The Miami Dolphins‘ 2025 season is shaping up to be a grand experiment in many ways. The team is looking to shake the cobwebs of a disappointing 2024, reignite the enthusiasm for Mike McDaniel as a head coach, reinvigorate the roster with a youth movement, and do so without a lot of recognized and established NFL starters in the secondary.

Getting this season to click into place would be a major development for an organization that has been starved for long-term stability since the retirement of Dan Marino at the turn of the millennium. Miami has not had a head coach in place for four full seasons since Dave Wannstedt served as the coach from 2000-2004. He lasted just over halfway through his fifth season with the team and was fired after a 1-8 start.

Mike McDaniel enters year four of his own tenure with Miami on the hot seat. It is, in many ways, fitting that the fate of this season lies in the hands of McDaniel’s returns from the last two NFL Draft classes — who figures to serve a large composition on Miami’s 53-man roster next week.

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Dolphins’ 2024 & 2025 NFL Draft classes will weigh heavily in the bid for a successful season

The Dolphins have made 15 draft selections over the past two seasons. That number isn’t high for NFL standards but it is essentially twice the volume of draft picks that this team made in the prior two years of drafts combined. Much of the perceived bottoming out with Miami’s roster can be tied to that stagnant influx of rookie contract talent. Miami’s strategy with the few picks they did make between 2022 and 2023, such as linebacker Channing Tindall (102nd overall in 2022) and wide receiver Erik Ezukanma (125th overall in 2022) left Miami in need of developing talent with high physical tools but missing refinement in the way of technique and fundamentals.

‘Technique and fundamentals’ is one of Mike McDaniel’s current mantras. It’s rare to go a press conference without hearing the phrase. It’s the impression of those two things across Miami’s renewed, young nucleus that will make or break this season just as much as Tua Tagovailoa’s availability or Tyreek Hill’s timeliness.

Here is Miami’s full draft classes from the past two seasons, plus a key undrafted rookie who made the team in 2024:

Miami Dolphins 2024 NFL Draft class

• 21st overall: EDGE Chop Robinson (starter equivalent)
• 55th overall: OT Patrick Paul (starting LT)
• 120th overall: RB Jaylen Wright (competing for RB2)
• 158th overall: EDGE Mohamed Kamara (roster bubble)
• 184th overall: WR Malik Washington (competing for WR3)
• 198th overall: SAF Patrick McMorris (roster bubble)
• 241st overall: WR Tahj Washington (roster bubble)
• UDFA: CB Storm Duck (projected starter)

Miami Dolphins 2025 NFL Draft class

• 13th overall: DT Kenneth Grant (projected starter)
• 37th overall: OG Jonah Savaiinaea (starting left guard)
• 143rd overall: DT Jordan Phillips (competing for NT role)
• 150th overall: CB Jason Marshall Jr. (converted to nickel)
• 155th overall: SAF Dante Trader Jr. (TBD)
• 179th overall: RB Ollie Gordon II (competing for RB2)
• 231st overall: QB Quinn Ewers (will make the 53)
• 253rd overall: DT Zeek Biggers (TBD)

10 of these 16 players figure to hold prominent roles for the Dolphins in 2025. As many as seven of them could be considered “starters”. Miami got one starter out of the 2022 and 2023 NFL Drafts combined courtesy of running back De’Von Achane. If all 16 were to make the 53-man roster, 30% of Miami’s 2025 roster would be compromised of this core.

What baseline does this collective group provide? The early returns of 2024 first-rounder Chop Robinson were excellent last year. Patrick Paul looks like a transformed talent coming into his first season as Miami’s starting left tackle. Receiver Malik Washington just collected major praise from Tua Tagovailoa yesterday as Dolphins’ 2025 training camp wrapped up.

“(Malik is) very smart, very intuitive, just knows where to be in the right spots. I would say it’s very unique because last year, it kind of blows my mind that he was a rookie with how he comprehends the scheme and how he’s able to go about what we’re asking of him offensively,” said Tagovailoa.

This year’s draft collection holds equally heavy weight. The interior of both lines will be defined, in part, by the Dolphins’ first three draft choices from 2025. Grant and Phillips have had tremendous preseasons — Phillips looks like the steal many thought he could be whereas Grant’s athleticism is popping in a big way every time he touches the field. Savaiinaea’s play is critical. He’s been erratic through the first two preseason games but is still a clear physical upgrade over last year’s starting guards, Liam Eichenberg and Robert Jones. But he must be better than he has been in August. And fast.

The other Day 3 draft choices offer several darkhorses to make a splash. Don’t be too surprised if Ollie Gordon II ends up as the thunder to Achane’s lightning. He’s coming on strong and looks confident on and off the field right now. And defensive back Jason Marshall Jr. has been converted into the nickel for the first time in his entire playing career. He was very good in his debut in this phase against Detroit and will get an encore performance on Saturday against the Jaguars. Marshall Jr. has the physicality and explosiveness to serve as a nickel hybrid that could be of great use to defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver.

Of course, this is all dependent on the Dolphins getting these players ready to play and each of them making the respective leaps. Rookie walls are a real thing. So, too, are growing pains. Miami will endure their fair share of them. But if this team can win through them early with a lot of young talent in marquee places, it’s going to paint a very favorable picture for everyone’s favorite pick for the hot seat coach of 2025 and his future outlook amid Miami’s bid to get their groove back.

If not? Well, then it could and arguably should be time to go back to the drawing board.