Malik Willis' vision for the Miami Dolphins may have been one of roses and butterflies. His first real shot at starting and running an NFL offense came with a fast run game and a top WR. That all blew up when the Dolphins traded Jaylen Waddle on Tuesday.
The trade is good for the Dolphins, but the wide receiver room looks more like Swiss cheese than an actual starting unit, and there are no free agents who will fix that. If Dolphins fans were concerned about how the 2026 season might go, they just got a dose of reality.
With the Waddle trade, Miami's receiver unit is void of proven talent, but this is what everyone should have expected from the start.
Jon-Eric Sullivan's Jaylen Waddle trade is the clearest indication yet that the Miami Dolphins are seriously rebuilding
Miami currently has seven receivers on its roster after the Waddle trade. It's not a pretty unit.
- Theo Wease, Jr.
- Malik Washington
- Tahj Washington
- Jalen Tolbert
- TuTu Atwell
- Terrace Marshall, Jr.
- A.J. Henning
Two of those players, Atwell and Tolbert, were added last week when free agency began. Both Washington's were late draft picks in 2024, with only Malik having any real playing time. Marshall has been in the NFL since 2021, having played for both the Panthers and Raiders, while Wease was an undrafted addition after the 2025 draft.
The Dolphins will need to find help, and it will likely come after the draft when they begin adding undrafted players. The trade puts Miami in a good position to land one of the top WRs this year, but with so many other needs, that isn't a forgone conclusion.
The real loser in this move is Willis, who, at least for now, has an inexperienced receiver unit. De'Von Achane, provided he too doesn't get traded, will get a larger workload and could emerge as the Dolphins' top pass-catcher in 2026.
It was clear that Miami was going to unravel many of Chris Grier's errors, and you could make a strong argument that a Waddle trade was inevitable, given his salary. The Dolphins are once again moving forward in an attempt to completely overhaul everything and everyone in the building. If anyone questioned Sullivan's conviction on turning this around, they can't anymore.