For most outside onlookers, the Miami Dolphins look like a team on the rise and set to contend in the AFC.
How could they not be? Tua Tagovailoa’s offense has some massive names like Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Hill has even said this is the best Dolphins team he’s been on yet. The defense has Jalen Ramsey and added Calais Campbell to counter the losses of names like Christian Wilkins.
Yet…the hype seems to be going in the other direction before Week 1.
Jeff Howe of The Athletic recently did his annual chat with anonymous coaches and executives and the Dolphins were featured prominently in the section that asked which teams “will surprise in a bad way.”
There, the Dolphins landed in second place with seven votes, just two behind the Dallas Cowboys, with one general manager pointing right at the defense: “Miami will have a hard time matching what they got last year with 11 wins. Their defense is hampered.”
And that’s not all.
Over at ESPN, Bill Barnwell actually has the Dolphins missing the playoffs:
“Mike McDaniel is an offensive genius, and the hope will be that the new coach and his third defensive coordinator in three years (Anthony Weaver) piece together a formula that prevents the Dolphins from slowing down in December and January, when they've struggled over the past two seasons.”
Valid concerns do chase the Dolphins into 2024. Wilkins was a huge loss in the trenches, as was starting guard Robert Hunt. They also lost center Connor Williams, and star edge rusher Bradley Chubb starts the year on the PUP. Hill and Waddle battled injuries over the summer already and Odell Beckham Jr. is nowhere to be found.
Losses and early injury concerns for a team that dropped three of five to close last season and five of six to end 2022 are fair points. While the huge names around the quarterback make the flashy headlines, there’s reason for a more measured approach to Miami’s outlook.
Like it or not, the Dolphins will have to start hot and actually remain that way to rewrite this type of narrative—and that starts with Tagovailoa living up to that contract worth potentially $221.4 million.
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