{"id":233833,"date":"2026-04-16T05:37:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T05:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/233833\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T05:37:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T05:37:22","slug":"miami-dolphins-general-manager-jon-eric-sullivan-establishes-very-clear-expectations-for-his-early-selections-in-next-weeks-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/233833\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan establishes VERY clear expectations for his early selections in next week’s 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou\u2019re expecting that guy to be a valuable starter for you.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJan 22, 2026; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan speaks to reporters during his introductory press conference at Baptist Health Training Complex.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSam Navarro-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Miami Dolphins<\/a> are, per Peter Schrager<\/a>, just the second team in NFL history to own seven picks in the first three rounds of an NFL Draft. Whether or not it stays that way is yet to be determined. <\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s rookie class is burdened with carrying the hope of tomorrow for the franchise. But they\u2019re also saddled with something bigger after Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan<\/a>\u2018s latest press conference. They\u2019re facing ambitious expectations from the new man in charge with Miami. <\/p>\n

Good! Expectations and standards need to be high for the Dolphins to turn this ship around. But the exact depth of those expectations has now been established. Sullivan<\/a> offered a very clear threshold for where he expects to find \u201cvaluable starters\u201d for his Dolphins teams. Anything in the top-100. <\/p>\n

Jon-Eric Sullivan expects the Miami Dolphins to secure a whole bunch of starters in the 2026 NFL Draft<\/p>\n

\"\"Jan 22, 2026; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan speaks.Sam Navarro-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the higher that you take a player, I would say in the first three rounds, you\u2019re expecting that guy to be a valuable starter for you. I think you can hit, we did it in Green Bay many times over again \u2014\u00a0sometimes it\u2019s better to be lucky than good. But the David Bakhtiaris in the fourth round, the Josh Sittons in the fourth round, Corey Linsley was a Pro Bowl center, he was a fifth-round pick. <\/p>\n

I think if you do your job and your process is right, you can find really good value in the middle to late rounds that they don\u2019t necessarily have to be depth players. They can come in and play good football for you as starters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miami Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan<\/p>\n

On expectations for rookie draft selections coming in<\/p>\n

This is basic math, right? If the Miami Dolphins general manager expects players from rounds one through three to be valuable starters and the Miami Dolphins have seven top-100 picks\u2026<\/p>\n

The war chest of third-round picks is that much more exciting when you look at the expectations for these players through this standpoint. If the Miami Dolphins successfully add seven(!) starters to the roster in the first two days of the draft, the direction of the roster is going to look dramatically different by the end of next December. <\/p>\n

Would all of those rookies play well? Most likely not. If they did, Sullivan would have one hell of a case for executive of the year. Some of these youngsters are almost destined to be relegated to depth roles as the roster continues to be leveled up. But nevertheless, this team should have several anchor players across the roster that materialize and give the team something to work around. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s draft and develop. And that is what the Miami Dolphins want to be. Sullivan has now put a range on the area of the draft where \u201cstarter\u201d expectations exist. Mock draft accordingly for the next week. And then we\u2019ll wait to see which ones rise to those lofty expectations. The more, the better. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"The\t\t<\/p>\n

Miami Dolphins News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou\u2019re expecting that guy to be a valuable starter for you.\u201d Jan 22, 2026; Miami Gardens, FL, USA;…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[54521,1250,102342,58521,123,1763,2797,125,124],"class_list":{"0":"post-233833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-2026-nfl-draft","9":"tag-dolphins","10":"tag-dolphins-news","11":"tag-jon-eric-sullivan","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-miami-dolphins","14":"tag-miami-dolphins-news","15":"tag-miami-headlines","16":"tag-miami-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}