Miami Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan must be jazzed about his new gig. After many years in Green Bay's front office, he gets to call the shots for his own team — and is he ever pointing and shooting thus far.
Sullivan is making mass layoffs of veteran players already. His Packers background hints at a penchant for building through the draft and retaining that talent. Miami's setup gives the new regime plenty of possibilities for how to navigate that ordeal.
No matter how Sullivan spends his three third-round picks, or how he chooses to approach his first-ever pick as a GM at 11th overall, he can't afford to ignore one area of the roster in particular. It's so weak that Sullivan should absolutely draft at least two players at a position group the Dolphins desperately need to inject talent into.
Miami Dolphins' dire need & strong draft depth should lead to multiple cornerback picks
Sullivan and ex-Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley are tied at the hip. This isn't some arranged marriage between coach and GM, where the exec doesn't get the ideal players to fit the coach's scheme.
Hafley leans heavily into zone coverage, and must find cornerbacks who are capable of grasping his scheme. Miami doesn't have a bunch of money to spend in free agency and will probably save up most of its cash to score Green Bay quarterback Malik Willis as Tua Tagovailoa's replacement. Even that feels like a stretch at the minute.
So yeah, between Sullivan's draft-heavy Green Bay roots and Hafley's need for cornerbacks to upgrade over the likes of current projected starter Storm Duck, multiple draft picks should be spent there.
How Miami gets to two corners in the draft is immaterial. It could entail drafting someone like LSU's Mansoor Delane or Tennessee's Jermod McCoy at 11th overall. The savvier move would probably be waiting until Day 2, if draft guru Daniel Jeremiah's simple but effective analysis is any premise to go by:
There are a lot of day 2 starting CB's in this draft.
— Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) February 17, 2026
If true, the Dolphins couldn't ask for better news when it comes to this incoming crop of rookies.
Say one of the consensus top-three wide receivers in Carnell Tate, Jordyn Tyson, or Makai Lemon falls to the Fins at 11. They could take them and turn around on Day 2 to nab multiple cornerbacks capable of playing in Week 1.
To support Jeremiah's premise, just look at some of the dynamic guys Miami could target in Rounds 2 and 3, courtesy of PFF's advanced data:
- Keith Abney II, Arizona State — 91.7 PFF zone coverage grade, 46.1 passer rating allowed, two missed tackles
- Chris Johnson, San Diego State — 91.9 PFF zone coverage grade, 16.1 passer rating allowed, three missed tackles
- D'Angelo Ponds, Indiana — 84.6 PFF zone coverage grade, 53.5 passer rating allowed, two missed tackles
- Treydan Stukes, Arizona — 89.5 PFF zone coverage grade, 34.4 passer rating allowed, six missed tackles
- Jadon Canady, Oregon — 82.0 PFF zone coverage grade, 39.4 passer rating allowed, six missed tackles
Plenty more where those gents came from, too. Stukes and Canady are nickelbacks, so whether it's boundary corners or slot men, the Dolphins should attack both on Day 2.
I included missed tackles in there because, for zone-heavy schemes, cornerbacks are trying to keep everything underneath and in front of them. They must be capable of rallying to tackle and prepared to turn on a dime to stuff the run when called upon.
Stukes and Canady have slightly higher miss rates, but theirs pale in comparison to more hyped nickel prospects like Keionte Scott and Chandler Rivers (15 missed tackles apiece). How they're higher-billed at this point than those two is kind of beyond me.
Anyway, it'd be wise of Sullivan to take two swings at cornerback. It could mean pairing Delane/McCoy with one of the nickels, or letting it rip at the position twice on Day 2. Or perhaps a Day 3 guy really strikes the fancies of Sullivan and Hafley. Any which way it gets done, that should be Miami's main objective in the 2026 draft.