Feeling optimistic!

I am as down on 2026 as I have been for basically any season in team history other than 2019. My expectations are sub-basement low. A very bad team facing what would be a very difficult schedule even for a pretty good one. But the upside of that is that a lot of young players will get a lot of playing time, which will be interesting to watch and see them develop. And we'll likely have very high draft picks next year, key towards moving forward with the rebuild.

I feel better about Sullivan than any GM we've had since Jimmy. Fingers crossed he doesn't try and cheat with any short cuts, and just builds through the draft this season, taking as many young players as possible and understanding that we need to just take our medicine this season and get through it, because wins and losses don't matter right now.

 

As long as Tua goes I'm good with them for the next 4 years. No rush to build a winner year 1 or even 2. Just draft well and put us in a position for year 3

 

Grier was awful all around. He just couldn't stop himself from trying to outsmart everyone and jump the line, and it kept blowing up in his face. He was great at making deals to gather more picks, and then just turned around and gave them away, and paid malcontents huge sums of money.

 

the spectre of Grier will haunt the Dolphins for many years to come.

 

Grier was a snake-oil salesman who ultimately had no idea what he was doing. You have to lock up homegrown talent and you don't wait until they're a free agent to do that. It didn't matter if his picks were a hit or a miss because nobody ever stayed. To me, that means he missed on everything.

I hate rebuilds for the sake of rebuilding. I hate firing head coaches when the problems appear obvious and not completely on the coach. I hate starting over every 4-5 years and hearing the same speeches of why this time is different. I really hate all of it because I love football so much, yet we're stuck in the movie Groundhog Day.

This time can be different because the offense isn't changing much. That's good, at least there's some continuity. But we need an entire defense and we need a QB. I'm excited for Ewers in year two and whoever competes against him. Not because I love Ewers, but I do like change when it's obviously needed.

Tua was the reason for the 2025 season; he could no longer execute or give more than the bare minimum. But in all honesty, we had already "blown it all up" by entering the season without a secondary, without any identity on defense. No idea what Grier was thinking but it cost everyone their job. So for me, this is sort of "year 2" in the rebuild, which lets me feel a little bit more hopeful.

Suddenly, I'm a Chargers fan as well in the same way that I was a Titans fan many seasons ago. Was McDaniel the problem? I think we'll have a clear answer in the very near future. But I also have a pretty good feel on knowing the answer; when well over half your salary cap is tied to two players that can't contribute (Tua + Tyreek), the season is doomed. Can't blame Tyreek for the injury, of course, but you guys get where I'm going with that.

 

I feel very differently than you do, but we all need to be fans the way we choose. I see this as year negative one in the rebuild, with 2027 the first one we'll hopefully actually make progress. I don't think that there's more than two or three players not on his rookie contract on the roster who will be with the team in Week 1 of 27.

 

Yeah, there's no right or wrong answer here when we're talking about how we feel.

For me, the positives are the run game (run blocking + Achane) and the progress our young defense made late last year. That's something we can build on anyway and I agree with you, we should clean house of veterans for the most part. I'd like to keep Waddle but I have a feeling someone will vastly overpay. So be it, he can be our Tunsil 2.0.

To be clear, last season wasn't "penciled in" as a rebuild year, yet that's what we were left with after the fire sale of our secondary. The only good to come of that is those young guys have a year of experience now.