Jon-Eric Sullivan must be careful not to turn Dolphins into Moneyball Browns

The 2026 NFL Draft is less than a month away, and Miami Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan is leaning into his Green Bay history of building a roster on young, cheap talent.

Not that Sullivan is averse to adding players through free agency. Miami just couldn't afford to do that this offseason. New starting quarterback Malik Willis was the only real exception.

But between how youthful the current core of players is and the ridiculous surplus of draft capital the Dolphins' new regime has at its disposal, there's a bit of a slippery slope at play here. If Sullivan and his department don't pull through and hit on those draft picks, this could be a Moneyball Cleveland Browns tank job all over again.

Miami Dolphins stockpiling draft picks & young players feels eerily similar to last decade's Browns tank job

Back in 2015, the Browns hired MLB exec Paul DePodesta to their front office and leaned into analytics like never before. They accrued as many draft picks as possible, trying to game the system like DePodesta did to succeed on a tight payroll with the Oakland A's.

Only football isn't baseball. It's a violent game of superior athletes that transcends sabermetrics and spreadsheets far more than America's Pastime.

What worked so well in Major League Baseball, inspired a best-selling book, and served as the title of an Oscar-nominated film starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill as DePodesta's proxy, did not translate to the NFL.

Some of that is on the setting in which this epic disaster of a tank job took place. The Browns are the Browns for a reason, after all.

Cleveland did what Cleveland does. Whiffed on all save maybe a handful of its 26 draft picks from 2015-16. Even when No. 1 overall pick Myles Garrett joined the fold in the 2017 draft, the Browns bottomed out with a 0-16 record. They went 1-31 across the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

The Dolphins' core of tailback De'Von Achane, left tackle Patrick Paul, center Aaron Brewer, defensive lineman Zach Sieler, and linebacker Jordyn Brooks gives them a decent foundation. Certainly better than what the Browns were working with some 10-plus years ago. However, have a look at just how young this team is as things stand now:

And the youth movement will only grow after the draft. The Fins have four third-round picks, plus two first-round selections, a second-rounder, and four more Day 3 picks.

Sure makes mock drafting a lot of fun. It's exciting to think about the possibilities of nailing those picks. Then again, what if Sullivan just winds up watering down the roster with inexperienced talent seemingly for the sake of it? What if many of those players aren't ready to make an impact? What if he whiffs on several of those earlier selections?

Lots of ways this could go wrong. It'll be quite the storm for Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley to weather, especially in the AFC East division. The Buffalo Bills are an annual Super Bowl contender. The New England Patriots were just there. And the New York Jets are spending out of their eyeballs to try to inject some life back into their moribund franchise.

Phin Phanatic's Dante Walker shared a quote in a recent article, which hints that Sullivan may move back to rack up more picks in this year's draft, penned by the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson:

"Jon-Eric Sullivan likes to collect draft picks. In the eyes of the Dolphins’ new general manager, draft picks are precious, like a vintage wine or a family heirloom. And Sullivan doesn’t merely collect the ones he already has. He likes to collect others that he doesn’t yet own."

Now that could mean the Dolphins eventually flip those assets for proven veterans, in particular if the picks come from the 2027 draft. Nevertheless, this plays into the bigger-picture, Brownsian red flag I'm underscoring here.

This new Dolphins regime most definitely has Moneyball vibes. Here's hoping they don't draft too many hitters who don't hit well.