The one trap you shouldn’t fall into with the 2026 Miami Dolphins’ season outlook this summer

There’s a lot of talk about the Miami Dolphins’ new rebuild versus their last one. Here’s what you shouldn’t do.

Kyle Crabbs — NFL National Writer
Add as preferred source on Google
Dec 21, 2025; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; The Miami Dolphins enter the field before the game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Hard Rock Stadium. Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins‘ 2026 season is not one that nears with much in the way of external expectations.

I get it. There’s a whole lot of new. With a heaping pile of youth. And that typically doesn’t get folks sitting up in their chair and dreaming big. So, accordingly, the Dolphins are a team that the masses don’t expect much from. Which is fine — they’ll play all 17 games and we’ll see where the chips fall. The last time expectations felt this low were in 2019. But we should probably pump the brakes on comparing those two football teams.

Don’t fall into the trap of comparing the 2026 Miami Dolphins to the 2019 squad

Dec 21, 2025; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; The Miami Dolphins enter the field before the game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Hard Rock Stadium. Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The 2019 Miami Dolphins won five games. Maybe this year’s team will win less. But if they do, it won’t be because the roster is in as bad of shape. That Dolphins team, in 2019, had an even more extreme tear down of the prior year than this year — and the questions around this year’s teams pale in comparison to the roster talent on the 2019 group.

Let’s start on defense, where the 2026 Miami Dolphins are maligned for missing talent on the defensive front and in the secondary. Sure, a primary pass rusher is a question. And the projected starting secondary is full of young and unproven players. But 2019? Minkah Fitzpatrick was traded after Week 2. Xavien Howard played in five games. And safety Reshad Jones played in four.

Fourteen players played more than 350 snaps on defense that season:

  1. Jerome Baker
  2. Eric Rowe
  3. Nik Needham
  4. Christian Wilkins
  5. Davon Godchaux
  6. Vince Biegel
  7. Sam Eguavoen
  8. Jamal Perry
  9. Bobby McCain
  10. Raekwon McMillan
  11. John Jenkins
  12. Charles Harris
  13. Taco Charlton
  14. Adrian Colbert

Comparing 2026 to 2019 defensive talent

Out of this group, Baker, Rowe, Needham, Wilkins, Godchaux, and Bobby McCain sustained as starting players in the years beyond. Baker and Wilkins were the only two who saw extended opportunities in South Florida beyond that season.

Perhaps the 2026 Miami Dolphins have a change of heart with LB Jordyn Brooks and ship him out via trade this summer or fall (I doubt it). But between the 2025 All-Pro in Brooks, and veteran defensive tackle Zach Sieler, the 2026 Dolphins have comparable top-end talent to their best 2019 defensive players in Howard and Jones. But neither played more than a month of games for the season.

Add in a pair of first-round defensive linemen in Kenneth Grant and Chop Robinson, this year’s first-round cornerback Chris Johnson, promising young players like DTs Jordan Phillips and Zeek Biggers, linebackers Tyrel Dodson and rookie Jacob Rodriguez? And other role players? I have a hard time, barring injuries to Brooks and Sieler, seeing this year’s group being more talent deficient than a defense that had a UDFA rookie in Nik Needham and career special teamers like Jamal Perry, Sam Eguavoen, and Vince Biegel among the top-8 participants.

Don’t forget about the offense

And don’t get me started on the offensive side of the ball. Seven offensive linemen took 450+ offensive snaps in 2019:

  1. Michael Deiter
  2. Jesse Davis
  3. Daniel Kilgore
  4. Evan Boehm
  5. J’Marcus Webb
  6. Julie’n Davenport
  7. Deion Calhoun

Do we REALLY want to have this conversation? Davis played two more years in Miami as a replacement level starter — the fan base celebrated like the Ewoks at the end of ‘Return of the Jedi’ when he left South Florida. Kilgore was out of the league after 2020. Boehm never took another snap. Webb played 17 more snaps in his NFL career after the end of that season. Davenport played less than 350 for the rest of his career and was out of the league two years later. Calhoun posted 11 snaps in 2020 and was never seen again.

We think that group is going to be comparable to a unit that features a second-team All Pro center from last season, an emergent left tackle in Patrick Paul, a first-round pick in Kadyn Proctor, and a right side of highly drafted and physically talented (but underwhelming) players in Austin Jackson and Jonah Savaiinaea? The team’s projected sixth offensive lineman, Jamaree Salyer, is arguably a more accomplished player than literally every player on that list above from 2019.

The 2019 Miami Dolphins’ best skill players were Mike Gesicki and a (finally) emergent De’Vante Parker. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick led the team in rushing. The 2026 Miami Dolphins just extended RB De’Von Achane and the team seems to believe they’ve found a quarterback of the future already in Malik Willis, as compared to a career journeyman in Fitzpatrick. Wide receiver is a question, sure. I’ll give you that one…but prior to 2019, I wouldn’t say that UDFA Preston Williams and Parker were a good situation, either.

So yeah. I don’t know about that 2019 versus 2026 talk. Perhaps injuries wallop the 2026 Miami Dolphins. Perhaps the schedule proves too stiff a challenge. But I don’t buy, for a single second, that the 2026 roster is situated in a worse position than the 2019 group was. Neither should you.

Related Articles