Chris Perkins: Dolphins’ claim of a meritocracy has credibility with players
· Yahoo Sports
The Miami Dolphins have advertised themselves as an equal opportunity team, a meritocracy, so to speak. The good news is that so far Dolphins players believe general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley on that front. And if the Dolphins’ new regime keeps behaving as it has so far, players will keep believing.
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Sullivan, the first-year executive, laid out the game plan last week during his pre-draft news conferenece.
“We’re going to play the best players,” he said. “That’s the beautiful part about the culture, the competition that’s going to be at the forefront of everything we do. It doesn’t matter if you’re a second-round pick or you’re an undrafted free agent, if you’re an eight-year vet or a second-year player.
“If you give us the best chance to win on Sunday, you’re going to be one of the 11 on the field, or one of the 22 on the field, I should say.”
Organizational credibility helps players earn trust in this rebuild, and in these very early stages Sullivan and Hafley are doing a good job of earning trust.
Players such as wide receiver Malik Washington, a 2024 sixth-round Dolphins draftee, and cornerback Darrell Baker, a four-year veteran who has been with Arizona, Indianapolis and Tennessee, aren’t necessarily preferred, hand-picked players by Sullivan or Hafley.
And there’s a good chance the Dolphins select a wide receiver and a cornerback in the first three rounds of the draft, which begins Thursday.
Yet neither Washington (46 receptions, 317 yards, three touchdowns in 2025) nor Baker (55 tackles, seven passes defended in 10 starts last season with Tennessee) fears being treated as second-class citizens.
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“Like any job,” Washington said Tuesday in a web conference call with local reporters, “(if they) bring somebody in and you’re going to have to compete with that person that comes in, you’re going to have to make a name for yourself regardless of what line of work you’re in, so I think it’s like any other job.”
By the way, players such as defensive tackle Kenneth Grant, left guard Jonah Savaiinaea, edge rusher Chop Robinson, all first- or second-round picks of the past two years whose careers are off to sluggish starts, also aren’t among Sullivan’s or Hafley’s “guys.”
Sullivan said all that matters is showing that you can play. Again, the Dolphins are winning on the credibility front.
“Everybody on the team is on a clean slate and playing field,” Grant said.
Soon, we’ll see if that’s true.
Conventional wisdom says Sullivan and Hafley would love for their top draftees to make a splash as rookies. But Sullivan’s statement about the Dolphins being a meritocracy continues to resonate with players.
Baker said Hafley has already earned credibility with players through his honesty and accountability with players in team meetings.
“They’re showing us little things of how we can be better,” Baker said. “He’s calling out anybody, for great reasons. That’s what I love about him most, and that’s what he’s done a great job at.”
Sullivan acknowledges the top draftees have major expectations, and perhaps a slight advantage in that sense.
“Obviously the higher that you take a player, I would say in the first three rounds, you’re expecting that guy to be a valuable starter for you,” he said.
But he also said that in Green Bay, where Sullivan and Hafley worked together, they hit on numerous lower-round draftees, thus proving talent can come from anywhere.
Offensive tackle David Bakhtiari was a fourth-round pick in 2013 and retired as a five-time All Pro and three-time Pro Bowl selection.
Center Josh Sitton, who spent his final season, 2018, with the Dolphins, was a 2008 fourth-round pick who retired as a three-time All Pro and four-time Pro Bowl selection.
Center Corey Linsley was a 2014 fifth-round pick who retired as a two-time All Pro and Pro Bowl selection.
Sullivan and Hafley say they’re simply on the lookout for players that can help them win rather than players who come with a lot of hype.
Washington is putting those words to the test.
“Every single day I’m trying to beat the guy next to me,” he said. “I’m trying to be the fastest wide receiver in the room. I’m trying to be the fastest player in the room. And I’m trying to be the smartest guy in the meeting room. I think, for me, it’s doing everything I can so that when the coaches ring up my name, it’s only positive things being said.”
So far, we can count Washington, Baker and Grant as believers in the meritocracy.