{"id":782527,"date":"2026-02-28T16:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T16:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/782527\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T16:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T16:22:14","slug":"dolphins-projected-to-sign-isaiah-likely-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/782527\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins projected to sign Isaiah Likely in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 28, 2026, 9:20 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

The Miami Dolphins<\/a> have over 30 players hitting free agency this offseason, including their top three tight ends – Darren Waller (UFA), Julian Hill (ERFA) and Greg Dulcich (UFA).<\/p>\n

With Jalin Conyers, Cole Turner and Zack Kuntz listed as the only tight ends under contract with the team in 2026, Miami should attack the position in free agency and\/or the upcoming NFL draft.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, ESPN’s Aaron Schatz projected<\/a> that the Dolphins<\/a> will target a veteran and sign Isaiah Likely.<\/p>\n

“The Dolphins’ top three tight ends from last season are all free agents (Greg Dulcich,\u00a0Darren Waller\u00a0and\u00a0Julian Hill), and they could use an upgrade at the position anyway,” Schatz wrote. “Waller had six touchdowns in his\u00a0return from retirement, but he played only nine games due to\u00a0hip\u00a0and\u00a0pectoral\u00a0injuries.<\/p>\n

“Enter Likely, who is ready to start as a No. 1 tight end after spending a few years as TE2 behind\u00a0Mark Andrews\u00a0in Baltimore. Last season was a bit of an off year for Likely, who had only one touchdown and dropped to 19th among tight ends in the\u00a0ESPN receiver scores. But he ranked sixth in 2023 and third in 2024, with 400 yards in each of those seasons. He should be able to shine in a Miami offense that doesn’t need to feed a lot of other receivers after it\u00a0released\u00a0Tyreek Hill\u00a0and\u00a0Nick Westbrook-Ikhine.”<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

After four years at Coastal Carolina, where he earned All-Sun Belt honors thrice and All-American honors once, Likely landed in Baltimore as a fourth-round pick (No. 141 overall) in the 2022 NFL draft.<\/p>\n

Over the last four years, he’s appeared in 63 games and recorded 135 receptions for 1,568 yards and 15 touchdowns while backing up Andrews.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins still need to find a quarterback to lead their offense in 2026, but whoever is under center could certainly benefit from having Likely as a target.<\/p>\n

More Dolphins: Top CB prospect may be Dolphins draft target after impressive combine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 28, 2026, 9:20 a.m. ET The Miami Dolphins have over 30 players hitting free agency this offseason,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[95878,217,7,216,251,2087,6,95947,95948,95882,99413,110754,101058,95892,110752,102302,110753,101970,95951,95896,95888,95895,95899,95883,110755,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-782527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-dolphins","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-dolphins","13":"tag-miamidolphins","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnfldolphins","16":"tag-sstsndolphins","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagcoastal-carolina-university","19":"tag-tagcole-turner","20":"tag-tagdarren-waller","21":"tag-tagespn-inc","22":"tag-taggreg-dulcich","23":"tag-tagisaiah-likely","24":"tag-tagjulian-hill","25":"tag-tagmark-andrews","26":"tag-tagmiami-dolphins","27":"tag-tagnational-sports","28":"tag-tagnfl","29":"tag-tagnfl-hub","30":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","31":"tag-tagsports-news","32":"tag-tagzack-kuntz","33":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116149180542657896","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}