Five Biggest Storylines for Miami Dolphins Training Camp

Finally.

Football is here and the Miami Dolphins are set to hit the practice field with veterans set to report Tuesday. The Dolphins are looking toward a new era with head coach Jeff Hafley and quarterback Malik Willis taking over as the respective faces of the franchise.

Training camp can be where positional battles are the most fierce. Starting spots can be won and lost. Ultimately, story lines are going to emerge as camp goes on, but what are the biggest storylines to keep an eye on as the Dolphins begin a new era?

Let’s start with the obvious.

The Malik Willis Watch

Changing quarterbacks is a seismic move no matter who the predecessor is. In Miami’s case, they moved on from Tua Tagovailoa to pursue Willis in the offseason. They ultimately won the bidding for his services with a three-year contract that allows him to grow into a potential franchise quarterback.

Willis is plenty familiar with Jeff Hafley and Jon-Eric Sullivan from his time in Green Bay.

All of the stories about Willis and his time in Green Bay have been hashed and rehashed. The familiarity that Willis has will matter to some degree, but training camp will be the first time that everyone will see to what degree.

Feel-good stories don’t win football games, production does. Willis was excellent in spot duty in Green Bay, but he's never been asked to be a full-time starting quarterback. Being a starter and preparing as such is drastically different than being the backup, even if a player prepares the same way.

Willis is still a relative unknown. His sample size in Green Bay, while excellent, was small. His sample size in Tennessee was not good.

Every throw by Willis is going to be dissected continuously until the games start to matter.

Who is Catching Passes?

While all eyes are going to be on Willis, quarterbacks are not tasked with catching their own passes. The Dolphins’ pass-catching corps went under a makeover this offseason with Tyreek Hill and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine released and Jaylen Waddle traded to the Denver Broncos.

Instead of grabbing a receiver in the first round to help Willis, the Dolphins went a different route, and selected three receivers in the middle of the draft.

Chris Bell, Caleb Douglas and Kevin Coleman Jr. all were drafted in the middle rounds to help address some of the concerns at receiver. Douglas and Coleman will be fighting for reps alongside veterans Jalen Tolbert and Malik Washington. Chris Bell will start training camp on the active/non-football injury list as he works his way back from a torn ACL he suffered last year at Louisville.

Apart from quarterback, where Willis is a relative unknown, there may not be a position on the roster with more questions surrounding it than wide receiver (though safety might like a word).

Big Doesn’t Get Small

Part of the reason there are questions at receiver is because of the Dolphins’ decision with their initial first-round pick.

Instead of taking a wide receiver or someone like Miami’s Rueben Bain or Ohio State’s Caleb Downs, the Dolphins went with Alabama offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor.

Proctor’s selection is interesting because of where his career will begin. As things stand, Proctor is likely penciled in to be the starter at left guard, which gives Miami a massive offensive line. A potential pairing of Patrick Paul, Proctor, Aaron Brewer, Jonah Savaiinaea and Austin Jackson gives the Dolphins a starting group that either has had significant draft or contract capital invested in each player.

Proctor, however, is the biggest piece here, both literally and figuratively. He’s a top 15 pick, and while the Dolphins are content to put him at guard for now, there is going to be a temptation to move him out to tackle at some point.

This is something the Packers, for whom Hafley and new GM Jon-Eric Sullivan previously worked, did with 2024 first-round pick Jordan Morgan and 2025 second-round pick Anthony Belton.

Regardless of where Proctor lines up, his development in camp is a big storyline for both the present and the future.

Safety Dance?

If wide receiver has the most amount of questions surrounding the offense, safety is likely the position on defense with the most questions around it.

The Dolphins started making over their safety room this offseason with the additions of Lonnie Johnson Jr, Michael Taaffe, Zayne Anderson, and Kyle Louis.

Louis is a wild card in this situation because he’s listed as a linebacker by the Dolphins, but could be an interchangeable piece that moves as a hybrid defender.

None of the aforementioned players have a lot of pelts on the wall to be an established starter alongside 2025 fifth-round pick Dante Trader Jr. Johnson has the most experience of the group and is a good bet to have the inside track at a starting position, but that is tenuous at best.

Competition should be fierce early in camp with multiple players getting a chance to crack the opening-day lineup.

Where is Chris Johnson?

After the Dolphins drafted Kadyn Proctor with their initial first-round pick, the Dolphins grabbed a versatile piece for their secondary in Chris Johnson who could play both on the outside and in the slot in Jeff Hafley’s defense.

Hafley has shown a propensity in the past to move his best cover corners around the formation. His stated goal as a defensive coordinator in Green Bay was to get his best players matched up with the best players on the opposing offense.

Johnson has the talent to be the Dolphins' best cornerback right now. The question early in Johnson’s career will be where he’s lining up on defense and how much they’re going to put on his plate as a rookie.

With a defensive-minded head coach on board, the Dolphins are looking to identify core pieces on both sides of the ball. Johnson represents the first significant investment they made on defense. With Hafley’s background as a secondary coach, he likely will have a close eye on the young cornerback as he tries to build out his defense.

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