Forget what the Dolphins used to be. That small, fast, finesse identity that defined the Mike McDaniel era? It's gone. Jon-Eric Sullivan just drafted 13 players in his first draft as an NFL general manager, and the blueprint couldn't be more clear: size, physicality, production, and players with something to prove.

Start with Kadyn Proctor. He's 6-7, 352 pounds, and the largest player drafted in 2026. Then Chris Johnson at corner, one of the biggest corners in the class with 4.43 speed. Caleb Douglas at 6-4 ran a 4.39 at the combine. Chris Bell at 6-2, 222 is a physical receiver who spent his college career bullying defensive backs. Will Kacmarek grades out as the best blocking tight end in the draft.

"It's important to me that this team looks a certain way and moves a certain way," Sullivan said. "I believe it's a big man's game. That's not to say that there's not really good players in the league that are on the smaller side, but yeah, we want to build this team big, physical at all positions and have a size advantage."

Production mattered, too. This wasn't a draft full of Combine heroes. This group was uber-productive at the collegiate level.

Proctor allowed two sacks in 527 pass attempts. Johnson didn't allow a single touchdown and led the nation in pass-rating-against. Linebacker Jacob Rodriguez led the country in tackles and finished fifth in the Heisman voting. Bell had three straight 100-yard ACC games before his ACL tear. Sullivan drafted tape, not measurements.

The other thread running through every pick was competition and accountability. Sullivan didn't mince words on Day 2: "Iron sharpens iron. Anybody in this building that is afraid of competition, or doesn't welcome it, or embrace it, shouldn't be here."

He also said something you almost never hear from a Dolphins executive: "At the end of the day, the buck stops with me. I take responsibility for every player we pick. Whether it turns out the way you want it to or whether it goes south, it stops with me. I'm not hiding from it."

That's a different voice than what this franchise has heard in a long time. Chris Grier never talked like that. The personnel decisions under the previous regime wavered between philosophies depending on who was pushing hardest. Sullivan has a clear vision, and he's not apologizing for it, even when the choices are unpopular. Taking Proctor over the local favorite Rueben Bain wasn't the crowd-pleasing move. Sullivan didn't care. He took his guy.

The character of this class stands out, too. Rodriguez and safety Michael Taaffe were both former walk-ons who earned everything they got. Jon Robinson, the former Titans GM now serving as a senior Dolphins executive, said Rodriguez "embodies everything that coach Hafley and Jon-Eric want to build here." Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi said fourth-round pick Kyle Louis isn't just a great player but "a competitor who elevates everyone in the locker room." Sullivan drafted guys with chips on their shoulders because that's the identity he wants this franchise to carry.

Bottom line: Sullivan told us exactly who he was going to be when he got hired. "Fast gets slow, but big doesn't get small." He just spent three days backing it up. The Dolphins drafted big, physical, productive players at every level of the roster, and they did it with a consistency of vision this franchise hasn't had in years. Whether these picks pan out is a question for 2027 and beyond. But for the first time in a long time, you can look at a Dolphins draft class and see a plan. That alone is progress.

Jon-Eric Sullivan went shopping for bargains and came home loaded.

Sports Illustrated tracked every steal across all seven rounds and flagged 28 total picks as significant values. Miami showed up three times. No team is going to complain about that hit rate.

Wide receiver Chris Bell at 94 is the headliner. This guy was probably a first-round pick before tearing his ACL against SMU in late November. Before the ACL tear? Bell totaled over 900 yards receiving in 11 games, including a run of three straight 100-yard ACC games. One of those performances I am sure Hurricane fans remember, as Bell tallied 136 yards and two touchdowns against the Hurricanes. Physical, 6-2, 222-pound frame that bullies corners at the catch point.

Sullivan got him in the third round because of a knee injury, not a talent deficiency. "I think most would tell you if he wouldn't have gotten hurt, he's probably not sitting there anywhere close to where we got him," Sullivan said. A first-round player on a third-round salary. That's the definition of a steal.

Linebacker (and possibly safety) Kyle Louis at 138 is the wild card. The Pitt linebacker put up 201 tackles, 10 sacks, and six interceptions in 37 games. He slipped because he doesn't fit a traditional positional bucket, which is a lazy reason to let a playmaker fall to the fourth round. Athlon Sports also named Louis Miami's single biggest steal of the entire draft. And ESPN’s Louis Riddick said last month that Louis reminds him “so much of Derrick Brooks.”

Jacob Rodriguez at 43 is the culture pick. He was the nation's leading tackler and was so productive that he actually received 17 first-place votes in the Heisman Trophy voting last season. J-Rod went from walk-on to two-time team captain. Sullivan called him the flag-bearer of this draft class. He fell to the second round because he's considered undersized for an inside linebacker, but the man simply does not stop tackling people. Jon Robinson said Rodriguez "embodies everything that coach Hafley and Jon-Eric want to build here." When the former Titans GM co-signs your pick that hard, you probably nailed it.

Bottom line: Three steals out of 28 across the entire league. A first-round receiver for a third-round price. A fourth-round linebacker with starter production. A second-round tackle (and forced fumble) machine who plays like his hair is on fire. Sullivan said he wanted doubles off the wall. He got three of them, and he didn't have to overpay for any of them.

Here's the moment from the Day 3 press conference that stuck with me. Head Coach Jeff Hafley was talking about the versatility of late-round picks like Trey Moore and Kyle Louis, guys most analysts labeled as "tweeners" without a clear positional home, and then he let this slip: "I was sitting there today in the draft meeting, I even showed him, I was like drawing up different things different guys can do like that."

The head coach was sitting in the war room, in the middle of a live draft, sketching defensive alignments for players who hadn't even been picked yet. That's a guy who already sees how the pieces fit.

Hafley's philosophy on positional flexibility came through all weekend. When asked about the tweener label on Moore and Louis, he pushed back hard: "I think sometimes coaches look at, 'We're playing 3-4. We're playing 4-3, and he doesn't fit the scheme.' I don't agree with that. Let's get the best football players we can and let's figure out what they can do."

He talked about using guys as stack backers on early downs, sub rushers on passing downs, spinners who can pick guards and rush the passer. The vision is built around the player, not the other way around.

The same thing showed up when he was asked about Kadyn Proctor's position. Will he play guard or tackle? "Yeah, for sure. I think we'll sit down and talk where the best available position for him will be. Our job is to get the best five on the field, and however that shakes out, it's our job to figure that out." There was no ego about scheme and no hint of forcing round pegs into square holes.

And when the conversation turned to the running game, where Sullivan drafted a couple of phone-booth maulers to pair with the outside-zone guys already on the roster, Hafley kept the same energy: "The more we can do, the more our players can do, and then let's figure out what they do best and let's go get good at it."

Jon-Eric Sullivan summed up the weekend by calling it "collaborative, cohesive" and said the draft room executed the plan they set out to accomplish.

Bottom line: Hafley's energy is a takeaway from this weekend. This is a coach who's already scheming for players he just drafted, who refuses to let positional labels limit his roster, and who told anyone who would listen that he evaluates love of football by how hard a guy plays. Thirteen players were drafted into this program over the past three days. Hafley can't wait to figure out what to do with all of them. That's the kind of coaching excitement fans will get behind.