Dolfan Radio | 2026 Season Preview
By Brad Michaels • September 2, 2026
Sunday’s 53 was a sketch. Monday’s claims were the first coat. Practice-squad Tuesday was the primer. Nobody in that building is pretending this is a finished painting. Week 1 at Allegiant is eleven days away. This is the preview you write when the churn finally slows down enough to look at the whole wall.
The regime will not say rebuild. Fine. Watch the roster. Tua is gone. Hill is gone. Waddle is gone. Minkah is gone. Chubb is gone. Grier is gone. McDaniel is gone. In their place: Jon-Eric Sullivan, Jeff Hafley, Malik Willis, a first-round corner who has not played a regular-season snap in this scheme, a second-round linebacker who just beat out a 119-tackle starter, and the youngest 53 in the league after Sullivan spent the first waiver cycle like it was March.
That is not a retool. That is a tear-down with a schedule attached.
The old outlook on this site said 4–13 after an 0–3 preseason. The wire did not change the math. It changed the names on the depth chart you will actually see in September. So here is the season, written after the claims cleared and before anyone has won a game that counts.
Hafley calls the defense. Bobby Slowik runs the offense. Sean Duggan is the DC on the call sheet. Chris Tabor has the kicking game. Sullivan reports to ownership, not through a middleman.
Willis is the starter on a three-year deal. McCord is the backup after a 2028 sixth. Cook is the third arm off the Jets scrap heap. The inherited room is gone.
Dead cap this year so the next two years can breathe. Achane is the offense if the pass game stalls. Chop and Sieler are the defense if the kids are late.
This is not a Super Bowl preview. It is a measuring-stick season. The Fan’s Guide already told you how to sit through one without turning every incomplete into a fire-the-coach thread. The short version: grade the rooms that are supposed to be the identity, not the scoreboard in Week 2 at Santa Clara.
Offense. Slowik comes out of the Shanahan tree. He wants a run game that is not a suggestion and a play-action shot that exists because the run game is real. The problem is personnel. De’Von Achane is the one proven difference-maker left on this side of the ball. Jaylen Wright and Ollie Gordon II are the committee. D.J. Herman is the fullback in a scheme that asked for one. The receivers are Malik Washington, Jalen Tolbert, and a draft class — Caleb Douglas, Chris Bell, Kevin Coleman Jr. — plus Ryan Miller, who survived when A.J. Henning did not. Greg Dulcich has to stay healthy. Justin Joly is a fifth-round rookie claimed off Denver because Ben Sims went on injured reserve. That is not a finished passing tree. It is a tree they will grow in public.
Willis has the arm and the legs. He has six career starts and a reputation for the flash and the mistake living in the same series. Bush Hamdan has two weeks to get the language in his mouth. McCord has been in the building for a handful of practices. If Willis goes down in the first month, the season becomes a different documentary.
The line is still the season. Patrick Paul, Austin Jackson, Aaron Brewer, Jonah Savaiinaea, Kadyn Proctor. Then depth that includes two waiver tackles, Jarrett Kingston and Chukwuebuka Godrick, because Cox and Priebe made Sunday and not Monday. You do not win January without a line. You barely survive September without one. Watch the first two drives every week before you watch the box score.
Defense. Hafley is a first-time NFL head coach who already called a top-12 unit in Green Bay. He will not wait to be aggressive. Chop Robinson is the Year 3 bet we already wrote. Zach Sieler is the grown-up in the interior. Kenneth Grant, the kid who was supposed to play next to him, is on injured reserve and hopeful after four games. Jordyn Brooks is the veteran next to Jacob Rodriguez, the rookie who won the job when they let Tyrel Dodson walk. That pairing is the identity test. If Rodriguez looks like a starter in November, the draft hit. If Brooks is covering for a kid who is late, you will feel it on early downs.
The secondary was the soft spot on cutdown night. It is still the soft spot. Chris Johnson is the first-rounder. JuJu Brents and Jason Marshall Jr. stayed. Reese Taylor and Marcellas Dial Jr. came off the wire. Storm Duck and Darrell Baker Jr. are on reserve/PUP and miss the first four games. Julius Wood is a fourth safety in a room that is still a competition. Hafley said the three safeties on the first 53 were still competing. Believe him. Coverage will decide whether this defense is a scheme with teeth or a scheme with names.
After Sunday’s cutdown, Monday’s seven claims, the Herring signing, and Tuesday’s practice-squad shuffle. A name can still move. This is the list as of September 2.
| Pos | On the 53 |
|---|---|
| QB | Malik Willis, Kyle McCord, Brady Cook |
| RB | De’Von Achane, Jaylen Wright, Ollie Gordon II, D.J. Herman |
| WR | Malik Washington, Jalen Tolbert, Caleb Douglas, Chris Bell, Kevin Coleman Jr., Ryan Miller |
| TE | Greg Dulcich, Will Kacmarek, Seydou Traore, Justin Joly |
| OL | Patrick Paul, Austin Jackson, Aaron Brewer, Jonah Savaiinaea, Kadyn Proctor, Caedan Wallace, D.J. Campbell, Andrew Meyer, Jarrett Kingston, Chukwuebuka Godrick |
| DL | Zach Sieler, Jordan Phillips, Zeek Biggers, Keith Cooper Jr. |
| EDGE | Chop Robinson, Josh Uche, Robert Beal Jr., Malik Herring |
| LB | Jordyn Brooks, Jacob Rodriguez, Kyle Louis, Willie Gay Jr., Ronnie Harrison Jr., Jackson Woodard |
| CB | Chris Johnson, JuJu Brents, Jason Marshall Jr., Reese Taylor, Marcellas Dial Jr. |
| S | Dante Trader Jr., Zayne Anderson, Michael Taaffe, Julius Wood |
| ST | Riley Patterson (K), Bradley Pinion (P), Tucker Addington (LS) |
Grant and Trey Moore are on injured reserve with a chance to return after four games. Duck and Baker are on PUP. Ferrell and Mazi Smith are on the practice squad, which is where this front office is going to live all year. The practice squad is not a parking lot. It is the other 53.
Second-toughest slate in the league by the Vegas math. Home opener is Patrick Mahomes. The West Coast trip is Weeks 1 and 2. The bye is Week 6, which is early enough to be useful and late enough that the first five games will have already told on somebody. Division games against Buffalo and New England are not gifts. They are audits.
| Wk | Date | Opponent | How to read it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sun, Sep 13 | at Las Vegas, 4:25 FOX | The one that looks like a football game. If they cannot compete here, the floor is real. |
| 2 | Sun, Sep 20 | at San Francisco, 4:25 FOX | Measuring stick. Do not fire Hafley on the flight home. |
| 3 | Sun, Sep 27 | vs Kansas City, 1:00 CBS | Home opener against Mahomes. Survival is the grade. |
| 4 | Sun, Oct 4 | at Minnesota, 4:05 FOX | Possible. Indoor, young secondary, live ball. |
| 5 | Sun, Oct 11 | vs Cincinnati, 1:00 FOX | Possible if the pass rush lands. |
| 6 | — | BYE | First real pause. Grant’s clock starts here. |
| 7 | Sun, Oct 25 | at N.Y. Jets, 1:00 CBS | Must-compete. Division game against a team in the same tax bracket. |
| 8 | Sun, Nov 1 | vs New England, 4:25 CBS | Audit. The Patriots are not the old joke. |
| 9 | Sun, Nov 8 | vs Detroit, 1:00 FOX | Physical test at home. |
| 10 | Sun, Nov 15 | at Indianapolis, 1:00 CBS | Live ball on the road. |
| 11 | Sun, Nov 22 | at Buffalo, 1:00 FOX | The January problem, in November. |
| 12 | Sun, Nov 29 | vs N.Y. Jets, 1:00 CBS | Second look. If they are 2–8, this is still a game they should play. |
| 13 | Sun, Dec 6 | at Denver, 4:05 FOX | Altitude and a real defense. |
| 14 | Sun, Dec 13 | vs Chicago, 1:00 CBS | Home, late, possible if the run game is real. |
| 15 | Sun, Dec 20 | at Green Bay, 1:00 FOX | The building Sullivan and Hafley left. Cold-weather test they keep talking about. |
| 16 | Sun, Dec 27 | vs L.A. Chargers, 1:00 FOX | Herbert at Hard Rock is not a soft landing. |
| 17 | Sun, Jan 3 | vs Buffalo, 1:00 CBS | The other half of the January problem. |
| 18 | TBD | at New England | Flex game. Close the books on Foxborough. |
The honest “win column” on that slate is Las Vegas, both Jets games, and then whatever falls out of Minnesota, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, or Chicago if a quarterback misses or a young room grows up three weeks early. That is how you get to four. Five is a clean month. Seven is the ceiling the league website floated in July. One is the floor if Willis gets hurt and the line caves.
Books opened this team around 4.5 and have been walking it down. Some shops are at 3.5. Super Bowl futures are lottery tickets. Playoff futures are the same sentence in a different font. We are not here to sell a parlay.
Dolfan Radio number: 4–13. Same number we had after camp. The waiver claims made the 53 less imaginary. They did not make Kansas City, Buffalo, Green Bay, or San Francisco smaller. If they go 5–12 it will be because Achane stayed on the field and two of those toss-up games broke right. If they go 2–15 it will be because the quarterback room became a hospital and the line never showed up on third-and-short.
Four wins is not the goal. Four wins is the weather report. The goal is a line that can run it, a rusher who ruins a protection, a linebacker who was worth the pick, and a quarterback who looks like he can start in 2027 without the building needing another sixth-round swing. Sullivan already told you the first 53 was an opening bid. Believe the next sentence too: names will still move in October. That will not mean September failed. That will mean the job is the job.
We are not writing the league-wide predictions package. Traffic likes Dolphins. So does this site. We are not publishing chapter two of the Fan’s Guide until four games are in the books — you cannot teach people how the season feels until the season has a feel. The Week 1 preview lands Wednesday, September 9, six days before Allegiant. That piece is the Raiders. This piece is the year.
The 1993 essay stays in the featured slot until this team wins a game. That was the rule after cutdown. It is still the rule. Thirty-three years without a conference title game. Twenty-five without a playoff win. A 4–13 club does not retire that graphic. A Sunday in Las Vegas might. We will find out on the 13th.
Where do you have them — and which room has to hit for this not to be a lost year? Leave it in the comments.