Before last season, Miami Dolphins general manager Chris Grier famously told reporters who kept asking about the team’s troubling guard situation, “You guys are more worried about it than we are.”

His two most expensive offseason moves then were replacing the league’s lowest-graded guard pairing, according to Pro Football Focus.

Also before last season, coach Mike McDaniel said of the backup quarterback situation that looked like a budding, five-alarm fire, “We’re very comfortable there.”

That quarterback situation sunk the season by October.

Are we repeating ourselves this August by pointing out the flashing yellow warning lights at cornerback? And aren’t the Dolphins again in denial about an even more glaring problem at the edge of this season?

“What have I seen?” McDaniel said of the cornerbacks. “I’ve seen guys play very consistent bump coverage relative to the rest of the league or teams we go against. I’m seeing guys that are making plays in the pass game and the run game.

“I’m seeing guys play off coverage, reading through quarterback quick game footwork and progressing to a larger pedal and staying square with widen departure routes. I’m watching corners play the game between aggressive reroute and bail, disciplined football. I’m watching people take direct angles on shallow crosses.”

Maybe McDaniel is just propping his guys with positivity, as he does. But here’s what he hasn’t seen:  A Jalen Ramsey, Xavien Howard, Vontae Davis, Patrick Surtain Sr. or Sam Madison to anchor the position.

That Alpha cornerback isn’t coming through the door at this point, either, no matter how many phone calls Grier is making. An average cornerback would help, though.

“This is probably the worst (cornerback) situation in the league right now,” an NFL scout said. “I just don’t see how they got to this.”

Indianapolis signed Howard on Monday. Howard sat out last season, is 32 and who knows what he has left in the tank. But, if not Howard, the Dolphins to take a swing on someone coming up, don’t they?

They signed edge rusher Matthew Judon, who is 33 and had 5.5 sacks in Atlanta last year. We’ll see coming up if that’s good move for depth or there’s added concern about the injury returns of Bradley Chubb or Jaelan Phillips. You can never have enough edge rushers in today’s passing game.

On Tuesday, the Dolphins signed cornerback Cameron Dantzler, 26, whose last starts came in 2022 with Minnesota. That’s the kind of longshot move they’ve made this offseason. Grier’s mentor, Bill Parcells, made a career of believing you can never have enough offensive tackles or cornerbacks. Yet knowing he’d lose both of last year’s starting cornerbacks (Ramsey, Kendall Fuller), Grier didn’t invest much in free agency and passed in the draft until the point so much has to work out for the cornerbacks to work. Kader Kohou then was lost for the season in training camp.

So, Storm Duck is the top hope for this season. He’s is a good story. Undrafted. Second year. A player creating a career through ambition and hard work.

But a No. 1 cornerback?

That’s not even fair. Duck started three games as a rookie. Kendall Sheffield hasn’t started a game in five years. Jack Jones started 16 games for Las Vegas last year, but wasn’t invited back and is on his third team while on his inexpensive, rookie contract.

Mike Hilton, at 31, is trying to squeeze a good ending to a good career. Jason Marshall, the rookie, is testing his limits as he played in the slot against Detroit. He did well, correcting a couple of practice mistakes as safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said and, “making a couple good plays.”

Are there three cornerbacks you can count on for a Thursday night in Buffalo against quarterback Josh Allen?

So much of sports is about roles. Jim Leyland, the former Marlins manager, once said backup catcher Gregg Zaun’s career fear should be “overexposure.” As a backup, Zaun was good. But his warts would be obvious as an every day starter.

Here’s the glass-half-full take: The Dolphins face only one certifiably great quarterback in the season’s first half in the Bills’ Allen. So, they have clay to develop, and Philadelphia developed two rookie cornerbacks last year and won the Super Bowl. OK, they were first- and second-round picks. The better example is the Los Angeles Chargers ended the season playing two fifth-round rookie cornerbacks and made the playoffs.

Here’s the glass-half-empty take: Last year it was guards and backup quarterbacks. Now it’s cornerbacks. Every season has troubled positions to navigate around. But what if everyone’s in denial about those areas being troubled?

Originally Published: August 19, 2025 at 5:45 PM EDT