Dolphins placed last in offseason power rankings as Jeff Hafley and Jon-Eric Sullivan enter a full rebuild, with Malik Willis in the fold

The Dolphins are being graded harshly before the first meaningful snap of the 2026 season. In a new offseason power ranking column from Yahoo Sports, Miami starts at No. 32, framed as a “Year Zero” project built around the reality that the roster has to be torn down and rebuilt before it can contend. The premise of the ranking is organizational, not transactional. Yahoo Sports characterizes the Dolphins’ offseason as a deliberate reset, saying new general manager Jeff Hafley and new head coach Jon-Eric Sullivan understood what they were walking into when they took over in Miami. The point, as presented in the ranking, is that the staff wants the team to accept short-term pain to create a longer-term foundation. What stands out in the outlook is the quarterback angle. Yahoo Sports points to Malik Willis as part of the reset plan, noting that Willis is joining the Dolphins “at least” with him aboard. The team’s quarterback depth chart will be a central storyline because a rebuild often depends on whether the organization can find a functional starter quickly enough to avoid turning the entire season into a development-only exercise. The column’s framing suggests that Miami’s offseason priorities extend beyond one position group. In the same way a “Year Zero” label indicates patience, it also implies a roster evaluation process that could affect multiple areas of the roster, from skill-position depth to front-seven personnel and secondary coverage concepts. In other words, the ranking is not only about who is on the roster today, but about the staff’s willingness to accept that the product on the field may look uneven while the new system and roster identity take hold. In practical terms, a No. 32 preseason-style ranking can be both a reflection and a catalyst. It reflects uncertainty around how quickly the new staff can install its approach, and it also raises the stakes for internal benchmarks once training camp and the preseason begin. For fans and for the franchise, the most important question becomes what progress looks like during the “worse before it gets better” phase described by the ranking. Typically, rebuild years are judged by improvement in execution and roster fit, even if the overall results are not immediate. Still, the ranking itself should be treated as a projection, not a verdict. Offseason power rankings are built from personnel assessments and organizational expectations, but they cannot fully account for how quickly players absorb new roles or how game-to-game variance can affect early returns. The quarterback change identified by Yahoo Sports gives the Dolphins a clearer point of focus than a pure “reset and wait” scenario, and Willis’ presence suggests Miami is trying to create at least one stable axis around which the rest of the season can be evaluated. For what to watch next, Miami’s preseason and early regular-season performance will matter less as a win-loss scoreboard and more as a report of whether this rebuild can be managed effectively. Pay attention to quarterback development and decision-making, the continuity of offensive identity as the new staff’s concepts roll out, and whether the roster moves begin to look coherent in the context of a longer-term plan. If the Dolphins can show tangible growth despite a low external ranking, “Year Zero” starts to look less like an excuse and more like a structured build toward the next phase of the franchise.

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