Out of the corner of their eye, Bills Mafia is keeping watch on the 2026 NFL coaching carousel. In the AFC East, only the Miami Dolphins have a head coach vacancy, and who they hire could reshape the future of the division. After all, it only took two years for Mike Vrabel to put the New England Patriots back in the Super Bowl contender category.
Of course, the Dolphins don’t have quite as good a track record at hiring coaches, especially since Stephen Ross took ownership of the team in 2009. The Dolphins are looking to hire their ninth head coach under Ross’s leadership. Since Don Shula retired in 1995 after 25 years with the franchise, not one head coach has lasted at least five full seasons with the Dolphins, a trend Ross is hoping to end with his next hire, no doubt.
So far, Miami has interviewed or scheduled interviews with eight candidates. Some, like Seattle Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak or Los Angeles Rams DC Chris Shula, Don’s grandson, might strike a bit of anxiety for Bills Mafia. But some of their other options would have the Mafia laughing out loud, waiting for disaster to strike the franchise yet again.
Miami is interviewing names that should worry Dolphins fans, not the Bills
The Dolphins have two candidates on their interview list who have some around the league scratching their heads. The first is Detroit Lions defensive coordinator and former NFL linebacker Kelvin Sheppard, a 2011 third-round draft pick by the Bills.
Sheppard just wrapped up his first season as a defensive coordinator, and things in the Motor City didn’t go particularly well. The Lions dropped from 7th in points allowed in 2024 to 22nd in 2025 and from 10th in takeaways to 19th. Detroit got more help from its pass rush and gave up a bit less yardage overall, but there’s no denying that Sheppard’s defense was a big reason the Lions missed the playoffs.
Sheppard is a name to watch in the long run, for sure. He rose through the ranks quickly to become a coordinator at 37 years old despite retiring from the league at 30. But now is much too soon to hand him the keys to a franchise, especially one that is constantly rebuilding like Miami.
Similarly, the Dolphins have also interviewed Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. Graham has 16 years of coaching experience in the NFL, the last seven as a defensive coordinator. Graham has been praised for doing more with less in those seven years, earning him widespread respect throughout the league. It's worth noting, too, that Graham was also on Bill Belichick's staff in New England from 2009 to 2015,
That said, the 46-year-old coach hasn’t seen much success since taking his first coordinator job with the Dolphins back in 2019. None of his defenses in those seven years has contributed to winning seasons, and to make matters worse, the Raiders had a winning season the year before Graham was hired, and the New York Giants had a winning record the year after Graham left for Las Vegas. There are broader contexts to those outcomes, of course, but Graham is still in the middle of it regardless.
Graham may do more with less, and he may be a well-respected figure in the league, but nothing about his resume suggests to the outside world of the NFL that he’s the man who could finally rebuild the Dolphins into a perennial contender. Save for the intangibles he brings to the locker room, Bills fans wouldn't be hitting a panic button over his hiring if he got the job.
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Naturally, these two aren’t at the top of the Dolphins’ wish list. Considering their list of candidates, that’s worrisome for other reasons, but to be fair to Ross, he didn’t fire Mike McDaniel on Black Monday. Still, it appears John Harbaugh isn’t interested, and with Kubiak, Shula, and Green Bay Packers coach Jeff Hafley being among the more popular candidates for the league’s top jobs in Baltimore and Pittsburgh, the Dolphins might find themselves scraping the bottom of the barrel for their next head coach.
If that ends up being the case, Bills Mafia can rest easy that the Dolphins will continue to struggle to be competitive in the AFC playoff picture, as well as the AFC East itself.