MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Jon-Eric Sullivan has agreed to join the Dolphins as their general manager, making the former Green Bay Packers executive the first key piece in Miami's organizational reboot.
Sullivan, the Packers' vice president of player personnel, completed an in-person interview this week with the Dolphins, who were expected to move swiftly in hiring a new general manager after parting ways with longtime GM Chris Grier during the season.
“What an incredible honor it is to serve as general manager of the Miami Dolphins, an organization of history, tradition and great pride,” Sullivan said in a statement released by the Dolphins on Friday night. “I want to express my gratitude to (owner) Stephen Ross and his family for this exceptional opportunity and the belief they’ve placed in me to lead this storied franchise forward."
Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman was involved in the hiring.
Sullivan spent 22 seasons with the Green Bay Packers, beginning as a scouting intern in 2003 before earning a full-time position with the team’s football operations department in 2004. In 2022, he was named vice president of player personnel.
He is the son of Jerry Sullivan, a longtime NFL and college coach who was Miami's receivers coach in 2004.
“Jon-Eric brings a clear vision for how to build and run a football team, founded upon his own experience at a winning organization,” Ross said in a statement. “As we went through our search process, it became undeniable the respect Jon-Eric has across the league as a talent evaluator, leader and man of integrity.”
Sullivan’s first task will be finding a new head coach. Mike McDaniel was fired Thursday after four seasons following a 7-10 campaign in which the Dolphins missed the playoffs for the second straight year.
The Dolphins have been linked to former Ravens coach John Harbaugh, though the organization has reportedly not yet heavily pursued him. Other potential candidates who have a connection with Sullivan include Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley; Mike McCarthy, who coached the Packers for more than a decade; and Jaguars defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile, Green Bay's linebacker's coach in 2024. Campanile also coached Miami's linebackers from 2020-23.
“Now, as we forge ahead, we will build a football team that is resilient, physical and tough," Sullivan said in the statement. "We will compete no matter the circumstances, with the ultimate goal of competing for division championships and Super Bowls."
Sullivan will also need to begin a rebuild of Miami's roster and figure out what to do with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who was benched the final three games of the season because of poor play.
Tagovailoa threw for 2,660 yards with 20 touchdowns last season but showed a stark decline in accuracy and mobility after signing a four-year, $212.4 million extension in July 2024. He finished second in the NFL with 15 interceptions, which was a career high.
Tagovailoa is guaranteed $54 million for 2026, and the Dolphins would incur significant hits to the salary cap by releasing him. Releasing him next year would result in a $99 million dead cap charge. If the move is designated as a post-June 1 release, those charges are split over two years, with $67.4 million allocated to the 2026 cap and $31.8 million in 2027.
With a new GM, little cap space and an incoming new head coach, the Dolphins are embarking on another rebuild after gutting their roster in 2019 and stockpiling draft picks.
But Sullivan should have no trouble turning Miami's franchise around.
He oversaw Green Bay’s college and pro scouting departments in his previous role, working with Packers GM Brian Gutekunst and coach Matt LaFleur. The Packers have reached the playoffs in three of the last four seasons while retooling their roster through the draft, free agency and trades.
Green Bay signed cornerback Keisean Nixon in 2022 and safety Xavier McKinney in 2024 through free agency. Both have since combined for three first-team All-Pro honors and a Pro Bowl selection. The team also acquired defensive lineman Micah Parsons in a blockbuster trade with Dallas ahead of the 2025 season. Sullivan was also involved in Green Bay's selection of quarterback Jordan Love in 2020.
The Packers are currently in the playoffs, set to face Chicago in a wild-card game on Saturday.
Sullivan, a Gardner-Webb University graduate, was a college wide receiver there and at South Carolina. He worked a few years in the corporate world before joining the Packers staff.
AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.
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FILE - Jon-Eric Sullivan, Green Bay Packers director of college scouting, talks in Green Bay, Wis., April 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer, File)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Protests in Iran raged Friday night in the Islamic Republic, online videos purported to show, despite a threat from the country's theocracy to crack down on demonstrators after shutting down the internet and cutting telephone lines off to the world.
At least 65 people have been killed in the protests that began in late December over Iran’s ailing economy and have morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in years.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump as having hands “stained with the blood of Iranians” as his supporters shouted “Death to America!” in footage aired by Iranian state television. State media later referred to the demonstrators as “terrorists,” setting the stage for a violent crackdown as in other protests in recent years, despite Trump's pledge to back peaceful protesters with force if necessary.
Protesters are “ruining their own streets ... in order to please the president of the United States,” the 86-year-old Khamenei said to a crowd at his compound in Tehran. “Because he said that he would come to their aid. He should pay attention to the state of his own country instead.”
Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei separately vowed that punishment for protesters “will be decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency.”
Late Friday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement condemning reported deadly violence against the protesters, and urged Iran to allow its citizens to express themselves without fear of reprisal.
Trump has repeatedly pledged to strike Iran if protesters are killed, a threat that has taken on greater significance after the U.S. military raid that seized Venezuela's former President Nicolás Maduro. The president suggested Friday any possible American strike wouldn't “mean boots on the ground but that means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts.”
“Iran's in big trouble,” Trump said. “It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago.”
He added: “I tell the Iranian leaders you better not start shooting because we'll start shooting too.”
Despite Iran’s theocracy cutting off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls, short online videos shared by activists purported to show protesters chanting against Iran’s government around bonfires as debris littered the streets in the capital, Tehran, and other areas into Friday morning. The demonstrations restarted Friday night, but it wasn't possible to immediately assess whether they continued at the same strength. The demonstrations happened even after security services warned families to keep their children home.
One online video showed a fire in the street near in the Saadat Abad area of northern Tehran, with what appeared to be thouands on the street.
“Death to Khamenei!” a man chanted.
The protests also represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pahlavi, who called for the protests Thursday night, similarly called for demonstrations at 8 p.m. Friday.
Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.
So far, violence around the demonstrations has killed at least 65 people while more than 2,300 others have been detained, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
“What turned the tide of the protests was former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s calls for Iranians to take to the streets at 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday,” said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Per social media posts, it became clear that Iranians had delivered and were taking the call seriously to protest in order to oust the Islamic Republic.”
“This is exactly why the internet was shut down: to prevent the world from seeing the protests. Unfortunately, it also likely provided cover for security forces to kill protesters.”
When the clock struck 8 p.m. Thursday, neighborhoods across Tehran erupted in chanting, witnesses said. The chants included “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic!” Others praised the shah, shouting: “This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!” Thousands could be seen on the streets before all communication to Iran cut out.
On Friday, Pahlavi called on Trump to help the protesters, saying Khamenei “wants to use this blackout to murder these young heroes.”
“You have proven and I know you are a man of peace and a man of your word,” he said in a statement. “Please be prepared to intervene to help the people of Iran.”
Pahlavi had said he would offer further plans depending on the response to his call. His support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past — particularly after the 12-day war Israel waged on Iran in June. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it isn’t clear whether that’s support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The internet cut also appears to have taken Iran’s state-run and semiofficial news agencies offline. The state TV acknowledgment at 8 a.m. Friday represented the first official word about the demonstrations. State TV aired footage of pro-government forces on motorcycles Friday night in Tehran.
State TV claimed the protests Thursday night were violent and caused casualties, but did not offer nationwide figures. It said the protests saw “people’s private cars, motorcycles, public places such as the metro, fire trucks and buses set on fire.” State TV later reported that violence overnight killed six people in Hamedan, some 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of Tehran, and two security force members in Qom, 125 kilometers (75 miles) south of the capital.
Protests also were reported Friday in Zahedan in Iran's restive southwestern Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Associated Press writer Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.
In this frame grab from video taken by an individual not employed by The Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows a fire as people protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from video taken by an individual not employed by The Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows people during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
This frame grab from a video released by Iran state TV shows vehicles burning amid night of mass protests in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (Iran state TV via AP)
This frame grab from a video released Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, by Iranian state television shows cars driving past burning vehicles during a night of mass protests in Tehran, Iran. (Iranian state TV via AP)
In this frame grab from video taken by an individual not employed by The Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows people blocking an intersection during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Thursday Jan. 8, 2026. (UGC via AP)
