 6 touchdowns walked out the door, and so did the next three tight ends on the depth chart, leaving Greg Dulcich as the lone holdover with real receiving numbers. Dulcich caught 26 passes for 335 yards, modest production for an offense that finished 25th in points per game and 25th in passing yards, but he's now the clear top target at the position. Jeff Hafley's staff answered the exodus by adding four bodies at once, headlined by rookies Will Kacmarek and Seydou Traore, plus veterans Cole Turner and Ben Sims. Sims caught just 3 passes for 30 yards with the Vikings last season, so he profiles as depth rather than a fix. This is a room built on volume of additions rather than a single proven answer, and Dulcich's health and target share will decide whether that gamble pays off.

A line that surrendered 38 sacks and managed just 120 rushing yards per game a year ago got almost entirely rebuilt this offseason. Jeff Hafley inherits a group anchored, at least on paper, by Jonah Savaiinaea, Patrick Paul and Aaron Brewer, but 18 linemen from last year's operation are gone and only 8 return, so nobody should assume continuity here. The fixes came in bulk. Charlie Heck, Jamaree Salyer, Carter Warren, Gottlieb Ayedze and Caedan Wallace all arrive from other teams, and Alabama's Kadyn Proctor, drafted 12th overall and already the room's highest-paid player at $16.3M, is the long-term answer at tackle. None of that guarantees cohesion in year one. Miami is betting volume of new pieces fixes a unit that ranked outside the top ten in both rushing and yards per play, and that bet won't be settled until Proctor and the free-agent imports actually line up together.

Zach Sieler was the one consistent disruptor up front, piling up 5.5 sacks and 10 tackles for loss while the line around him allowed 132 rushing yards a game, 26th in the league. Jeff Hafley brought in reinforcements rather than a total overhaul, adding Clelin Ferrell and Robert Beal Jr. from the 49ers after both played limited snaps there in 2025. Kenneth Grant and Jordan Phillips return in the interior rotation alongside Sieler, giving the tackle spots real continuity even as Benito Jones departs. The bigger swing is on the edge, where rookies Trey Moore and Max Llewellyn arrive with no professional stat line to lean on yet. If Ferrell can rediscover the pass-rush juice he showed with 4 sacks in just 8 games, this front has a chance to push that 26th-ranked yards-per-play number in the right direction.

Jordyn Brooks led the league in tackles with 180 last year, and he anchors a linebacker room that gave up 132 rushing yards a game, 26th in the league. Tyrel Dodson brings another 127 tackles back to pair with him, so the tackling is not the concern. The pass rush is the real question after Bradley Chubb and Matthew Judon both left, taking 8.5 and 1 sacks with them, and David Ojabo arrives from the Ravens to help replace that edge presence. Chop Robinson's 4 sacks in 12 games are the most proven juice up front returning, while rookies Jacob Rodriguez and Kyle Louis add draft capital without any 2025 production to judge yet. Jeff Hafley inherits a defense that finished 15th in sacks overall, and the bet here is that Ojabo's speed off the edge matters more than the ten departures at the position.

Minkah Fitzpatrick's 80 tackles walked out the door, along with the rest of a secondary that let opponents move the ball through the air at an 18th-ranked clip a year ago. Jeff Hafley is rebuilding almost from scratch here, with 18 defensive backs gone and Darrell Baker Jr. arriving from Tennessee to soak up snaps after logging 54 tackles there in 2025. Dante Trader Jr. is the one holdover who actually profiles as a building block, having matched that same 54-tackle mark last year, and Jason Marshall Jr. offers a second recognizable name at corner. Round 1 pick Chris Johnson gives the room a long-term answer outside, though a rookie corner leaning on Alex Austin and Marco Wilson for depth is not a formula built for immediate results. Points allowed sat at 24.9 per game, 24th in the league, and nothing about this offseason screams quick fix.

Zane Gonzalez arrives from the Falcons to push Riley Patterson at kicker, and that competition is the actual story here. Patterson made 27 of 29 field goals a year ago, a number Gonzalez cannot match on raw accuracy after going 19 of 22. Jeff Hafley inherits a specialist room with two capable legs and no obvious incumbent lock. At punter, Bradley Pinion steps in for the departed Jake Bailey, and his 40.6 net average from Atlanta lands close enough to Bailey's 42.6 that the swap should be close to a wash. Tucker Addington remains the long snapper, the one settled job in a group otherwise sorting itself out.

A New Man Under Center

Tua Tagovailoa's 2,660 yards and Tyreek Hill's speed are gone, and Miami hands the offense to Malik Willis, who threw for just 422 yards in four games behind Green Bay's starter last season. That is a real bet on upside over track record. The receiving room gets reinforced by Jalen Tolbert and Tutu Atwell, but neither replaces Jaylen Waddle's 910 yards on his own. Defensively, the churn is even heavier: Minkah Fitzpatrick, Jack Jones, Ashtyn Davis and Rasul Douglas all left the secondary, and Darrell Baker Jr. and Zayne Anderson arrive from Tennessee and Green Bay to help rebuild it. With 71 departures against 41 arrivals, Jeff Hafley inherits a roster in genuine transition, and a 13-pick draft class headlined by tackle Kadyn Proctor gives him more pieces to sort through than answers already in hand.

Willis Must Turn Volume Into Points

Malik Willis inherits an offense that stalled short of the end zone too often in 2025, and fixing that falls squarely on him. He replaces Tua Tagovailoa's 2,660 yards and 20 touchdowns after throwing for just 422 yards and 3 scores in four games with the Packers last season. De'Von Achane's 1,350 rushing yards give Willis a run game to lean on, but Miami's offense burned through more yardage per score than the league average a year ago. If Willis can't get more efficient in the red zone, that scoring problem simply repeats itself. Everything Jeff Hafley wants to build starts with whether his new quarterback finishes drives instead of just moving the chains.

Home Favorite, Road Mess

The split on this team's betting card is stark. Miami covers at a 60% clip at home and a sharp 63% inside the AFC East, yet drops to 46% on the road and just 43% as a road underdog. That gap is the story for Jeff Hafley's first year, not the raw 7-10 mark. The turnover margin sat at -5 last season, a number likelier to improve than repeat, which argues for a better cover rate wherever Miami plays. Still, until the road number moves, bettors should treat this as a home team wearing a road jersey.