The Miami Dolphins have stumbled out of the gate in 2026, but this is not the same kind of wreckage the franchise was dealing with seven years ago. The record may still wind up ugly, and a tough schedule makes wins hard to see coming, but the start of this rebuild looks nothing like 2019.
That old team opened with back-to-back disasters, getting buried 59-10 and 43-0. This year’s first two losses were decisive, but they were nowhere near that level of humiliation, falling by 14 and 22 points. The combined 36-point margin is only 39 percent of the 92-point total from 2019.
There’s another big difference, too: those 2019 beatdowns came at Hard Rock Stadium against the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots. The first two games this season were on the road, against the Las Vegas Raiders and San Francisco 49ers.
The numbers tell the same story. Miami has been outgained by 129 yards over its first two games in 2026. In 2019, that yardage gap was 638, with the Ravens alone rolling up 643 total yards in the opener.
So while the Dolphins are off to a rough start, there’s really no clean comparison between this team and the one that opened the 2019 season.
This version of the roster also looks more talented, and more importantly, younger. That matters because young teams can grow fast, and the 2019 Dolphins did exactly that later in the year, finishing 5-4 over their final nine games.
Still, nobody should assume this group will simply follow the same path. The schedule remains brutal, even with the Los Angeles Chargers looking like a mess offensively in Mike McDaniel’s first two games as their offensive coordinator. The 2019 Dolphins managed a couple of major upsets down the stretch, beating playoff teams Philadelphia and New England, but there’s no reason to expect that kind of breakthrough is guaranteed for Jeff Hafley’s team.
And it may not be realistic to expect five wins at all.
Even so, the bigger picture is different now. The Dolphins are getting younger players real game reps, and rookie mistakes are part of the deal. That kind of experience matters in a rebuild, and it should leave the team in better shape for Phase Two.
The foundation also looks sturdier. Back in 2019, the core pieces were Christian Wilkins, Xavien Howard, maybe Davon Godchaux and Minkah Fitzpatrick - until Fitzpatrick was traded after two games, partly because he wanted no part of an obvious rebuild.
This time, the list is longer: Kadyn Proctor, Chris Johnson, Jacob Rodriguez, Caleb Douglas, De’Von Achane, Patrick Paul, Jordyn Brooks, Aaron Brewer, and, if everything breaks right, Chop Robinson, Kenneth Grant and Jonah Savaiinaea.
Quarterback is another area where the outlook is better. Malik Willis still has a chance to become the long-term answer - it’s still too early to make that call - while by this point in 2019 it was already clear Josh Rosen wasn’t the guy and Ryan Fitzpatrick was nearing the end.
The 2019 Dolphins did have one major advantage, though: they had already added two extra first-round picks for the next draft through the trades of Laremy Tunsil to the Houston Texans and Fitzpatrick to the Pittsburgh Steelers. This year’s team doesn’t have that kind of draft ammunition, and there isn’t anyone on the roster who looks like a realistic trade chip for a first-rounder.
But the 2026 Dolphins did enter this year with six picks in the first three rounds - Proctor, Johnson, Rodrigue, Douglas, Will Kacmarek and Chris Bell - and that gave them a much better chance to build something. In 2019, the only two first-three-round picks were Wilkins and offensive lineman Michael Deiter.
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