PHOENIX
Jon-Eric Sullivan issued a warning to those that think the Miami Dolphins are out of the quarterback market after the franchise signed Malik Willis as a free agent.
When the Dolphins’ newly hired general manager was asked at the NFL owners meeting if his team would be less likely to select a quarterback after signing Willis to a three-year deal worth $67.5 million deal, which guarantees him $45 million, Sullivan issued a “hold on now” warming.
“Less likely? I wouldn’t say that,” said Sullivan, who comes from the Green Bay Packers franchise, which has drafted eight quarterbacks since 2004, which is when his tenure with the Packers organization began.
“If it fell a certain way, I’m going to do what I think is best for the Dolphins,” Sullivan said, hinting that Miami could select a quarterback in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, a Miami native, is expected to be selected first overall by the Las Vegas Raiders, and from there only one other quarterback — Alabama’s Ty Simpson — is mentioned as a possible top-50 selection.
There’s also another dozen or so quarterbacks — such as LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Penn State’s Drew Allar, North Dakota’s Cole Payton and UM Carson Beck, to name a few — who could potentially be targets for the Dolphins in Day 2 or 3 of the draft.
Miami has 11 picks, which includes seven draft picks in the top 100 selections, and Sullivan has vowed to draft the highest-rated players on Miami’s draft board in the first year of this franchise rebuild, where the Dolphins are littered with needs at every position but defensive tackle and tailback.
That means a quarterback could potentially hear his name called by the Dolphins.
“I’m not saying the whole world would understand it, but sometimes you have to do things to secure the long-term vision and health of an organization,” Sullivan said. “It doesn’t make sense to everyone else.”
That statement seemingly alludes to Miami’s desire to have competition at every spot. The Dolphins have backed that mentality up by adding two punters, two kickers and two long snappers to the 90 player roster heading into next week’s start of the offseason program.
While Willis is viewed as the front-runner to become the Dolphins’ starting quarterback, Sullivan said that role will be earned, not given, which means he will be competing with Quinn Ewers and Cam Miller, two second-year quarterbacks, to replace Tua Tagovailoa.
And according to Sullivan, it’s seemingly not out of the question that a draftee could be added to the room, if the board falls just right.
“Malik is our guy. I’m very happy with Quinn. Quinn will tell you he ain’t going [out] quietly. I’ve had my own conversations with him,” Sullivan added. “There is going to be a lot of competition in that room. I don’t feel the pressure now that I did six weeks ago. But you never say never, and if [the draft board] fell a certain way, I have no problem doing it.”
