Troy Aikman Says Dolphins ‘Not Expected to Be Very Good’ in 2026, Defends ESPN Role
Troy Aikman isn’t dressing up his outlook for the Miami Dolphins. The Hall of Fame quarterback turned broadcaster said this week that Miami’s 2026 season is shaping up to be a rough one, even as he continues to work as a consultant for the franchise while also calling games for ESPN.
Aikman made the comments during an appearance on the “Dallas Dialogue with Dale” podcast, where he was asked whether his front-office ties to Miami create a conflict of interest with his job as a lead analyst on Monday Night Football.
His answer: the Dolphins simply won’t be good enough for it to matter.
“The Dolphins are not expected to be very good this year. They’re getting out of cap hell, so there’s no Monday night game with the Dolphins this year,” Aikman said, via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk.
Aikman’s dual role with the Dolphins and ESPN
Aikman signed on as a front office consultant for the Dolphins in January, and he’s played a bigger part in the organization’s rebuild than the title suggests. He was directly involved in the search that landed Miami both general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley, according to Yardbarker.
At the same time, he’s entering a contract year at ESPN, where he’s the network’s lead color commentator for Monday Night Football. That overlap has drawn scrutiny for months, with Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio among those pressing the league on it.
Aikman says he’s cleared it with the league office directly. “I’ve talked to the commissioner, and he’s fine with what I’m doing and my role,” he said.
He’s also pushed back on the idea that his situation is unusual, drawing a comparison to Tom Brady’s dual role as a Fox Sports analyst and minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.
Why Miami isn’t getting a Monday night slot
The scheduling detail Aikman leaned on isn’t a throwaway line. The NFL builds its primetime schedule around teams it expects to draw eyeballs, and Miami didn’t make the cut for 2026 after a 7-10 finish in 2025 — the franchise’s worst mark under since Mike McDaniel took over in 2022.
McDaniel was fired after that season, and the Dolphins moved on from quarterback Tua Tagovailoa as well. Tagovailoa was released and later signed a one-year deal with the Atlanta Falcons, a move that left Miami carrying a record-setting dead cap charge. Sullivan and Hafley now lead a Dolphins team that’s effectively starting over — new GM, new coach, new quarterback situation, and a cap sheet still absorbing the fallout from the Tagovailoa split.
| Dolphins Offseason Change | Detail |
|---|---|
| 2025 Record | 7-10 |
| Head Coach | Mike McDaniel out, Jeff Hafley in |
| General Manager | Jon-Eric Sullivan hired |
| Starting QB | Tua Tagovailoa released, signed with Falcons |
What it means
None of this means Aikman is wrong about the Dolphins’ 2026 outlook. A team rebuilding its coaching staff, front office and starting quarterback in the same offseason rarely contends the following year, and the league’s own scheduling decision backs that read. But the optics remain awkward: a network’s top game analyst publicly forecasting a bad season for the same team he’s advising off the air is the kind of detail that keeps the conflict-of-interest conversation alive, regardless of how either side frames it.
