Week 2 left a much harsher taste for Dolphins fans than Week 1 did. One game can still fool you into thinking a young team might be ahead of schedule. Two games in, that optimism is getting crushed fast, and the six-win forecast already looks shaky.
Some of the damage is just the reality of a roster in transition, but not every problem can be waved off as youth. The Dolphins keep making the kind of mistakes that have nothing to do with age and everything to do with basic execution.
Secure the snap before punting. Make the routine kick.
Stay out of procedural penalties. Line up properly.
Carry out assignments. Catch the punt.
That list sounds obvious because it is. And when a team is already working with a thin margin for error because of youth and dead cap, those mistakes become brutal.
The Dolphins cannot keep handing opponents short fields, missing field goals, muffing punts and then failing to cash in on red-zone chances. They are not good enough to beat themselves and the other team on the same Sunday.
The pass rush might be the ugliest part of it all. Through two games, Miami is the only team in the league without a sack.
That’s not just bad - that’s historic-level emptiness for a defense that has been stripped down and rebuilt from the ground up. The Dolphins also own the second-worst defensive passer rating allowed, and Brock Purdy’s 91% completion rate on Sunday tells the story as loudly as anything else.
The pressure numbers were just as grim. On 57 pass rushes from Zeek Biggers, Zach Sieler, Jordan Phillips and Keith Cooper, the group produced only one quarterback pressure. Off the edge, Josh Uche had three pressures, while Malik Herring, Clelin Ferrell, Robert Beal and Max Llewellyn combined for zero pressures across 25 pass-rushing snaps.
The roster construction deserves some of the blame, including the decision to pass on Reuben Bain in order to draft OL Kadyn Proctor. Even so, it feels fair to say Bain alone would not have fixed a pass rush this thin.
One player whose situation deserves a different kind of look is Austin Jackson. The game against Maxx Crosby and Nick Bosa was rough in every possible way: 9 pressures allowed, 2 sacks allowed, a 14% pressure rate allowed that leads all qualifying offensive tackles, plus false starts and holding penalties.
But there’s context here too. Facing two All-Pro-caliber rushers will do that.
Jackson is also on a one-year deal and almost certainly not part of the long-term plan. The question is narrower than his stat line suggests: can he hold down right tackle while Kadyn Proctor develops at left guard?
In a rebuild, that’s the job. Keep Malik Willis upright.
Give Proctor time to grow into, hopefully, an All-Pro-caliber player himself. The calls to start Caedan Wallace should stop; he is a 26-year-old with 10 career games, and asking him to block Crosby or Bosa would have gotten Willis killed.
Proctor may eventually end up at right tackle, but that conversation can wait until he is comfortable at guard.
Jeff Hafley, for now, still looks safe for 2026. Losing to bad teams and getting rolled by good ones is not exactly a coaching résumé booster, but this season is not really about wins and losses in the usual sense.
Hafley is trying to build a culture with roughly one-third of the roster made up of first- or second-year players, and there is a lot of runway left. He could go 0-17 and still be back next year.
What could change that? Undisciplined play, mental mistakes and a fractured locker room would raise real questions about whether Jeff Hafley is the right man for the job. But if the effort stays there and the young players keep developing, he should remain in place.
For fans, this season feels different too. Anyone 25 or younger has never seen the Dolphins win a playoff game, which says plenty about how long this stretch has dragged on.
Everyone knew the plan this offseason: lean into youth and absorb a record amount of dead cap. Hope always sneaks in before Labor Day - maybe Malik Willis becomes the second coming of Lamar Jackson, maybe a couple of young players make the leap - but after two games, the picture is clearer.
This is not a year of dreaming about stealing one from the Bills. It feels more like a season where stealing one from the Jets would count as progress.
And still, there is something to like about where this is headed. After years of spinning in place, changing the GM but not the coach, then the coach but not the GM, the Dolphins are finally building from the ground up.
It may be painful now, but there is a young, tough team taking shape. There is even a 6-foot-5, 315-pound player whose last name is literally Biggers.
Zeek Biggers is the kind of name and frame that makes it easy to buy in.
So yes, the Dolphins are underdogs, probably against the Chiefs and likely for much of the season. But if these players keep growing, there is at least a real path toward the kind of sustained success this franchise has been chasing for decades. That’s a future worth signing up for.
In Other News...
Dolphins Loss May Have Exposed How Long This Rebuild Really Is
A loss to the 49ers offered a familiar kind of reminder for the Dolphins: when a roster is being torn down and rebuilt, the growing pains can show up fast. Jeff Hafley and general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan have already pushed Miami into a major reset, and the rough start to the 2026 season has made it clear the work ahead is about more than just fixing one bad Sunday.
Malik Willis gives Miami a young quarterback to build around, and the front office has the kind of future cap flexibility that can help accelerate things when the timing is right. Even so, the comparison to the early Kyle Shanahan years in San Francisco is hard to ignore, because patience may be part of the plan here, and the real payoff could still be a couple of offseasons away. [Read more 🡒]
Dolphins Cornerback Trouble Could Force A Desperation Move
Miamis cornerback room has become one of the more uncomfortable roster questions hanging over the early part of the season, and it is pushing the Dolphins to consider options they probably did not expect to be discussing this soon. One name that has surfaced is Trevon Diggs, who is currently on the Seahawks practice squad after a career that has included real playmaking ability but also enough inconsistency to make any team think twice before leaning on him too heavily.
The appeal is obvious for a defense looking for help, especially with Jeff Hafleys system rewarding corners who can hold up in space and play with confidence. Still, Diggs is not a clean solution, and even Seattle general manager John Schneider has pointed to his late arrival and the work it has taken to get him up to speed. For Miami, the question is whether the upside is worth the gamble, or whether this is simply the kind of desperation conversation teams have when the depth chart starts to fray. [Read more 🡒]
Kyle Juszczyk Is Now Arguing Over What Dolphins Celebration Meant
Kyle Juszczyk is still bristling over a pair of fines he says came from a celebration the NFL misread after the 49ers Week 2 game against the Dolphins. The league tagged him twice for unsportsmanlike conduct, billing each infraction at $14,926, and the fullback has pushed back on the idea that his gestures crossed the line.
Juszczyks explanation has turned the episode into more than a standard postgame penalty dispute, with the veteran insisting the message was about juice rather than beer. He has left open the possibility of appealing, which keeps a small but oddly specific sideline controversy attached to a game Miami has already moved past. [Read more 🡒]