Five games into the NFL season, Miami Dolphins fans are already looking past the present and straight toward the 2027 NFL Draft. At 0-5, the conversation has turned to quarterbacks, and Malik Willis, while he wasn't exactly set up for success, does not look like the long-term answer.
That puts the Dolphins in position to potentially choose from the top names in the class, assuming they don't go in a different direction and take Jeremiah Smith instead. The big question, though, is whether Arch Manning would still be sitting there as the safest bet at quarterback.
For years, Manning has been viewed as the presumptive QB1. The Texas prospect checks the boxes teams want in a franchise passer, and the family name only adds to the spotlight. Even so, he has not yet put it all together for the Longhorns, and that inconsistency has started to cloud his standing as the draft’s top quarterback.
The 2027 class has not exactly sharpened the picture at the top either. Manning and Dante Moore have both fallen short of expectations, which leaves the order of the quarterbacks far from settled. Through five games, Manning has thrown for 1,119 yards, ten touchdowns, and five interceptions.
The raw talent is still obvious, but the rough edges are there too. He has thrown too many inaccurate passes and made a few questionable decisions, the kind of lapses that make a team pause before investing heavily in him.
For a Dolphins team searching for its quarterback of the future, that makes the coming decision even harder. Manning still has the profile of a player worth betting on, but he has not made the choice simple.
If Miami wants a blueprint for how that gamble can pay off, it does not have to look far. Trevor Lawrence, another quarterback who carried the weight of QB1 expectations for years, went through his own uneven stretch in college. He had the physical tools, but there were also moments that raised questions.
Early in his NFL career, Lawrence did not immediately justify the massive expectations placed on him. Accuracy problems and slow processing kept him from looking like the superstar the Jacksonville Jaguars believed they were drafting.
Now, though, the payoff is showing up. With the right play caller in Liam Coen, Lawrence has become an early MVP candidate this season and has started to validate the pre-draft hype that followed him for years.
That kind of outcome is exactly why Manning remains such a compelling option. He shares many of the same traits that made Lawrence such an appealing pick, and if the Dolphins end up on the clock with a chance to take him, the Jaguars' path could be reason enough to roll the dice.
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Dolphins Keep Losing While One Frustrating Problem Wont Go Away
The Dolphins start to the season has only deepened the sense that this is a team still searching for traction in the early stages of its rebuild. At 0-5, Miami is dealing with the usual pain of a losing record, but the bigger issue is how often the self-inflicted mistakes keep showing up and spoiling any chance to build momentum.
Against the Bengals, the turnover problem once again became part of the conversation, the kind of recurring setback that makes every missed opportunity feel heavier. For a roster trying to establish any kind of identity, the question is no longer just about bouncing back from another loss, but about finding a way to stop the same frustrating issues from defining the season. [Read more 🡒]
Dolphins Late Rally Ended In A Brutal Way Again
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The ending was especially painful because the Dolphins had every reason to believe they were about to extend the game one more step. After their final touchdown, the conversion attempt drifted off the left upright, turning a promising rally into a familiar kind of frustration for a team still searching for the right finish. [Read more 🡒]
Dolphins Face A Risky Austin Jackson Decision After 0-5 Start
With the Dolphins staring at an 0-5 start, Austin Jackson has become one of the more interesting names to watch as the roster clock keeps ticking toward the trade deadline. Miami has until Nov. 10 to decide whether to move the veteran tackle, who is in the final year of his contract, and the timing matters because the teams bye week could shape how aggressively it weighs short-term continuity against a longer-term asset decision.
The problem is the depth chart behind Jackson does not make this an easy call. Caedan Wallace would be the most likely option to step in, but he has only two career starts, and the other tackle choices are even less proven, which raises the risk of weakening an already fragile offense if Miami chooses to deal Jackson. In a season that has already gone off the rails, the Dolphins are left trying to balance whatever return they can get against the possibility that one more hole up front makes the rest of the year even harder to survive. [Read more 🡒]