Finnish skier Elias Lajunen was knocked out cold after a crash on Sunday during the men’s big air skiing qualifiers in Milan-Cortina. Lajunen, 18, lay motionless after slamming his head, then was stretchered off.
After being attended to, Lajunen regained consciousness and gave the crowd a thumbs-up as medical staff tended to him. According to the Finnish Olympic Committee, all of Lajunen’s limbs were functioning.
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He attempted a multi-rotation aerial that went wrong on the final revolution. Big air rewards height, difficulty and clean execution, with a small margin for error.
LIVIGNO, ITALY – FEBRUARY 15: Elias Lajunen of Team Finlan competes in the Men’s Freeski Big Air qualification on day nine of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Livigno Air Park on February 15, 2026 in Livigno, Italy. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
(Ian MacNicol via Getty Images)
LIVIGNO, ITALY – FEBRUARY 15: Elias Lajunen of Team Finland falls as he competes in run one of the Men’s Freeski Big Air Qualification on day nine of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Livigno Air Park on February 15, 2026 in Livigno, Italy. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
(Cameron Spencer via Getty Images)
LIVIGNO, ITALY – FEBRUARY 15: Elias Lajunen of Team Finland falls as he competes in run one of the Men’s Freeski Big Air Qualification on day nine of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Livigno Air Park on February 15, 2026 in Livigno, Italy. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
(Cameron Spencer via Getty Images)
Lajunen recently turned pro and was participating in his first Olympic Games. At the 2025 World Championships, he finished 31st in the men’s freeski slopestyle competition and 32nd in big air. His father, Samppa Lajunen, is a celebrated Finnish combined skier and a three-time Olympic champion in Nordic combined.
Heading into Run 2 of the men’s slalom Monday, Norway’s Atle Lie McGrath was one of the favorites. McGrath finished with the best time in Run 1, putting him in a strong spot to finish on the podium before the day was done.
Due to McGrath’s excellent performance in Run 1, he was the last skier to take the course in Run 2. Medaling seemed within his grasp, as no skier matched McGrath’s time from the first run of the day.
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But disaster struck before McGrath could really get going. McGrath had trouble with a gate early in his run. Realizing his shot at a medal was over, McGrath stopped trying to ski the course and chucked both of his poles as far as he could. He then took off both his skis and walked off the course.
Norway’s Atle Lie McGrath walks off the course, during an alpine ski, men’s slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
McGrath walked off the course, over the catch fence and onto an adjacent trail where he laid down in the snow by himself. The broadcast captured McGrath laying on his back, occasionally putting his hands over his face to the side of the course.
With McGrath out of the event, Switzerland’s Loic Meillard wound up taking the gold. Austria’s Fabio Gstrein won silver and Norway’s Henrik Kristofferen took home the bronze.
It’s already been a difficult Olympics for McGrath, who announced his grandfather died on the same day as the 2026 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. McGrath penned an emotional tribute to his grandfather on social media, and said he would “give it my all for” his grandfather at the Olympics.
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McGrath took part in both team events last Monday, where Norway finished 12th. He also competed in the giant slalom, where he finished fifth. The slalom has typically been his best event. McGrath took silver in the event at the 2025 World Championships, and seemed poised for a similarly strong finish in the slalom Monday. The gates had other plans.
It was a particularly tough day for DNFs on the course. During Run 1, more than half the men’s field failed to finish. McGrath was the exception early, but the course got the better of him the second time out.
Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown had a brand event he was hosting shut down on Saturday night by Beverly Hills police over what they said was a permit issue.
But on Sunday, following the All-Star Game at the Intuit Dome in Southern California, Brown completely disputed a statement that Beverly Hills police released about the incident.
“I’m offended by Beverly Hills by the statement they put out, like we applied for something and didn’t get it, and we did it anyway [and] we were insubordinate,” Brown said, via ESPN. “I know how to follow the rules. I’m smart enough to follow the guidelines. It just seemed like somebody didn’t want whatever we had going on to go on because out of everybody that was doing something, it seemed like I was the only one that gets shut down.”
Brown had planned several events at a mansion in the Trousdale Estates neighborhood of Beverly Hills on Saturday, according to The Boston Globe, including a networking event and a panel discussion. But on Saturday night, police walked on stage at the panel to shut it down. At least seven police cars were parked outside to try and get the crowd of about 200 people to disperse.
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On Sunday, before the All-Star Game, the City of Beverly Hills released a statement saying that an “event permit had been applied for and denied” due to previous violations at the event address. Further specifics aren’t known.
“Despite the fact that the permit was denied, organizers still chose to proceed with inviting hundreds of guests knowing that it was not allowed to occur. BHPD responded and shut down the unpermitted event,” the city said, in part.
Brown said on Sunday that the event was being hosted at Oakley founder Jim Jannard’s house. Brown has a sponsorship with Oakley, and said the city’s statement about a permit “was not true.”
“We didn’t need a permit because the owner of the house, that was his space. We were family friends,” Brown said. “He opened up the festivities to us so we didn’t have to. We never applied for one. … I didn’t have to pay for the house or anything. They just opened it up. I had to pay for the build out, but it was hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted for an event that was supposed to be positive.”
Brown was asked directly whether he felt the move was racially motivated on Sunday night.
“All I’m going to say is that everybody else that did something in activation, [there] seemed to be no issues,” Brown said. “It was 7 p.m. It wasn’t 10 p.m., it wasn’t 11 p.m., it wasn’t [midnight]. [It was] 7 p.m. … We’re doing a panel. We’re doing stuff that’s positive. There was nobody that was inconvenienced. [We weren’t] blocking traffic.
“It’s All-Star weekend, it’s Saturday night and it’s 7 p.m. What are we talking about?”
As for Jannard, Brown said he was considering filing a lawsuit against the city. The incident, Brown said, meant “hundreds of thousands of dollars lost down the toilet.”
“The owner seemed like he was pretty upset,” Brown said. “He wants to file a lawsuit because it’s his house. They’ve done multiple events there and there’s never been an issue. He’s done four or five events even that week, he said, and it was never an issue.”
After a couple of rough years early in his tenure, A.J. Preller has built the San Diego Padres into a consistent contender. He was rewarded for those efforts Monday, agreeing to a long-term extension with the franchise, the team announced.
The finances and length of Preller’s contract were not disclosed. Unlike player contracts, front-office deals aren’t always made public.
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Preller called San Diego a special place and said in a statement that he is excited to bring a championship to the city.
“San Diego is a special place, and I’m proud of the progress we’ve made over the last decade while knowing there’s still more work to be done. I’m excited for the Padres’ future and fully committed to bringing a championship to our fans and this city.”
Prior to the extension, Preller was set to enter 2026 with one year left on his contract. When asked about his status Sunday, multiple Padres players showed support for the team’s general manager. Both Manny Machado and Michael King went to bat for Preller, with King saying he re-signed with the Padres due to Preller.
The Padres were always expected to work out a new deal with Preller, who was hired in 2014. In October, team CEO Erik Greupner said he was optimistic Preller would be the team’s general manager beyond the 2026 MLB season. It might have taken a few months to work out the particulars, but Greupner’s comments turned out to be accurate.
Preller engaged in a pretty lengthy rebuild upon taking over as GM. The Padres failed to make the playoffs in his first five seasons with the team. But the team made strides during that period, trading for Fernando Tatis Jr. and signing Machado to an 11-year, $350 million contract.
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Both moves helped the Padres get back into contention. Since 2020, the team has made the playoffs in four of six seasons. Making deep postseason runs in October, however, has proven difficult. The Padres advanced to the NLCS just once in those four chances, losing to the Philadelphia Phillies in five games in 2022.
During his tenure with the Padres, Preller has built a reputation as a general manager who is willing to make bold moves. In addition to signing Machado, he spent $280 million on shortstop Xander Bogaerts. He has also traded for Blake Snell and Juan Soto. Preller later traded Soto to the New York Yankees once it became clear the Padres wouldn’t be able to re-sign the outfielder.
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Compared to those moves, it was a relatively uneventful offseason for Preller and the Padres. The team’s biggest move was bringing King back, though recent additions such as Griffin Canning and Nick Castellanos could prove impactful.
The Padres could certainly use one more addition or two, as the team is projected to win 80.7 games this season, per Baseball Prospectus. That would put the Padres on the cusp of the postseason but not firmly in a playoff spot. Based on how Preller has approached previous seasons, the Padres can be confident he won’t sit idly by if the playoffs are within grasp as the season progresses.
The Miami Dolphins will reportedly release edge rusher Bradley Chubb, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. Last season, Chubb had 47 tackles, 8.5 sacks and 2 forced fumbles. He was able to play all 17 games after missing the 2024 season with a torn ACL.
The 29-year-old had been with the Dolphins since 2022, after being acquired from the Denver Broncos at the trade deadline for running back Chase Edmonds and a first-round pick. Chubb signed a five-year, $110 million extension with the Dolphins shortly after getting moved.
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Despite being under contract until 2027, Chubb was expected to be moved this offseason after the Dolphins did not move him at the trade deadline. After restructuring his contract last offseason, Chubb reportedly has a cap number of more than $31M for 2026.
Despite turning 30 in June, expect teams to be interested in the two-time Pro Bowler before the start of free agency. In his last three full seasons, Chubb has had at least eight sacks.
While the Dolphins have recently moved on from some of their defensive pieces, there are still questions surrounding what the team will do offensively. The Dolphins are expected to try to move quarterback Tua Tagovailoa after he got benched in favor of seventh-round rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers in Week 16.
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The Dolphins signed Tagovailoa to a four-year, $212.1 million extension in July 2024. They reportedly already owe him $54 million guaranteed in 2026, and another $3 million of Tagovailoa’s 2027 salary becomes guaranteed on the fifth day of the new league year, March 15.
Cutting Tagovailoa would leave a $99 million dead-money salary-cap charge, the largest in NFL history, while designating him as a post–June 1 cut would spread the money over two years.
Coming off a 7-10 season, expect the Dolphins to have more decisions to make.
We’re at the 2025-26 NBA All-Star break and it’s almost the start of “silly season,” as Yahoo analyst Dan Titus and others around the industry call it. That’s the time when we see more teams tanking and more unlikely players stepping up for fantasy basketball managers. So by the end of the season, who knows, we may have some surprising names on this list.
For now, there aren’t any major surprises. Since the end of 2025, we’ve had a few new performances jump up into the overall High Score perfect lineup since we last checked in just before Christmas. Let’s go over the updated perfect lineup as of the All-Star break.
The top-six High Score fantasy basketball performances by position at the All-Star break. (Amber Matsumoto)
(Davis Long)
More on the top performers
Cade Cunningham, guard: Back when Cade dropped this astonishing score in November, we all thought he might be on his way to an MVP-type season. And while the Pistons have maintained their position atop the Eastern Conference, injuries and regression have plagued Cunningham. He averaged 31.6 points per game in November, but has failed to average more than 25 points per game in any month since then. Cade is still among the league leaders in assists per game (9.6), however, trailing only Nikola Jokić.
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Luka Dončić, guard: There was a point at which Joker was sidelined, and Dončić became the gold standard in High Score and fantasy basketball overall. His 99-point performance against the Jazz came back in December. Since then, Dončić has done just about everything you could ask of him as a fantasy manager. Unfortunately, he entered the ASB dealing with a hamstring injury that sidelined him the past four games. He made a brief appearance in a Team World round-robin matchup on Sunday before exiting on a minutes limit. Hopefully that means he’s ready to go coming out of the break.
Nikola Jokić, frontcourt: Jokić had previously been on the perfect overall lineup with a high score of 99 points. He smashed that with 108 points if you remember back on Christmas Day against the Timberwolves, when he posted 56-16-15. Chances are we won’t see anyone top that the rest of the season but more surprising things have happened. Unfortunately, shortly after that game, Jokić was sidelined for almost all of January due to a knee injury. He’s since returned and is still working his way back to MVP-level Joker. His scoring is down significantly though, averaging just 23.3 points per game in February so far.
Jalen Johnson, frontcourt: Johnson has been one of the most valuable players in fantasy basketball this season. He was drafted on average toward the end of the second round or early third round in High Score and has been a top-five asset this season. It’ll take a lot for Johnson to unseat Jokić as the top overall player in High Score but he has an outside chance. The Hawks shipped out PG Trae Young and PF Kristaps Porziņģis prior to the trade deadline, clearing the way for Johnson to be the alpha. His scoring remains inconsistent, but Johnson is averaging a triple-double in four games this month.
Kawhi Leonard, frontcourt: Leonard threw up 94 fantasy points back at the end of December with 55 points, 11 rebounds and 8 stocks. After starting the season 6-21, the Clippers have been on a pretty wild run to position themselves for at least the Play-In Tournament in the West. A lot of that is thanks to Kawhi having his best season since 2019-20, his first in L.A. With James Harden now in Cleveland, this offense will run exclusively through Leonard, who just needs to stay healthy to cap off this bounce-back season.
Tyrese Maxey, utility: Earlier in the campaign, it appeared Maxey was on his way to competing for a scoring title. As we head into the ASB, that would be pretty difficult as the Sixers guard sits sixth in the NBA in scoring at 28.9 points per game. He also ranks sixth in High Score fantasy basketball at 55 points per game. With Paul George suspended and Joel Embiid always dealing with injuries, Maxey should continue to be among the top High Score assets and on plenty of playoff rosters.
With the fresh fantasy baseball season approaching, it’s time to get you some tiered rankings from my Shuffle Up series. Use these for salary cap drafts, snake drafts, keeper decisions or merely a view of how the position ebbs and flows. We started last week with infield spots, and today we complete them with the shortstop position. The outfield and the pitching spots will follow later this week.
The numbers are unscientific in nature and meant to reflect where talent clusters and drops off. Assume a 5×5 scoring system, as usual.
More Tiered Rankings
The Big Tickets
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In what can fairly be termed an off year, Witt still led the majors in hits and doubles and was the seventh-most valuable hitter for 5×5 leagues. The Kansas City lineup has an upgraded feel to it, with eight of its primary starters expected to be league average or better. Witt likely hasn’t peaked yet, about to enter his age-26 season.
De La Cruz has trimmed his strikeouts significantly the last two seasons and he’s no longer a batting average risk. And when you combine his speed with his average exit velocity, we can confidently project him to have a high BABIP yearly. De La Cruz had a strange powerless stretch last year, going 74 games with just one homer, and it’s possible he might eventually move off shortstop. But I still want to be proactive to his case, knowing we haven’t seen his peak yet.
Neto won’t be a screaming bargain, but he’s likely undervalued simply because he missed 36 games last year and it slightly muted his counting stats. Neto has improved his average every season and already has the category juice you demand in the early rounds. Even with a pedestrian Anaheim lineup supporting him, I’ll consider Neto in the second round and pounce on him in the third. You want players on the escalator, and Neto steps into his age-25 season.
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I had to regretfully move Lindor down after we learned he needed hamate bone surgery. I’m not going to play the injury optimism game, especially for someone reading for his age-32 season.
Legitimate Building Blocks
Peña grew into a star last year but he’s still undervalued, perhaps because a month on the injured list muted his final counting stats. Take advantage of the discount this one last time. He’s expected to bat leadoff in Houston, which is good for the volume. And he’s right in the middle of his peak years.
It hurt me to fade Seager, one of the best hitters in baseball. Seager’s plate discipline is so perfect that there’s a popular zone-judgment metric that’s named after him. But the reality is that Seager has played just one full season out of the last seven (ignoring the 2020 truncated year) and that’s not a trend to swim against as he turns 32. Seager’s average has dropped into the .270s the last two years and he’s never been interested in stealing bases. I’ll stay open-minded if his price slips in my rooms, but I can’t consider him at current ADP.
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Perdomo was the No. 11 player in 5×5 value last year but his ADP is nowhere near that for the fresh season. This presents an attractive “regress and win” opportunity where Perdomo can actually give back a significant amount of last year’s stats and still be a fantasy profit. Perdomo is a high-percentage base-stealer and entering his age-26 season, so I’m not worried about that column. And he’s the rare player who had more walks than strikeouts last year, and those players are always attractive targets. Maybe the 20 homers won’t come back, but there’s enough broad profile here to make Perdomo a cornerstone player.
Talk Them Up, Talk Them Down
Adames was a screaming fade last year after changing teams on a big contract and heading to a roomy park, but that angle only worked for the first half. He conked 18 homers and slugged .494 in the second half, and he even picked up his running. He might be a shade past his peak into an age-30 season, but so long as you’ve assembled batting average elsewhere, I could sign off on Adames around his Yahoo ADP of 106.3.
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Wilson’s profile is filled with some interesting contradictions. He’s the hardest player to strike out in the AL but he actually has a poor chase rate and a low walk rate, too. His contact metrics were also low, which is why his Savant page suggests a .277 average last year, not the .311 number he finished with. But if you pick Wilson you’re betting on the Sacramento park (great for offense) and Wilson’s pedigree (he was the sixth overall pick in 2023 and zoomed through the minors). He’s capable of stealing 10-12 bases, too, like any front-9 ballplayer is.
Some Plausible Upside
Holliday gave us category juice and a trimmed strikeout rate last year, but he needed hand surgery in mid-February and should open the year on the injured list. This is the type of news that could wreck a season, because we can’t expect Holliday to be sharp — and ready to run — the moment he comes off the injured list. Ultimately, the conclusion is the same as with Lindor — don’t be the injury optimist in your pool.
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The Red Sox take a lot of heat for money not spent, but they were lucky when Bogaerts walked after the 2022 season. The X-Man hasn’t even been a league-average hitter the last two years. It’s a good thing he’s running, because he’s below code in every other column we use for scoring. The Padres are on the hook for eight more years.
MILAN — Figure skating has been an Olympic event for longer than there have been Winter Olympics. It’s true: men’s, women’s and pairs skating events were held at the 1908 Summer Olympics; the Winter Games didn’t make their debut until 1924 in Chamonix, France. Even ice dancing now has a 50-year pedigree, beginning in 1976 in Innsbruck.
Team skating, by contrast, is virtually brand new, dating only back to Sochi in 2014. National teams, only in the fourth iteration of team competition, are still figuring out exactly how to set up their rosters to maximize the potential for both team and individual success.
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Because here’s the not-so-secret truth of the team skate: It can have a significant effect on an athlete’s individual performance. Because the team event starts the Olympics, and because the Olympics take place in such a tight time frame, the physical and emotional cost of the team event can ripple right on through into individual ones, affecting and potentially upending individual dreams.
This year at Milan, team skating began even before the Opening Ceremony, lasting until Sunday, Feb. 8. The very next day, ice dancers began their short program, and on Tuesday, the men’s skate began. Given that the United States ran out the same athletes in both of those team segments — ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and men’s skater Ilia Malinin — it’s fair to wonder just how much of an effect the quick turnaround might have had.
“We had a little bit more time than our other teammates did,” said pairs dancer Ellie Kam, who with partner Danny O’Shea skated both team events, but had a full week to recover. (The women have nine days between skates.) “I can’t imagine having to do back-to-back programs the next day. … Keeping your head focused for that period of time is definitely really hard. So I don’t envy that at all.”
“We trained specifically for it. We knew that it was coming,” O’Shea said. “We’ve done back-to-back competitions in the past. … Two years ago, we finished nationals (in Ohio) and got on a plane to fly to Shanghai (for Four Continents) … and we medaled at that Four Continents.”
Ilia Malinin (USA) competes during the Men’s Single Free Skating Figure Skating competition on Day 7 of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. (Photo by Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(NurPhoto via Getty Images)
While not blaming the schedule for their silver medal finish, Chock did point out the workload that she and Bates had endured early in the Games. “We just performed four times in six days at the Olympics,” Bates said last week. “We have never done anything like it. It took so much mental strength and discipline to stay focused over the last six days and to deliver four great performances.”
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Ilia Malinin, who dramatically rallied the United States to victory in the team event but collapsed in his own individual event, didn’t blame the schedule for his woes. But it’s worth noting that he probably wouldn’t have skated the second team free skate had the United States held more of a points advantage. That may or may not have hurt his mental state heading into his own free skate, where he imploded on ice, but it surely took a toll on his physical one.
The team event obviously isn’t going anywhere, but could the schedule change? A reversal, perhaps, with the individual events coming first?
“We would definitely prefer to have the individual events first and then the team event later on,” O’Shea said earlier in the week. “That would really allow the athletes to get into the celebratory feel that a team event has and really let loose a little bit more in watching the other athletes and being able to participate in cheering on your team.”
Other skaters held slightly different views. “In my opinion, I think that having a team event first and then an individual event is better,” Japan’s Masaya Morita said through an interpreter. “The motivation of the Japanese team has increased.”
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“I’m happy to have this opportunity (to team skate first),” Italy’s Sara Conti said through an interpreter. “I don’t want to call it training because it’s not training, but I don’t even feel the pressure. … The spirit of the team has helped me a lot in terms of tension.”
Figure skating is such a massive Olympic viewership magnet that you could make an argument either way for the team positioning — placing the team event first introduces everyone to the skaters who then go on to face their individual battles; starting out with individual skaters allows for an Avengers-style getting-the-team-together climactic finish to the Games.
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Either way, the International Skating Union is keeping its cards close to its vest. An ISU spokesperson provided the following statement to Yahoo Sports on the question of schedule changes:
“Following established processes, the ISU will review competition schedules for future editions of the Olympic Winter Games in coordination with the IOC and the respective Organizing Committees in due course ahead of the next Olympic Winter Games edition.”
So there you go. Future Olympic skaters better prepare for the back-to-back, just in case.
When Jeff Hafley agreed to become the Miami Dolphins’ next head coach, he had to understand what was coming in the short term. The only way for the Dolphins to move forward was to clean house. It wasn’t going to be a fun short-term experience, but it needed to be done.
And everyone is waiting for resolution on quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. If he is let go, the resulting record dead cap hit will certainly signal the obvious: This is a full rebuild. Check back in 2027 (or 2028 … or 2029), Dolphins fans.
“As we piece this thing together, it’s going to take time and there’s going to be a lot of hard work, but then it’s going to be built the right way,” Hafley said when he was introduced to the media.
The “going to take time” part of that seemed most relevant Monday.
Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is not expected back with the team next season. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
(Carmen Mandato via Getty Images)
Dolphins roster being turned over
When the Dolphins were getting aggressive in trading and paying players like Hill and Chubb, they viewed themselves as contenders. A hot start in 2023, which included a 70-point eruption against the Broncos, turned out to be a mirage.
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For all of the big moves the Dolphins made, they never even won a playoff game. They still have the longest gap between playoff wins. Their last one came in 2000. Hafley started his coaching career in 2001.
That’s what will make the rebuild sting even worse. There wasn’t a division title, home playoff game or playoff win to show for anything the past few years. And now it gets torn down again.
Cutting Hill, Chubb and Daniels cleared $34.4 million in cap space, according to Spotrac, which the Dolphins had to do to get cap compliant. There’s not a ton of cap space to work with. There are a couple of extra third-round picks via trades and the Dolphins will get a quality player at 11th overall in April. But they don’t have a lot of difference makers on the roster, and it’s possible new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan has other moves planned, via more cuts or a trade of someone like Jaylen Waddle. There will be a lot of players on the way out, and not a lot of resources to bring new talent in.
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Miami’s roster could look bleak this season. Sullivan knew what he had to do to clean up a cap mess and a roster that wasn’t good enough to compete in the AFC East. It still will be difficult. And the Dolphins haven’t even figured out the quarterback situation.
The Dolphins’ quarterback dilemma
Sullivan was asked when he first met the media about what happens next for Tagovailoa and the Dolphins’ future at quarterback.
“Obviously that’s a huge question looming over the organization,” Sullivan said. “I’d be naïve to think that everybody doesn’t understand that.”
It seems impossible for the Dolphins to reconcile with Tagovailoa after his play bottomed out, especially after his most recent concussion, and he was benched last season. The Dolphins would take on a staggering $99.2 million in dead money to cut him, which would be a record, and if it’s designated as a post-June 1 move it would be $67.2 million this year and $31.8 million in 2027, according to Over The Cap. Miami wants to trade Tagovailoa but that seems unlikely unless the Dolphins take on most of his salary. You can overcome a massive dead hit, as the Broncos did with Russell Wilson, but it’s difficult. Especially when there’s a ton of other dead cap hits on the books. And the Dolphins don’t have an obvious path to get a new quarterback, especially considering how few can’t-miss quarterback prospects there are in this year’s NFL Draft.
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The Dolphins seem destined to go into the season with a cheap quarterback, putting that decision off a season, very few blue-chip players to build around, plenty of rookies and bargain free agents contributing, with a first-time NFL head coach leading it all in a division that includes the Patriots and Bills, two very good teams. It’s going to be ugly.
Dolphins fans are used to ugly. They haven’t seen their team win a playoff game in a quarter century. But this seems different. It might be a while before there’s hope again in Miami.
