Don’t say the word “rebuild” around the Miami Dolphins’ facility.

As the team prepares for its first training camp practice Wednesday morning, the message from their leaders are clear:

Miami’s reshaped roster may be younger and unproven, but nobody inside the building is ready to treat this season as a placeholder.

“I don’t look at it as a rebuild. Because I’m in it,” said linebacker Jordyn Brooks, who recently signed a three-year, $51.3 million extension. “We’ve got a bunch of football players who are hungry and super talented. Our goal is to help lead the charge.”

The first-team All-Pro was one of three Dolphins representatives to address reporters Tuesday, joining head coach Jeff Hafley and quarterback Malik Willis, and none sounded ready to lower their expectations.

Brooks said he still has “unfinished business” with the organization.

During his first two seasons with the Dolphins, the team failed to reach the playoffs, but Brooks’ confidence in this 2026 roster isn’t based on previous records, or the names filling out its depth chart.

The 28-year-old has seen teams loaded with recognizable stars fail because they never meshed well enough to win.

He’s also seen less-proven groups like the New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars outperform expectations by playing together.

“You can have this superstar-studded team, and they’re not worth a darn,” Brooks said. “They don’t have the right chemistry. They don’t know how to connect the dots together. And you can have a bunch of no-name teams who know how to gel, who know how to win and know how to buy in together.”

Willis, who was signed to a three-year deal worth $67.5 million this spring to become Miami’s starting quarterback, was similarly quick to push back against concerns about whether Miami has surrounded him with enough offensive weapons.

The presumed starting quarterback spent part of the break in Jacksonville, with seven teammates stopping by, using the informal throwing sessions to learn details such as how quickly each receiver comes out of a break and where each prefers the ball to be placed.

“We all play football at a high level. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be in the NFL,” Willis said of Miami’s largely unproven receiving corps. “Every team has good players. It’s just about putting them in a position to be successful. A lot of guys who have big names, at one point, didn’t have a big name. I think that’s how it goes. You’ve just got to prove it, and that’s where we’re at right now.”

While aware of the team’s underwhelming national projections, Hafley said the opening of training camp wasn’t the time to use them as motivation.

“Now is the time for us to focus on ourselves and for our guys to go out and do their jobs,” Hafley said. “I’d rather not have that be the main focus because I think that kind of goes in one ear out the other. You get fired up for a couple minutes, and then you leave, and it has to become real again.”

Instead, the first-year head coach wants the Dolphins to build their identity around controllable factors, like toughness, execution, leadership, consistent effort on the practice field and in-game production.

Part of that identity was established before camp by extending Brooks, running back De’Von Achane and center Aaron Brewer, moves Hafley believes showed Miami’s younger players that production and leadership will be rewarded.

“I think Sully did a great job there,” Hafley said of general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan. “I think it says to everybody on our team, ‘If I go out and I can produce and I do things the right way, then I will be rooted here.’”

That message is especially important for a roster loaded with players trying to prove themselves, including 13 draft picks and 39 veterans playing on one-year contracts for the NFL minimum, or close to it.

As one of the veterans Miami rewarded this offseason for both his production and leadership, Brooks understands that getting the rest of the roster to buy in must begin with the example he sets.

“To get somebody to buy in, you have to be bought in,” Brooks said. “I’ve got to make sure I’m bought in. Every day I come up here, the guys will see that, and then whatever I say after that will make sense.”

This story was originally published July 28, 2026 at 1:33 PM.