Dolphins Saturday Mailbag: Sullivan, Proctor, Biggers, and More

Part 2 of a Labor Day weekend Miami Dolphins On SI mailbag:

From Jayco:

In order to defeat the Raiders, which four players have to shine?

I will go with Malik Willis (that’s obvious), the combination of Patrick Paul and Austin Jackson (because they can’t let Maxx Crosby go wild), Zeek Biggers/Jordan Phillips (stopping the run), and Chris Johnson (assuming he’s the one asked to cover Brock Bowers most often).

From Ed Helinski:

In your opinion, how does this current Dolphins roster compare to past rosters in the last 4-5 years?

Hey Ed, it’s clearly not the same for a few reasons, including a lower number of established stars, a much greater number of young players, which creates way more question marks than in years past.

From Squeaks:

What schemes do you expect in the secondary to help out the young guys, especially when you consider the pass rush potential issues?

That’s a good question, right? The expectation is that the Dolphins will be playing a lot of zones and I also would expect a lot of nickel usage. The one thing I do want to see is extra attention paid to tight end Brock Bowers, whether it requires double-teaming him, bracket coverage, whatever. The Dolphins can’t let him go wild.

THE RAIDERS REPORT

From Mike Zwilling:

Biggest concern going into the Raiders game?

Hey Mike, I’ll give you one on each side of the ball. For the offense, it’s simply making sure Maxx Crosby doesn’t create havoc and have Malik Willis scrambling all game. On defense, it’s making sure to contain Brock Bowers to at least a certain degree. It’s unrealistic to think Bowers won’t come close to double digits in receptions (or even top it), but the Dolphins can’t let him have the big gains or consistently convert third-down situations.

From GBZ:

Alain, can you explain how practice squad comp works against the cap? Are players paid a set amount or based on tenure? When a veteran is elevated for game day, do they receive additional pay based on their contract/experience? How is all of this accounted for against the cap?

There’s a set pay scale for the practice squad, which is like $14,000 weekly for rookies and first-year players and $18,000 for veterans. For those players elevated for a game, they get paid the game check for the proration of the minimum salary. And then every dollar spent related to the practice squad counts against the salary cap.

From Mark Malbeck:

Hi Alain, people expect the Dolphins to be bad this year. Do you think this is based on the lack of talent on the team, or the fact the team is full of young, unproven players? I would like to believe that we have some talented unknown players instead of no talented players.

Hey Mark, it’s way more of the latter than the former. And there’s also the reality that for all the potential of all the young players and the draft picks, it’s a historical fact that more of those draft picks will fail than succeed. So while we hope that, for example, each of the Dolphins’ first six picks in the first three rounds (Proctor, Johnson, Rodriguez, Douglas, Kacmarek and Bell) will turn into good NFL players, the reality is the Dolphins will do well if they go 3-for-6. Another reason for the low expectations is the Dolphins have three established stars with Brewer, Achane and Brooks, and only one plays a premium position that can have a major impact on the outcome each week.

From Kevin Craig:

Where do you fall on a high first-round QB sitting to start his career? If Dolphins leadership had just selected a QB with the first pick, do you think he’d be sitting or starting game 1? Green Bay history makes me think he would sit; then again, a lot of rookies starting now.

Hey Kevin, I’m of the opinion that if you’re in a rebuilding project with little realistic expectation of being a contender, then why not get your future franchise quarterback reps right away? If there’s a concern about a rookie swimming and maybe early setbacks affecting his confidence, then I’d suggest you had the wrong guy all along. With Green Bay, for example, when they drafted Aaron Rodgers, they were contending with Brett Favre and when they drafted Jordan Love, they were contending with Aaron Rodgers. Even in Kansas City, the Chiefs were making the playoffs with Alex Smith, so they could afford to slow-cook Patrick Mahomes. Had the Dolphins drafted Ty Simpson at 11 (or 12) under your hypothetical, I would have hoped they would have started him right away. But I’m very happy with the QB decision to go with Malik Willis instead and skip on a first-round QB this year.

PRACTICE SQUAD POACHING

From Richard Gibbons:

Hi Alain, love the articles and YouTube videos, especially when it’s you and Perk. My question is do you anticipate JES will poach anyone off another team’s practice squad at some point during the season? Is there anyone that you would like them to poach and if we do, can we eventually place that player on our practice squad or does he have to stay on the 53? Thanks.

Hey Richard, I would be very surprised if the Dolphins didn’t poach anybody off another team’s practice squad and I’d still advocate them doing that with Joe Milton III. As for other names, I haven’t studied the other teams’ practice squads thoroughly enough to come with anybody else. And the one requirements with practice squad poaches is that they have to remain on your active roster for at least three weeks before they can be waived.

From DJ Parker:

Thanks for all the content you put out, I especially enjoy the daily podcasts as I’m on the road a lot. It seems like mostly everything JES and Hafley have done this season is almost what they have told us they would do. Is there anything so far that has been unexpected or even disappointing in your opinion? Keep up the great work!

Hey DJ, I haven’t been surprised or disappointed in anything so far except for the decision not to claim Joe Milton III because his skill set screamed to me that they should give him a look. Outside of that, the plan was laid out pretty clearly early on and anybody who was paying attention and didn’t just hear what they wanted to hear should have realized then and there that there would be no splash signings even after the Bradley Chubb contract came off the books — and Sullivan literally used those exact words of “no splash signings.”

From Dean Rodriguez:

Morning Alain, who you think has a bigger impact this year out of all the rookies? Would be nice if Proctor plays to potential to avoid the Bain comparisons but still would be nice to see someone like J Rod or Bell/Douglas have a breakout year.

Hey Dean, if you’re talking impact, I’m always going to go away from a guard, so Proctor could be an All-Pro and his impact still will be lesser than if one of those other guys has just a good season. And you better prepare yourself because Proctor could be just as good as a rookie as Bain, but it won’t be nearly as obvious because of his position. But the overall answer is I think I would go with either Chris Johnson or Jacob Rodriguez as the rookie who will have the biggest impact. I think Bell and Douglas might cancel each other out a bit — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

COOK AS THE THIRD QB

From Dave Campbell:

Greetings Alain ! Pretty sure the decision to trade Quinn Ewers came to Sullivan while sitting on his couch eating a bag of chips (self-admitted sarcastic, bad joke person here) & picking up the talented BUT unproven Kyle McCord was good. But Brady Cook !? Remember his game against Miami and didn't look good at all. Hopefully they're not done. Something that's always bugged me is a very wise man in an Expos hat said best site for true height/weight is NFL.com. So I regularly check. Why in the world do team rosters add am inch or two to a player’s height ? Drives me nuts (short trip lol). As always look forward to both All Dolphins and Dolphins Collective podcasts. Season coverage is gonna be exciting & written content on Miami Dolphins on SI.Com is really detailed !

Thanks as always, Dave. Do I know that wise man in the Expos hat? LOL. Couldn’t tell you why we sometimes find discrepancies, but I think it may be that the exaggeration starts in college (to make the player look more imposing, I guess) and then the information just gets taken from there. That’s the only explanation I’d have. As for the third quarterback, I think they're going to roll with Cook for the time being.

From Earl Gottfried:

Hello Alain, I very much enjoyed the comparison piece for the 2025 vs 2026 Dolphins! if you could have the 2 rosters go head-to-head (duplicates cloning themselves), what do you think the record could be in a best-of-7 set? As is, the 2026 squad doesn't look as deficient as some might think, aside from experience.

Hey Earl, that’s an interesting question and it’s a tough answer because Malik Willis is such an unknown. I have confidence he’s going to wind up being a clear upgrade at quarterback, but the reality is we just don’t know that for a fact until the real games. So my best guess at this time is I think maybe the 2026 team wins that series 4-3.

From BBQ:

Taylor Rapp, Murphy-Bunting, Jedrick Wills, Evan Neal — all names I expected the Phins to be all in on. Even Will Levis to a degree. And I know it’s not a waiver claim cus it came later, but I’m gonna throw Joe Milton in there too. Are you surprised at any of the 7 claims we made, or surprised the Phins didn’t jump on any of the ones mentioned above? Forget to add Jalin Haytt as well.

Hey Brandon, I actually can’t say I’m surprised. I advocated for the Dolphins claiming Milton on waivers but that was not a prediction. The M.O. for the Dolphins is very clear and those players didn’t fit for. one reason or another. In the case of Levis, it didn’t make much sense to bring him in after he beat out Willis in Tennessee a few years back. Also, with players who have just been cut, we need to be looking for upside and not just name recognition, which is what we’ve got with most of them.

From Michael Mosconi:

What would the best pieces of evidence from this season that would show that the Dolphins are on the right track?

Hey Michael, it’s very simple, Malik Willis shows he’s a legit No. 1 quarterback and, say, a half-dozen of the young players show they can be core pieces for a contending team. There is no statistical measure I can give you, though, and this is where there will be a lot of debate (shocker, right?) as to whether the Dolphins indeed are on the right track.

From Jon Russell:

Hi Alain. I know you’re not over keen on predictions, but what do you think the Dolphins record will be by the bye week and how might this influence their thinking for the rest of the season? Make a splash move if doing well or shed some players if it goes bad?

Hey Jon, the Dolphins’ five games before the bye will be against the Raiders, 49ers, Chiefs, Vikings and Bengals, and I’ll go ahead and predict they’ll be 1-4 at that time (even, yes, I hate predictions). But I will make this prediction that the blueprint is in place and I seriously doubt the Dolphins will deviate from it based on record.

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