Miami Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan establishes VERY clear expectations for his early selections in next week’s 2026 NFL Draft
“You’re expecting that guy to be a valuable starter for you.”
The Miami Dolphins are, per Peter Schrager, just the second team in NFL history to own seven picks in the first three rounds of an NFL Draft. Whether or not it stays that way is yet to be determined.
Miami’s rookie class is burdened with carrying the hope of tomorrow for the franchise. But they’re also saddled with something bigger after Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan‘s latest press conference. They’re facing ambitious expectations from the new man in charge with Miami.
Good! Expectations and standards need to be high for the Dolphins to turn this ship around. But the exact depth of those expectations has now been established. Sullivan offered a very clear threshold for where he expects to find “valuable starters” for his Dolphins teams. Anything in the top-100.
Jon-Eric Sullivan expects the Miami Dolphins to secure a whole bunch of starters in the 2026 NFL Draft
“Obviously the higher that you take a player, I would say in the first three rounds, you’re expecting that guy to be a valuable starter for you. I think you can hit, we did it in Green Bay many times over again — sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. But the David Bakhtiaris in the fourth round, the Josh Sittons in the fourth round, Corey Linsley was a Pro Bowl center, he was a fifth-round pick.
I think if you do your job and your process is right, you can find really good value in the middle to late rounds that they don’t necessarily have to be depth players. They can come in and play good football for you as starters.”
Miami Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan
On expectations for rookie draft selections coming in
This is basic math, right? If the Miami Dolphins general manager expects players from rounds one through three to be valuable starters and the Miami Dolphins have seven top-100 picks…
The war chest of third-round picks is that much more exciting when you look at the expectations for these players through this standpoint. If the Miami Dolphins successfully add seven(!) starters to the roster in the first two days of the draft, the direction of the roster is going to look dramatically different by the end of next December.
Would all of those rookies play well? Most likely not. If they did, Sullivan would have one hell of a case for executive of the year. Some of these youngsters are almost destined to be relegated to depth roles as the roster continues to be leveled up. But nevertheless, this team should have several anchor players across the roster that materialize and give the team something to work around.
That’s draft and develop. And that is what the Miami Dolphins want to be. Sullivan has now put a range on the area of the draft where “starter” expectations exist. Mock draft accordingly for the next week. And then we’ll wait to see which ones rise to those lofty expectations. The more, the better.
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