The Miami Dolphins are a team looking toward the future already, and they’re focused on young talent with potential that can help them in the years to come.
One player they had in their facility earlier in the year, though, is instead showing off his talent back in college football. The Dolphins had a potential wide receiver in rookie minicamp who is instead playing quarterback at the NCAA level.
The player: Thomas Castellanos.
Castellanos had a special Saturday for Texas Tech in a huge ranked win over Arizona. And it now just feels like a bizarre footnote that the Dolphins could’ve signed him.
Dolphins With Thomas Castellanos
Castellanos appeared to be done with his eligibility at the end of the 2025 college football season. That put him in the 2026 NFL Draft class.
The NFL wanted to make Castellanos into a wide receiver, and after he went undrafted, that’s what both the Dolphins and the Tennessee Titans had him in their rookie minicamp as.
But when Castellanos didn’t get a contract with either of those teams, he pursued a return to college.
It’s been a bumpy road, but at least for now, he’s eligible and playing for Texas Tech just half a year after being in rookie minicamp with the Dolphins.
Thomas Castellanos Eligibility
Castellanos has been both eligible and ineligible at different points in this season.
This is how The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel summed this up after the Texas Tech win on Saturday:
Heading into an unofficial Playoff elimination game against Arizona, Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire benched QB Will Hammond and elevated Florida State transfer Thomas Castellanos. It worked. While hardly dominant, the dual-threat QB sparked No. 13 Tech’s (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) struggling offense just enough to outlast No. 22 Arizona 34-26. Wildcats star Noah Fifita was spectacular for much of the game, throwing for 417 yards, but missed an open throw on fourth-and-1 in the red zone early in the fourth quarter. Tech took control from there.
Castellanos is one of about 80 FBS players from the Class of 2022 currently eligible for a fifth season because of various court orders. He received a temporary restraining order in August, played sparingly early in the season, and was briefly ineligible again. A new temporary injunction was granted two weeks ago. The case is ongoing, so Castellanos’ QB1 status for the rest of the season may soon be in the hands of the Kentucky Court of Appeals.
College sports in 2026, folks.
That second-to-last sentence says it all: “Castellanos’ QB1 status for the rest of the season may soon be in the hands of the Kentucky Court of Appeals.”
Castellanos is even a tad more confusing than just any college player, because he had NFL teams bring him in for tryouts.
He never signed a lasting NFL contract, though, which helps Castellanos make a case to keep playing in college. And right now, he’s shining.
Castallanos may have an uphill climb into the NFL, whether for the Dolphins or otherwise down the road. For now, he’s happy to be at Texas Tech.
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