Why the Dolphins Are (Rightly) Content Flying Under the Radar While Other South Florida Franchises Make Headlines

South Florida has been a focal point in the sports world recently with the Miami Heat and Florida Panthers both making blockbuster trades to bring in superstars and energize their fan base.

The Miami Dolphins, meanwhile, have gone almost unnoticed on a national scale since making their one significant move of the offseason, the signing of quarterback Malik Willis.

That was more than three months ago.

Since then, the Dolphins barely have registered a blip on the national level.

It's to be expected for a rebuilding team with low outside expectations.

It's also not necessarily a bad thing.

DOLPHINS HAVE THEIR PROCESS

There are a couple of ways to make news in the offseason — after free agency and the draft, of course — and those involve major transactions or devastating injuries.

With the former, this was to be expected given the Dolphins' salary-cap situation and their earlier M.O. of signing unproven players or reclamation projects to deals at or close to the minimum salary.

The latter was the kind of good fortune every team hopes for, with the only injury of note during the spring practices open to the media being the one that had offensive lineman Jamaree Salyer carted off the field. But head coach Jeff Hafley said the day after the injury that it didn't appear to be anything of a long-term nature, and regardless Salyer can't be considered a front-line player at this point.

The Dolphins did make a couple of transactions in recent weeks, but they followed the same earlier pattern, notably the additions of former Philadelphia Eagles first-round pick Jalen Reagor and UFL players Major Burns and Gottlieb Ayedze.

Actually, the biggest drama involving the Dolphins since the draft was the contract issues with running back De'Von Achane, center Aaron Brewer and linebacker Jordyn Brooks. The team already has extended the first two, so resolving the Brooks situation remains the one item on the agenda.

And that could be solved at any time because the expectation remains, based on GM Jon-Eric Sullivan's comments about how much he values Brooks, any day.

That gets done, and we're looking at a training camp where all the storylines will be about camp battles and the progress of some of the team's highest-profile young players.

And that's where the Dolphins want the focus.

The 2026 season, as we've maintained, won't be so much about won-loss record and making the playoffs, as it will be the progress of a select group of young players, a list that begins with Willis but also includes Chop Robinson, Kenneth Grant, Jonah Savaiinaea, JuJu Brents, Greg Dulcich, as well as the rookie draft picks, Kadyn Proctor, Chris Johnson, Jacob Rodriguez, Caleb Douglas, Will Kacmarek, Trey Moore, Kyle Louis, etc. — we're leaving out Chris Bell because of his uncertain status after his November ACL injury.

This isn't necessarily headline-grabbing stuff, unless the development of those young players produces results in the win-loss column and the Dolphins exceed expectations.

But that's part of the process for Sullivan and Hafley, and not anything they didn't anticipate when they went about tearing down the foundation that was in place.

HEADLINES DIDN'T PRODUCE RIGHT RESULTS

Of course, Dolphins fans surely remember that it wasn't that long ago that the team did make the kind of moves the Heat and Panthers did this week with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brady Tkachuk, respectively.

The Dolphins absolutely went for it starting in 2022 when they traded for Tyreek Hill in March, for Bradley Chubb that November, and then traded for Jalen Ramsey the following March.

Those moves gave the Dolphins a star-studded roster, but it still wasn't good enough to get that elusive playoff win, the one that's escape the franchise since December 30, 2000.

It's easy in retrospect to criticize the Dolphins' uber-aggressive approach because of the results, but "F them picks" worked perfectly fine for the Los Angeles Rams.

So maybe the issue wasn't so much going after high-profile stars but instead which stars were involved.

Regardless, Sullivan made it clear after taking over as Dolphins GM he believed in the draft-and-develop approach.

It's one that's not nearly as exciting as the major trades, and it usually takes longer to produce results.

It also might be healthier in the long run.

Whether Sullivan and Hafley will get the Dolphins where they want go with that approach won't be determined for a bit, and until then we might as well get used to watching the other South Florida franchises — and we didn't even mention InterMiami and international star Lionel Messi — continue to grab the headlines.

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