![\"Miami](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2263336710-3-e1775153439825.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Dolphins were pushed to sign a former Bills player<\/p>\n
The consensus is that the Miami Dolphins<\/a> have gotten worse this offseason. While the Dolphins plan on being competitive during the 2026 season, their decision-making has been with long-term success in mind and not hoping for an immediate fix after back-to-back seasons of not making the playoffs.<\/p>\n Miami has cut ties with most of their veterans on expensive deals, and used some of their assets, like Jaylen Waddle<\/a>, to acquire more draft capital. <\/a>\u00a0The team\u2019s goal this year is to find out which players it will build around, and develop rookies from this year\u2019s class into capable starters.<\/p>\n However,the team can\u2019t rely solely on rookies to fill its holes. As both general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley have stated, competition will drive this team, and handing out starting jobs to rookies who have not yet earned them goes against that mentality. For that reason, Bleacher Report\u2019s Gary Davenport listed a free agent<\/a> that could still help the Dolphins in the 2026 season.<\/p>\n Miami Dolphins Pushed to Sign Former Bills Defensive End<\/p>\n Regarding which free agent could help out the Dolphins during the 2026 season, Davenport listed former Bills<\/a> defensive end A.J. Epenesa. Davenport wrote:<\/p>\n \u201cWith Chubb and Jaelan Phillips both gone, the team\u2019s likely starters on the edge in 2026 are Joshua Uche and Chop Robinson<\/a>. Seventh-year veteran A.J. Epenesa might not bump either player from the starting lineup, but the 27-year-old could add some depth at the position and has three seasons with at least six sacks.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not an especially exciting signing, especially after Epenesa failed a physical in Cleveland. But that physical could mean a vet minimum deal, and these Dolphins don\u2019t have much to lose other than games.\u201d<\/p>\n Epenesa, who has started 19 games in his NFL<\/a> career, has not been an above-average defensive end, according to Pro Football Focus. During the 2025 season, he received a 58.8 overall grade, which ranked him 87th out of 115 qualified edge defenders. Additionally, he was ranked as a bottom-10 run defender at his position.<\/p>\n Miami Dolphins Draft Outlook<\/p>\n Signing Epenesa would likely not change any of Miami\u2019s plans heading into the 2026 NFL Draft. However, it might provide them with insurance at the position as the top three projected pass rushers, Arvell Reese, David Bailey<\/a> and Rueben Bain, are all likely to be gone by the time Miami makes their first selection.<\/p>\n The Dolphins\u2019 roster has holes at a large number of positions, which may lead them to draft the best player available. NFL.com\u2019s Nick Shook, in his latest mock draft, <\/a>has the Dolphins selecting interior offensive lineman Olaivavega Ioane with their first selection. Shook wrote:<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no better place to start a rebuild than in the trenches. Miami adds the top interior lineman in the 2026 draft and slots him next to one of the NFL\u2019s best centers in Aaron Brewer<\/a>, forming a formidable interior for Malik Willis.\u201d<\/p>\n Shook projected Miami to add cornerback Colton Hood with their second first-round pick as he wrote:<\/p>\n \u201cAfter identifying Malik Willis, De\u2019Von Achane, Aaron Brewer and Jordyn Brooks<\/a> as franchise pillars during the NFL Annual Meeting, new GM Jon-Eric Sullivan expands his target range to the perimeter, adding a pro-ready corner and \u2014 thankfully \u2014 increasing the level of competition at the position.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJose Esquer<\/a> Jose Esquer is a Mexican-American sportswriter and communications student based in San Diego, CA. His work spans football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. He has written for platforms like RotoWire and DolphinsTalk. You can find him on Twitter\/X @JEsquer8, usually talking Dolphins, world football, or both. More about Jose Esquer<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Dolphins\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty The Dolphins were pushed to sign a former Bills player The consensus is that the Miami Dolphins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2049],"tags":[217,7,216,251,2087,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-849814","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-miami","11":"tag-miami-dolphins","12":"tag-miamidolphins","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116336623913814686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849814","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=849814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}