One sleeper NFL Draft prospect is a tailor-made fit for what ails the Miami Dolphins
Everybody needs a player like this guy on the roster.
The Miami Dolphins‘ roster transition is currently centered around big money veterans who likely offer this team minimal opportunities for a trade.
Tyreek Hill, Bradley Chubb, and James Daniels all sit at an awkward intersection of cost, age, and injury concerns — and hence they’re all out in 2026. But as the Dolphins continue to press forward they’ll likely be putting the middle class of the roster under the microscope as well — replacing those players with rookie contracts with cost control is yet another place where there’s work to be done. And I just so happen to have found the perfect candidate this offseason to start that process; he is a prospect in the 2026 NFL Draft. Consider this my love letter to Indiana’s Riley Nowakowski.
The Dolphins’ roster rebuild desperately needs players like Riley Nowakowski
Football fans in South Florida know Nowakowski well. He scored the first touchdown of this January’s College Football Playoff Championship Game between the Miami Hurricanes and the Indiana Hoosiers. The 6-foot-2, 239 pound tight end is a jack of all trades in that regard. He scored two rushing touchdowns on two carries this season — and also caught 32 passes for 387 yards this season for the Hoosiers.
The production numbers are modest for a tight end, but Nowakowski isn’t a typical tight end prospect. He’s a former walk-on at Wisconsin who played linebacker when he first arrived in Madison in 2021. He converted full-time to tight end in 2023 before landing with the Hoosiers in the transfer portal and served a key ancillary role in Indiana’s undefeated season.
The mentality of a defensive talent shines straight away on tape. Nowakowski is tough, aggressive, and impactful as a run blocker. You’d never guess watching him play that he has only been playing tight end for a few seasons. Check out the Alabama game in particular, in which Nowakowski repeatedly blew the doors off the edges of the defense.
The Dolphins need intense, high effort, physical football players. They also have a dire need at tight end and the team’s fullback, Alec Ingold, is an aging veteran who collects several million dollars on a per-season basis. Nowakowski obviously loves the game — he walked on at Wisconsin. He thrived amid a position change. He plays the game with his hair on fire. He’s versatile.
It all sure sounds like the kind of player that Miami needs several of.
Nowakowski isn’t going to be the centerpiece of a passing offense. He isn’t likely to to be a team’s top option at tight end, either. But he’s got nearly 500 snaps on special teams, is an absolute dog as a blocker, offers some toughness and physicality with the ball in his hands, and has experience both at fullback and tight end. It feels like a perfect storm of the type of player Miami should be in the market for along with the right kind of versatility that can help Miami reassess the middle class of their roster in the next year or so.
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