In 2025, the Miami Dolphins were a major disappointment. The 7–10 record Mike McDaniel willed last year's roster to might prove to be a greater accomplishment than initially given credit for. Despite the high hopes that preceded the campaign, the truth appears to be that an astonishing regression at the quarterback position wasn't the only reason for falling short of expectations.
The roster simply wasn't up to snuff across the board, and it manifested itself in a few ways. To begin with, general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley saw to it that there were 39 departures from the 2025 outfit via free agency. 39! That figure doesn't even include exits via trade like Jaylen Waddle and Minkah Fitzpatrick, and Miami still outpaced the team with the second-most free agent departures (the Detroit Lions) by 10 players.
Things may look bleak, but the sheer number of departures indicates that the new regime had no choice but to bargain shop in their first offseason.
The new Miami Dolphins regime was left with very little in terms of a foundation
It's unusual to churn the roster at such a scale, but that's only half the equation. While in part due to the sheer volume of departures, it's notable that 16 of those players remain unsigned. That's the second-most to the Washington Commanders' 18. It's also indicative of a roster full of players on their way out of the NFL, which is obviously not a winning formula.
But wait, there's more! See, it actually makes sense for the Commanders to be above the Dolphins on this list, and not because they stunk (they did) or because they keep failing Jayden Daniels (they are). According to the Philly Voice's Jimmy Kempski, Washington had the oldest average roster in the league in 2025. In fact, as Kempski tells it, they were so old that they took the cane, uh, I mean crown, of the oldest team since at least 2012.
It makes sense that a large contingent of their players remain unsigned. We're talking enough 30-year-olds to field a defense with some backups to spare. No, seriously — 16 of their 18 remaining free agents have lived at least three decades on this planet. Why waste so much time talking about the Commanders? Well, it's because their roster conundrum at least makes sense.
The Dolphins are right there with them, despite one major difference. The Dolphins, at an average age of 26 on cutdown day last year, had the ninth-youngest roster. They also had just nine players aged 29 or older, tied for the fifth-fewest in the league. The Dolphins team that has been gutted didn't get here because they were old. They got here because they were just not very good.
Some of the players who've been jettisoned — Tyreek Hill, Rasul Douglas, Darren Waller, Bradley Chubb — were a little longer in the tooth. They were also unironically some of Miami's best players. So, it's a bit of a good-news-bad-news thing there. In any case, the Dolphins are intent on starting over, building around new franchise pillars like De'Von Achane, Aaron Brewer, and perhaps soon enough, Jordyn Brooks.
It seems a foregone conclusion that Miami will field the youngest roster in the NFL next year. While averaging out the ages of the present roster is a fool's errand due to the litany of undrafted free agents in the building, I never said I wasn't a fool. At a 24.6 average, the Dolphins would beat out the youngest team in 2025, the Green Bay Packers, who stood at 25.23.
It's worth noting that the Packers were the league's youngest team in 2024 and 2023 as well. Jon-Eric Sullivan and his cheesehead roots can only be so obvious. While there's more than one way to build a roster, Sullivan and Hafley don't need to say how they felt about last year's team. Their actions have spoken — deafeningly so.
Dolphins fans are hoping this time around the build will actually stand the test of time. That hope has been lingering for the past quarter-century. The future is now.
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