The Miami Dolphins have spent the offseason building their offense around one simple idea: get De'Von Achane the football and let him drive the whole operation. That plan looked a lot less convincing after Week 1, when Achane was held to 36 yards on 11 carries and the ground game never really found a rhythm.
Offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik didn’t dodge that reality Thursday. He said Miami has to do a better job running the ball against San Francisco, and the numbers from the opener explain why.
Malik Willis finished with more rushing yards than Achane, 39 to 36, while the Dolphins logged 27 passes and just 18 total carries from Willis, Achane and Jaylen Wright. Wright had one carry for minus-1 yard, and Ollie Gordon II didn’t get an offensive carry at all.
A big part of the problem was up front. Miami’s offensive line didn’t create much, and the Raiders’ pass rush made things even tighter.
Achane and Willis were hit quickly before plays could develop, and Miami never really forced Las Vegas to back off. The contrast was clear when the Raiders opened lanes for Ashton Jeanty up the middle while the Dolphins struggled to generate anything similar.
Achane did most of his work to the left side of the field, but even there the Raiders were able to finish plays and limit the damage. He only ran to the right once, and that came on a third-and-1 early in the second quarter, when he lost 1 yard. After that, Miami never went back to that side with him.
There were flashes, but not enough of them. Achane’s longest run went for 10 yards, and too many of his carries ended the same way: a modest gain, a stuffed attempt, or a quick stop at the line. The Raiders held him to a 22% stuffed run rate, and Miami’s offense leaned more and more on the pass as the game moved into the second half and the deficit grew.
He did get involved as a receiver, catching four passes for 30 yards, but even that felt light for a player Miami is supposed to feature heavily. Last season, 24 percent of Achane’s routes run ended in a target. Against the Raiders, that number fell to 18.5 percent, even though he was on the field for 48 offensive snaps.
That gap stands out even more when you remember what Jeff Hafley said in August on The Rich Eisen Show. Hafley said Achane would get a heavy workload and joked that it could lead to more than 40 touches per game.
Slowik sounded more grounded in the reality of Week 1, but he also made it clear Miami can’t leave games with that kind of player underused.
"We want the offense to roll through the o-line into 28," Slowik said. "Obviously, it's harder to do when you're down multiple scores.
As I reflect on my own play calling, like could I still have mixed in some runs here and there to give them the ball and just let them get some ops as we roll? Which is always like a yes and no.
There's some games where it works and you can do it. There's other games where there's 11 minutes left in the game and two scores and as soon as you run the ball, you've just lost three minutes and now all of a sudden you're down on the clock.
"So me personally, I've definitely looked at that, but we don't want to leave a game with Achane only having 14 touches. We definitely want more than that, without a doubt."
There’s at least one clean marker for Miami to chase: since the start of the 2025 season, the Dolphins are 6-0 when Achane gets at least 18 rushing attempts. Game script still matters, and Slowik made that point, but the trend is obvious. More Achane usually means better results.
San Francisco won’t make anything easy, especially after dismantling the Super Bowl favorite Los Angeles Rams. But the Rams showed a blueprint. They ran for 122 yards on 29 carries against the 49ers, with Blake Corum posting 54 yards and Kyren Williams adding 41 and the team’s only touchdown.
The Rams were able to move San Francisco by being physical at the line, forcing the defensive front back into the linebackers and creating space between the tackles. Defensive tackles C.J. West and Alfred Collins had trouble in those matchups, and those are the kinds of spots Miami will try to attack.
If the Dolphins can do that, they may finally get the running game headed where it was supposed to go. And if they can clear some room for Achane, they’ll give their offense the kind of chance it was built to have.
In Other News...
Dolphins Draft Outlook Got Real Ugly After Just One Game
A rough opening weekend has already pushed the Dolphins into an unexpected spot in the early draft conversation. After their loss to the Raiders, ESPNs Football Power Index now gives Miami the highest chance of landing a top-10 pick in next springs draft, a jarring development for a team that entered the season with much different expectations. The projections are bleak enough to make the conversation feel less like a slow-burn concern and more like an immediate reality check.
ESPNs simulations have Miami with a 38% shot at the No. 1 overall pick and an average draft position of 2.9, while the betting market is essentially treating this as a team in danger of finishing with only a handful of wins. The road ahead does little to ease the pressure, with matchups coming against the 49ers, Chiefs, Vikings and Bengals. For a club that still has plenty of football left, the bigger question now is whether the season can stabilize before the draft picture gets even uglier. [Read more 🡒]
Dolphins Run Defense Is Becoming A Bigger Problem Than Fans Expected
The run defense is starting to look like more than a one-game annoyance for the Dolphins after Las Vegas pushed the ball on the ground for 130 yards in the latest matchup. Ashton Jeanty did most of the damage, and the bigger concern for Miami was how often the Raiders were able to lean on their offensive line and keep the defense on its heels in the trenches.
Defensive coordinator Mike Hafley pointed to early tentative play and a few misalignments, though he did say the group settled in better after halftime. Even with that adjustment, Miami sits 23rd against the run, and the next stretch will go a long way in showing whether this was a bad afternoon or the start of a more stubborn problem. [Read more 🡒]
Dolphins Face A Week 2 Test They Cant Keep Avoiding
The Dolphins came out of Week 1 looking like a team still trying to find its offensive balance. Against the Raiders, Miami ran the ball only 18 times and never really settled into the kind of rhythm that has made this offense dangerous when it is at its best. For a team built around speed and spacing, the ground game still matters, and getting De'Von Achane going behind a sturdier interior front feels like a necessary step rather than a luxury.
Week 2 offers a clearer chance to clean that up, with San Francisco's interior defensive line coming in banged up and not nearly as imposing as it usually is. Miami's next test is not just about whether the Dolphins can create more efficient rushing lanes, but whether the offensive line can help them avoid another one-dimensional afternoon. The Niners still have pass rushers who can tilt a game, but the more immediate question for Miami is whether this is the week the run game finally gets treated like a real part of the plan. [Read more 🡒]