Dolphins’ roster rebuild under Jon-Eric Sullivan leaves Miami facing a harsh 2026 outlook, power-ranking view says

What happened is simple, even if the causes are complicated: Frank Schwab of Yahoo Sports put the Miami Dolphins at the bottom of his recent power-ranking set for the 2026 season. The takeaway is not just that Miami is projected to struggle. It is that the franchise is in the middle of a roster identity shift, one that will make it harder for the team to win quickly and easier for outsiders to assume the worst. The framework of the assessment traces back to the team’s front-office leadership and its willingness to move on from prior cornerstone talent. Schwab’s write-up ties the downtick in expectations to new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan, characterizing an approach that “tears the roster down” as part of a rebuild intended to reshape the team “in his image.” In Schwab’s view, that rebuilding plan comes with a steep learning curve for 2026. The roster changes are described in broad, consequential terms. Schwab lists multiple high-profile departures as examples of the magnitude of the rebuild, including quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, and pass rusher Bradley Chubb, alongside safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and others. Even without leaning on specific on-field details, that kind of turnover, particularly at skill positions and along the defensive spine, typically forces a team into a period where execution and chemistry take time to form. There is also a psychological element to how the league will treat Miami in the coming season. Schwab frames the “dead last” placement as unsurprising even to Dolphin fans, implying that the internal expectation setting has already been adjusted for the realities of a rebuild. In other words, the ranking is not merely about talent. It is also about time horizon, and the willingness of a team to accept short-term pain in exchange for longer-term clarity. Because this is a power-ranking prediction, it is not a statement of future results. Rankings are inherently comparative, and they can overemphasize the most visible changes while understating how quickly a staff can retool an offense, stabilize a defense, or develop younger players. Miami’s counterargument, if it develops, would likely be tied to how efficiently the Dolphins translate coaching and personnel decisions into predictable week-to-week performance, even while undergoing a structural reset. What to watch next is how Miami’s rebuilding timeline plays out on the field. In practical terms, that means monitoring whether the Dolphins can establish consistent playmaking at the new quarterback and receiver options, and whether their defense can replace the production lost with the departure of established defenders like Chubb and Fitzpatrick. If the Dolphins show signs of coherence early, the “dead last” narrative will start to look more like a preseason forecast error than a team-building truth. For now, based on Schwab’s assessment and the magnitude of the turnover described, the 2026 picture looks rugged from an outside perspective. The Dolphins are not only replacing players, they are recalibrating the franchise’s identity, and those transitions rarely arrive with immediate dividends.

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