Miami Dolphins

Chartered in 1965, transformed in 1970

The franchise was founded on 16 August 1965, when the lawyer Joseph Robbie and the actor Danny Thomas paid $7.5m for an American Football League expansion side. Miami began play in 1966 at the Orange Bowl and joined the NFL through the 1970 AFL–NFL merger. The early years were poor; the correction came with the arrival of Don Shula as head coach in 1970.

Shula stayed until 1995 and left with more wins than any head coach in professional football. Between 1970 and 1999 the club recorded only two losing seasons. Five of its Super Bowl appearances came under him: a defeat in Super Bowl VI, then back-to-back titles for the 1972 and 1973 seasons, then further losses in Super Bowls XVII and XIX.

Seventeen and nought

The 1972 team went 14–0 in the regular season and won three more games through the playoffs and Super Bowl VII, the only complete perfect season in NFL history. More than half a century later it is still the measure every unbeaten team is held against, and it remains the single fact most people outside south Florida know about the club.

The furniture of that era survives at games: the fight song written by Lee Ofman before the 1972 season, the aqua and orange, the dolphin mascot T.D. Surviving members of the 1972 squad are still wheeled out for anniversary ceremonies, which tells its own story about what has and has not happened since.

Marino, then twenty-five years without a playoff win

Dan Marino quarterbacked Miami from 1983 to 1999, broke a long list of league passing records, and took the team to five division titles and ten playoff appearances without ever winning a Super Bowl. His retirement marked the start of the club's long flat stretch.

Since 2000 the Dolphins have reached the playoffs six times — in 2000, 2001, 2008, 2016, 2022 and 2023 — and won a single postseason game, in the 2000 season. That is the longest active run without a playoff win in the NFL, and it now stands at 25 seasons. Stephen Ross has owned the club since 2009 and has cycled through coaching regimes without shortening it.

The teardown: October 2025 to April 2026

The 2025 season broke the last regime. Tyreek Hill suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Week 4 win over the Jets. By Week 9 the team was 2–7 and general manager Chris Grier, ten years in post, was gone on 31 October 2025. A run of four straight wins briefly revived the year before four consecutive defeats from Week 15 finished it. Tua Tagovailoa was benched before Week 16 in favour of the rookie Quinn Ewers. Miami ended 7–10, third in the AFC East.

Mike McDaniel was sacked on 8 January 2026 after four seasons. Jon-Eric Sullivan, previously in Green Bay's player personnel department, was hired as general manager on 9 January; Jeff Hafley, the Packers' defensive coordinator, was appointed head coach on 19 January. Both came from the same building, and both inherited a payroll built for a team that no longer existed.

What followed was not a retool but a demolition. Tagovailoa was released and signed for Atlanta. Jaylen Waddle was traded to Denver. Hill was released. Kicker Jason Sanders and linebacker Bradley Chubb also departed. The money that stayed went to players in their twenties: running back De'Von Achane on four years and $64m, centre Aaron Brewer on three years and $52.5m, linebacker Jordyn Brooks on three years and $51.3m.

The draft reinforced the direction: offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor at 12th overall, cornerback Chris Johnson at 27th, linebacker Jacob Rodriguez in the second round, receiver Caleb Douglas in the third. Malik Willis, a journeyman with a handful of starts behind him, opened the season as quarterback.

Two games in

Miami went 0–3 in the preseason, losing to Washington, the Giants and Atlanta, and the regular season has so far confirmed the reading. On 13 September at Allegiant Stadium the Raiders won 27–13. Willis was sacked five times and held the ball too long under pressure, though his 14-yard scramble for a touchdown cut the deficit to 17–13 in the third quarter. Achane managed 36 yards from 11 carries. The two bright spots were rookies: Douglas caught five passes for 94 yards on debut, and Rodriguez led all players with 14 tackles.

A week later, on 20 September at Levi's Stadium, San Francisco won 35–13. Miami outgained the 49ers 165 yards to 125 in the first half and trailed only 14–6 at the break before conceding 21 points in the third quarter. Willis finished 14 of 23 for 197 yards and a touchdown and was sacked four times. Hafley called it a tale of two halves and said the second was "not good enough in any phase", adding that the coaching had not been good enough either. Willis said he had not done enough to win the game; Brewer pointed to drives that reached the red zone and ended in field goals; right tackle Austin Jackson said simply that he had to play better.

The structural problems are plainer than the scorelines. Miami has generated close to no pass rush, the secondary has been exposed, penalties have been frequent and the special teams have been poor enough that the club signed linebacker Andre Jones Jr. off Buffalo's practice squad specifically to help there. Local analysts have set expectations accordingly, one writing flatly that rebuilds often suck and that this one is unlikely to turn before the bye.

The building

Hard Rock Stadium opened on 16 August 1987 as Joe Robbie Stadium, the first entirely privately financed multipurpose stadium built in the United States. Ross funded its reconstruction across 2015 and 2016, a project that cut capacity from 75,000 to roughly 65,000, pulled the stands closer to the field, installed video boards in all four corners and hung an open-air canopy over the seating bowl — the single most useful feature of the place for a one o'clock kick-off in a Miami September. Hard Rock International bought the naming rights in August 2016 for $250m over 18 years, running to 2034.

It is one of the busiest venues in American sport. Six Super Bowls have been played there, most recently LIV; the Miami Open has used the site since 2019 and the Formula One Miami Grand Prix since 2022; it has staged College Football Playoff national championship games, and this summer it was one of the venues for the FIFA World Cup. The Dolphins' own eight dates are only part of the calendar, which is part of why the club's fortunes and the building's are no longer the same story.