Sullivan puts together inner circle, explains it. And Dolphins change defenses
A six-pack of Dolphins notes on a Thursday:
▪ New Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan has assembled his inner circle, and membership apparently comes with a rule: If you disagree with me, tell me.
Sullivan has surrounded himself with experienced personnel men: new assistant GM Kyle Smith (who had executive positions with the Falcons and Commanders) and former Tennessee Titans GM Jon Robinson, who was hired as a senior personnel executive.
In two media sessions at the NFL Combine this week in Indianapolis, Sullivan also praised the work of senior vice president/football administration Brandon Shore, who will work alongside Sullivan in a role that includes contract negotiations, cap management and more.
“I’m the current GM, Jon Robinson has been a GM and Kyle Smith will be a GM,” Sullivan said this week. “They’re phenomenal sounding boards for me. They’re forward thinkers... They’re not here to tell me what they think the boss wants to hear. They’ll tell me their opinions which will help me move forward.
“They’re both very good at what they do, bring a lot to the table. Jon Robinson sat in this chair, understands the pitfalls. I would be a fool not to lean on him. Kyle grew up in this thing, the son of a longtime GM [former Chargers GM AJ Smith].”
And “Brandon Shore is marvelous at his job, one of the best.”
Smith was the Falcons’ assistant GM from 2023 to 2025 after serving as a player personnel vice president for Washington and Atlanta. Robinson was the Titans’ GM 2016 to 2022 after serving in executive roles with New England and Tampa Bay.
Sullivan inherited several scouts and executives, including college scouting director Matt Winston.
Champ Kelly, who was the Dolphins’ interim general manager for more than two months after Chris Grier’s Halloween dismissal, also remains on board as a senior personnel executive.
”I’ve been impressed with the staff in general... in draft meetings,” Sullivan said. “We’ll have to see [about the future]. It’s been a good working relationship with those guys. I was impressed with the depths they went to” in evaluation.
In the NFL, contracts of scouts and personnel executives typically expire after the draft, so Sullivan will need to decide how many of the incumbent scouts to keep and how many new ones to hire.
He has hired one scout so far — former Packers scout and ex-Miami Hurricanes player Venzell Boulware, who was available because he left the Packers. Boulware will be a pro scout for the Dolphins.
Sullivan will control the 53-man roster, just as Grier did.
Shore, Winston and Kelly are the highest-ranking football executives who remain from the Grier regime.
The Dolphins previously parted with several of Grier’s executives — Anthony Hunt and Adam Engroff (personnel executives who were dismissed last November) and assistant GM Reggie McKenzie.
New defense
▪ The Dolphins are shifting from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 under coach Jeff Hafley, who used that 4-3 scheme as his base defense in Green Bay. But Hafley still intends to use a 3-4 and other schemes at times.
So for the first time this decade, Dolphins edge players will be playing with their hands on the ground more than they stand up.
That might suggest that the Dolphins need somewhat bigger edge players to play defensive line instead of outside linebacker. But Sullivan downplayed that, saying he’s simply looking for good players.
“You might say we’re going to be a 4-3 defense, which we’ll base out of 4-3, but I like to get in the 4-3 structures and 3-4 structures all out of the same personnel groupings, so I’m not subbing and you’re saying, ‘No, now he’s in 3-4,’” Hafley said. “Subbing back, ‘now they’re in 4-3.’
“At the same time, I think it’s really important to find out who we end up with on this roster and figure out what we do best; then it will be my job to put that scheme in place. I have a lot of good ideas, but even if you look back to my past, in my first year back in the NFL, we played a ton of 3-4 variations with four down, and we had different guys in the inside and then when we made a trade last year [when Green Bay acquired All Pro linebacker Micah Parsons], I had to kind of flip it. Then we had some injuries, so I had to flip back.”
▪ The Dolphins need to rebuild their cornerback room, and Sullivan said “I’m excited about Jason Marshall. I want to see Juju Brents get healthy” after his knee injury in Madrid.
Six Dolphins cornerbacks are unrestricted free agents: Kader Kohou and Artie Burns (both are coming off an ACL injury), Rasul Douglas (who has a history with Sullivan in Green Bay), Jack Jones, Ethan Bonner and AJ Green.
“There are some components within that group potentially in play,” the GM said.
▪ Sullivan, on second-year guard Jonah Savaiinaea, who led all NFL guards in sacks and pressures allowed, per Pro Football Focus:
“Jonah is a big man, a pretty good athlete. But he would tell you he was inconsistent last year. He has to get better. I have full confidence he will. He’s a great kid. I’ve had some good conversations with him. He’s champing at the bit to show the world he can be a good NFL player and help the Dolphins win games.”
▪ Like all GMs, Sullivan has a mental chart listing prototypical weights and heights for all position groups (he revealed this week that he’s disinclined to have a bunch of short receivers).
And like all GMs, he puts a big emphasis on position versatility because of roster constraints. It helps, he said, to have players who can play several offensive line positions or “guys who can play nickel, safety. The more you can do can give you more value.”
Sullivan — who has said he would like to turn Miami’s eight draft picks into 11 or 12 and is thus more likely to trade down than up — acknowledged that even though he follows the “best available” player approach in the draft, “need is definitely factored in at some point.”
▪ Sullivan was asked the common characteristics of players he will add in the years to come, players who will come to be known as “Sully Guys.”
So what will Sully Guys be known for?
“Guys that are resilient, mentally tough, guys who prioritize winning over individual goals. Guys who are smart football players, elevate those around them.
“The word culture gets thrown out.... But you have to be very intentional about the guys that you infuse into that locker room. Because that’s what the culture is going to be built on. And so I want a bunch of guys who love football, who are passionate about football and who prioritize winning and will do what they need to do for the ‘team versus I’ mentality.”
Sullivan said those types of players are “not always easy to find, especially in the environment we’re in with guys jumping around from school to school. That, in itself, kind of cultivates a me, me, me, I, I, I. You have to be very diligent and cognizant of who you’re bringing into the locker room.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2026 at 10:55 AM.
