Week 1 made me think, “OK, we lost, but maybe we’ll be better than people think.” Week 2 ground that idea into dust and already has me regretting my six-win prediction. Here’s my perhaps less-than-sanguine take on our team after Week 2.
Not all of the Dolphins’ problems are due to youth.
Do you remember the Takes No Talent wall from 2019? When Brian Flores coached the team, players (and coaches!) would have to run to the TNT wall following a mistake or lapse in execution. It was intended to emphasize effort, discipline and accountability.
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I might not be the biggest Flores fan, but it takes no talent to:
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Avoid procedural penalties.
This roster’s path to victory is already narrow due to its youth and dead cap allotment. They can’t be missing field goals, muffing punts, gifting opponents short fields and coming away empty on red-zone drives. The Dolphins aren’t good enough to beat themselves and their opponent on the same Sunday.
The lack of a pass rush might be the biggest problem on the roster.
When you strip a team down to the studs and start building from scratch, you can’t be surprised that none of your position rooms is giving you even league-average play. But the Dolphins’ pass rush has been exceptionally bad through the first two games. How bad?
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The Dolphins are the only team to not record a sack through two games this season.
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They also have the second-worst defensive passing rating allowed. Brock Purdy completed 91% of his passes on Sunday – 91%!
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Sunday’s pressure statistics were just as bad. Fifty-seven pass rushes by tackles Zeek Biggers, Zach Sieler, Jordan Phillips and Keith Cooper generated just one quarterback pressure. On the edge, Josh Uche managed three pressures, but Malik Herring, Clelin Ferrell, Robert Beal, and Max Llewellyn failed to generate a single pressure on 25 combined pass-rushing snaps.
Part of their struggles could be attributed to draft strategy – remember the Dolphins passed on Reuben Bain to draft OL Kadyn Proctor. But something tells me even Bain wouldn’t be enough to fix this motley group.
My opinion of Austin Jackson is changing … for the better.
Don’t get me wrong – my opinion of AJ’s game wasn’t especially high. And Sunday’s game was epically bad:
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14% pressure rate allowed, which is the highest pressure percentage among qualifying offensive tackles.
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False starts and holding penalties.
For one, that’s going to happen when you’re facing Maxx Crosby and Nick Bosa. Both are All-Pro-caliber pass rushers.
More to the point, Austin Jackson is on a one-year contract and is highly unlikely to be on the team next year. I’m not judging him by sacks or pressures allowed as much as I’m asking, “Can he hold down the fort at right tackle while Kadyn Proctor learns to play left guard?” In a rebuilding year, that’s all I want from AJ: Keep Malik Willis upright while Proctor develops into, hopefully, an All-Pro of his own. (And just stop with the calls to start Caedan Wallace. Wallace is a 26-year-old who has appeared in 10 games for his career. Wallace protecting Willis from Crosby or Bosa would have gotten Willis killed.) Maybe Proctor’s future is at right tackle, but let’s get him comfortable at guard before having that conversation.
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Jeff Hafley’s job is safe for 2026.
Losing to the bad teams and getting blown out by the good teams is not a recipe for long-term job security, even for first-time coaches conducting a rebuild. Still, as we discussed earlier, this isn’t a year to be judged by wins and losses. Hafley is building a culture on a team where one-third of his roster comprises first- or second-year players. I believe he could go 0-17 and still be given another year to see this rebuild through.
What could make me change my mind? This:
Undisciplined play, mental errors, a broken locker room – those things might cause me to question if Jeff Hafley is the right person for the job. But if we continue to see players playing hard and first- and second-year players grow into their positions, I think he stays.
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Rooting for the Dolphins will feel different this year.
I’m the last person to tell anyone how to fan, especially if you support the Dolphins. If you are 25 years old or younger, then you were not even alive the last time the team won a playoff game. The fact that people are willing to root for this team at all is astounding, if you stop to think about it.
We all knew the plan this offseason: Invest in youth and eat a record amount of dead cap. Still, hope springs eternal, especially in the final days before Labor Day. “Maybe if Malik is the second coming of Lamar Jackson, and if Players X and Y take a leap, who knows?” But after watching a couple of games, I think we have a better idea of what we’re in for. This isn’t one of those seasons where you think “Maybe we’ll steal a game from the Bills.” It’s more a season of “Maybe we’ll steal a game from the Jets,” and man, that’s hard to swallow.
And yet, despite all of it, I’m as excited about the long-term future of this team as I’ve been in years. After years of treading water, firing the GM but keeping the coach and then firing the coach but keeping the GM, we finally get to watch a team build from the ground up. A young, tough team that is fun to root for. We have a player who is 6’5″, 315 pounds, whose last name is literally “Biggers.” Are you kidding me? How can you not root for Zeek Biggers?
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So fine, we’re underdogs against the Chiefs, like we’ll likely be throughout the season. But as these players grow, you can finally see a path toward the kind of sustained success this franchise hasn’t had in decades. You can sign me up for that right now.
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