{"id":816658,"date":"2026-03-17T08:23:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/816658\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T08:23:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:23:21","slug":"why-are-miami-dolphins-shopping-for-so-many-no-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/816658\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are Miami Dolphins shopping for so many no-names?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past week, the Miami Dolphins<\/a> have set some sort of NFL record for one-year, minimum-wage contracts. They\u2019re binge shopping for players at Dollar Tree.<\/p>\n

If it continues like this \u2014 and it did Monday with former Tampa Bay offensive tackle Charlie Heck signing a one-year deal<\/a> \u2014 training camp might need a meter maid for all the players parking by the hour they\u2019re on such a short leash.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not compelling to watch the parade of small to unknown names being signed, day after day. But the Dolphins are finally trying things the way good organizations do. There\u2019s something right, if still incomplete, about what\u2019s at work here.<\/p>\n

New general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan has two methods and limited resources to resuscitate this roster. The first is the obvious way, the headlined one of using premium draft picks and free-agent money. The Dolphins have five picks in the first three rounds of this April\u2019s draft. It\u2019s not the New York Jets rebuilding with three first-round picks. But you take what you get.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins also don\u2019t have much salary-cap money and just invested two years and $45 million guaranteed on quarterback Malik Willis. That\u2019s what that was in Willis, too: An investment.<\/p>\n

The second vein of rebuilding the roster doesn\u2019t involve investing. You can take the 17 other free-agent signings, including Heck, and they might not match the $22.5 million Willis was guaranteed next season (the contract details aren\u2019t completely known yet).<\/p>\n

The Dolphins hope is to uncover a Zach Sieler or Kader Kohou to make a career or a Rasul Douglas to remake one. Those are some recent success stories. But the other idea at work is to improve the bottom of the roster and add the secret sauce of competition.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the idea:\u00a0What if the Dolphins hit on enough of these minimum-wage players that, coupled with the draft, the grade on the final, 53rd player this season is equal to the grade on the 43rd player last season?<\/p>\n

That means you have 10 players on this roster better than last year. This isn\u2019t the stuff that\u2019s easy to see. It\u2019s what separates good management from the past Dolphins decade in the wilderness, though.<\/p>\n

Can any of the newly signed four cornerbacks \u2014 five, counting holdover Ethan Bonner \u2014 push for an open starting job? Miles Battle ranked 44th among cornerbacks last year, via Pro Football Focus. But he only played five games. He\u2019s only played six in his career. You decide what that means other than it\u2019s worth a minimum-wage roll of the dice by the Dolphins.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins can\u2019t offer much money. But they\u2019re offering something these players need: Opportunity. Does receiver Jalen Tolbert recreate the 49 catches and seven touchdowns he had in Dallas in 2024? Will edge rusher Josh Uche, 27, get back to the 11.5 sacks he had in 2022 \u2014 or the six sacks he\u2019s had since?<\/p>\n

All you know is they\u2019ll have the opportunity to do so.\u00a0You don\u2019t have to pay attention until the dust clears at season\u2019s start. But don\u2019t dismiss what\u2019s at work, too. When Bill Belichick was winning Super Bowls in New England, he said the top third of the roster got the Patriots to the playoffs but the bottom helped carry it to championships.<\/p>\n

Before last season, the Dolphins didn\u2019t pay enough attention to pesky details like the bottom of the roster or salary-cap maintenance. You can see that by them not winning anything and the five biggest cap hits this season being for players no longer with them: Tua Tagovailoa ($56.2 million), Bradley Chubb ($31.2M), Tyreek Hill ($28.2M) and Minkah Fitzpatrick ($12.9M).<\/p>\n

No one knows if this new Dolphins regime can reverse a quarter-century of such underachievement. They just unpacked in their office. They\u2019re still cleaning up yesterday more than building tomorrow. Come back in a year with that question.<\/p>\n

All you know so far is they\u2019re following a blueprint the Dolphins haven\u2019t in years and good organizations do. They liked a quarterback to build with? They went out and got him.<\/p>\n

Now they\u2019re filling their shopping cart at Dollar Tree. It\u2019s not much fun to follow. But you need a remedial education in rebuilding if you don\u2019t see why they\u2019re doing it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past week, the Miami Dolphins have set some sort of NFL record for one-year, minimum-wage contracts.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[217,7,929,216,251,2087,6,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-816658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-dolphins","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-dolphins","13":"tag-miamidolphins","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116243556681511696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816658","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=816658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}